OBLIQUE OBSERVATIONS
By Atty. Gilberto Lauengco, J.D.
This August, most colleges will be starting their new school year. With the influx of college students, the volume of people and the corresponding vehicles on the road will now increase. Traffic will, as a consequence, be more of a problem in the next few weeks as people adjust their schedules. Add to the problem the torrential monsoon rain and the resulting flood and you have the ingredients for another round of gridlock.
Recently, the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) and the members of the Metro Manila Council (MMC) discussed a proposal for an all-day ban for inner street parking in the metropolis. With traffic apps such as Waze redirecting motorists to inner streets to avoid major thoroughfares, the importance of these side streets as part of a widespread strategy in easing traffic is now evident. There are many small inner-city streets where even one side parking can cause major traffic jams because of the space available. As such, it is high time to bring the hammer down and ban all street parking in these streets.
Admittedly, there will be pushback from the car owners who use the streets in front of them as parking lots. The internet is full of videos of irate car owners fighting MMDA tow truck personnel who are merely doing their duty in towing illegally parked cars. I can imagine the resistance that will ensue in a full implementation of a street parking ban.
However, as in the no exception rule in the No Contact Apprehension Policy implementation, there is a need for more draconian measures to ease traffic in our metro cities. As in all things, the needs of the many must supersede the luxury of the few.
Restricting parking is neither anti poor nor discriminatory. Owning the car must be treated as a privilege, not a right, as it affects society as a whole. In other countries, car ownership entails many obligations and conditions.
Mandating a parking space as a prerequisite for car ownership is logical and reasonable. Public pay open parking spaces within specific areas can be a good source of income for local government and private individuals while providing parking space for car owners who have no parking spaces within their homes.
Yes, it is highly inconvenient to car owners with no parking spaces, but it is a price to pay for being able to live within the metropolitan area. Perhaps, it can be additional motivation for both private residents and business establishments to move north, south and even east of the metropolitan area and help decongest the metro.
These drastic measures to alleviate the traffic problem, along with others, will be difficult to implement without a central authority being given the mandate to coordinate all the efforts needed to implement the said measure.
The proposal to create an office for the traffic czar for all the major cities in the country should be revisited. The office of the traffic czar should be imbued with a Cabinet-level rank and the authority to coordinate various agencies in the government such as the Land Transportation Office and the various enforcement groups.
A Cabinet-level rank would also allow the official to have sufficient gravitas to deal with local government officials whose cooperation would be essential.
At the end of the day, all of these measures will be ineffective without the cooperation of private individuals and organizations. Truly, traffic is a whole of society problem.
