(Eagle News)—Senator Leila de Lima urged the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority to reconsider the plan to ban driver-only vehicles on Edsa during rush hours, saying it may only lead to “passengers for hire.”
“While car-pooling may be commendable, this plan prohibiting driver-only vehicles along EDSA could give rise to paid car jockeys who are more than willing to risk their own safety by getting into the cars of strangers just to earn money,” she said in a statement.
De Lima cited the case of Indonesia, where the “peak-time rule of three people to one car” introduced in 2003, she said, “did not only give rise to passengers-for-hire–which included children who left their schools to be fulltime jockeys–but also worsened the traffic in Jakarta.”
“This instance should remind our government to rethink its plan before fully implementing the (High-Occupancy Vehicle scheme) because aside from possibly worsening the traffic in EDSA, they might put the safety of the Filipino people, especially those from the poor sectors of society, in great peril,” she said.
In general, she said “our government should abandon its bad habit of experimenting on how to ease out traffic congestion during rush hours.”
“It cannot always try its luck through a trial-and-error in resolving the perennial traffic problem,” she said.
The Metro Manila Council (MMC) approved the scheme that aims to decongest Edsa on Aug. 7.
The MMDA said it would conduct a dry run of the scheme beforehand.