Carpooling scheme need further study, consultation – Palace

(Wikipedia photo)

MANILA – Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. on Thursday said the carpooling scheme still need further careful study and consultation to make sure it will help solve traffic congestion along EDSA.

“Consultation and careful study regarding that are still ongoing because it will have big impact. It requires support and cooperation of the people,” Coloma said in an interview with the state-run Radyo ng Bayan.

“We don’t want to end up in a situation that instead of getting cooperation, indignation will be the response from our people,” he added.

Last Tuesday, Department of Public Works and Highway (DPWH) Secretary Virgilio Singson told the Senate finance committee that carpooling is one of his suggestions to help in transporting the commuters during rush hour.

Under the proposal, Singson explained that private cars with less than three passengers will not be allowed to pass EDSA.

“Our problem is the limited road capacity. There are too much cars for a not too fast expansion of road space. So the solution is to have more people move faster at the same time and that’s why that carpooling came out,” Coloma explained.

Coloma said the heavy traffic particularly the one that motorists and commuters experienced in Metro Manila due to flashfloods last Tuesday requires full cooperation of everybody.

“What happened Tuesday evening gives us many lesson. It is a compounded problem. One big problem that came out was our drainage system that according to (DPWH) Secretary (Rogelio) Singson need to be increased its capacity,” he said.

Coloma said there is a need for the people to be reminded not to throw their garbage on the road and waterways.

“We need continuous cleaning of drainage because we have to admit that there are more who throw garbage in our slums and waterways that delay the flow of water. It is one of the aspect of flooding or flashfloods,” he said.

Since last Monday, the government has fielded high patrol group (HPG) personnel in six chokepoints of the 23.8-kilometer EDSA road.

Coloma said traffic authorities have noticed slight improvement of traffic flow for the last three days.