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REACTION PAPER ON ALLEVIATING TRAFFIC CONGESTION: ENGINEERING

PUBLIC POLICY LECTURE SERIES

The University of the Philippines Diliman College of Engineering conducted a

public policy lecture series about Alleviating Traffic Congestion. This lecture series
aimed at examining the impacts of institutional decisions and existing government
policies and evaluating potential outcome initiatives. The speaker of the said event was
Dr. Ricardo G. Sigua a professor at UP Institute of Civil Engineering with three panelists
to support his lecture. It was done via zoom on August 20, 2021, but I viewed it on
September 01, 2021, in a recorded Facebook live by their page UPD College of
Engineering.

Dr. Sigua introduced some causes of the congestion that there is a lack of strong
will to implement the projects and programs recommended by past studies, the
economic development; population; number of vehicles and the high dependance on
low-capacity modes of transport such as jeepneys and tricycles. He also stated the lack
of efficient mass transit system. He introduced some options to alleviate traffic
congestion like lowering the demand, vehicle reduction and switching to more efficient/
high-capacity Public Transport. Increasing the capacity as widening the road, building
new ones and traffic management. Metro Manila badly needs a mass transit that would
provide high quality of service. In the 2007 USAID Study, BRT was highly
recommended. He also shared what his adviser told him that “possibly the only effective
method in alleviating traffic congestion in many Asian cities would be congestion/road
pricing where its primary objective is to encourage drivers to reconsider time of return.
He emphasizes the build-build-build, focus on building more public transport
infrastructure and focus on high-capacity modes.

He was supported by Dr. Maria Sheilah G. Napalang the assistant secretary of

Department of Transportation, that this pandemic is a tragic situation we are right now,
but it has provided us an opportunity to also look into how to rationalize these matters.
Dr. Napalang said that we have different opinions. She pointed that we can also explore
how we can expand work from home that there is no need for people to travel all the
time. Congestion is a manifested problem, one of the causes is the expanding urban
population. She stated that congestion pricing can improve public transportation
because transport is about option. For as long as we can’t give them option, we can’t
give them better public transportation. Using transportation as the backbone solution on
our transportation problem. Her closing statement is “and paglulutas ng problema ng
traffic congestion ay hindi lamang tabaho ng gobyerno on ng isang private sector…
LETS WALK THE TALK! So that wea are able to address the problem of traffic
congestion.

Joseph “Ka Jojo” Martin, Vice President for Administration Pasang Masda the
second panelist mentioned that for a long time in his young age and comes from his
father “Ka Obet”, it is about time to change the public mode of transportation. Marin
addressed the illegal structures of the people like obstructions in the streets and the
illegal vendors to the traffic problems. He encourages the commuters to use the public
transport to lessen the traffic congestion. Authorities like local/nation enforcer should
maybe educate not only the public utility vehicles but also the passengers. Through the
effort of our national government the LGUs could coordinate, put right designated
loading and unloading stop that's where people should ride. He thought that it would
help to ease the traffic congestion. On the other hand, Atty. John Francis Panoncillo the
Committee Secretary of the House Committee of Transportation said that we must bear
in mind that mere infrastructure is not enough to solve this traffic mess, solving this
problem would require the cooperation of all the stakeholders. Mass transport must be
supported by a facility for monitoring and dispatching. Making mass transport a priority,
we must adopt mass transportation because it is more efficient, and passengers gets
the maximum value of their fare by dividing the transportation expenses unlike using
private cars. Ideal mass transport for a particular route.

I think they all different solution to alleviate the traffic congestion that we are
facing. Dr. Napalang and Dr. Sigua have the same thoughts on this and they believe
congestion pricing as an effective method. Ka Jojo considered the national and local
authorities can have a solution if they will coordinate. While Atty. Panoncillo is on the
mass transport as a priority. They may have different solutions, but they have same the
same goals that is to alleviate the traffic congestion. I like the idea of Atty. Panoncillo
that we must adopt mass transportation because it is more efficient. People travel for a
variety of reasons, including subsistence, personal development, and entertainment.
The desire to travel is a derived need, as people rarely travel for the purpose of
traveling; instead, they travel to meet their basic requirements. Traffic Congestion
affects the lives of many people in their daily activities like going to work, buying food for
their families and going to school. We must all unite and help each other so that we can
alleviate this traffic congestion.

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed our of many people around the world. It