Gas Usage and Traffic

Has anybody ever thought of calculating the amount of gas being needlessly spent by all the vehicles that are caught in the morning and afternoon traffic jams at Ateneo de Manila University and Miriam College?

Yesterday morning, the MMDA closed-off the lane going to Gate 2 of the Ateneo from the Katipunan-Aurora flyover. Motorists, caught unawares, were trapped by the traffic that lasted way past the usual 7 a.m. going-to-school rush. It would have helped if the MMDA announced the drastic change in advance, but no, they didn't. Us parents and the school bus service companies could have made adjustments for this had they made the announcement before they implemented the changes.

This change has been the 4th time that they have made changes in the Katipunan Road traffic scheme since June 2008. I am not complaining about the effort that they are exerting; I am even lauding the MMDA for that. What I am peeved at is that the MMDA cannot communicate the changes that they are planning before implementing them. I am appalled at the waste in fuel resulting from the traffic jams created by the very system that seeks to solve the problem.

Calling on the MMDA!!!

In case they have forgotten, they have their own Traffic Radio at 1206 in the AM band and the MMDA Chairman has a weekly TV Program. Why can't these be used to announce the changes that the MMDA seeks to implement? Dozens of tarpaulin advertisements hang in the lampposts at the Katipunan area; why can't they put printed informative announcements if ever they are planning to do some changes in the traffic flow there?

All that we need here is plain common sense. But then, common sense indeed is not common and due to this, we need to endure the traffic and waste gas at Katipunan.

Rains and Traffic

Last Wednesday my children experienced their very first downpour here at Quezon City. Not that rains are new to them, but that was their first time to see the effects of a heavy downpour on traffic in Major Metro Manila streets. For more than an hour, the rains poured at Loyola Heights, drenching Aurora Boulevard, Katipunan Road, Esteban Abada, Xavierville Avenue and all the streets in between.

All vehicles that happened to be there at around 3:30 p.m. had to endure heavy traffic for the rest of the afternoon. From the vantage point of our room, we saw slow, slow, moving vehicles until way past 7 p.m.

The experience was an eye-opener. My son and his friends stayed in a car for about an hour. Considering that the distance they were supposed to travel was less than 2 kilometers, that time spent in the car without their DS Lites and PSPs was next to eternity.

I was a passenger in a car then (which was better than being the driver of the car) and all througout the time I was sitting there, I amused myself by imagining how all the school bus drivers were coping in the environment of a closed vehicle full of irritated school children. The jeepney, taxi and tricycle drivers surely lost a lot of opportunities what with being stuck in the same place for an hour.

Dinner was take-out food. I did not have the energy to cook anymore and knowing myself, I would have not cooked well that night anyway. That left me some time to watch the evening news with their reports on the Quezon City floods.

Again, the floods in an urban setting was a new experience for my kids and another future opportunity for me to blog about.