TRUCKS AND BUSES NOW AT ROXAS BLVD.: THEY’RE CAUSING HAVOC

I was sadly surprised to see huge container van trucks and buses along Roxas Blvd. the other night on my way to Malabon City from the Mall of Asia (MOA) in Pasay City. For several decades now, trucks and buses have been banned from much of Roxas Blvd. which makes the traffic congestion relatively easier.

Eventually I noticed a lane with the new marking “TRUCKS WITH TABS” that apparently runs the entire stretch of Roxas Blvd. now. The new administration may have been trying to replicate the Circumferential Road 5 (C5) model wherein trucks and buses can use one lane. In the C5 model, however, the single-lane use is strictly implemented – this is evident because a long line of trucks creates a “wall” along
the route during certain times of the day.

In Roxas Blvd., however, this is apparently not strictly implemented. These huge vechicles weave through the stretch with complete disregard for the single-lane assigned (and clearly marked) for them - thereby causing the same problems posed by huge vehicles found on EDSA.

To the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) and Department of Transportation (DOTr): it is sad that you should have to surrender the decades-old ban on trucks and buses along most of Roxas Blvd. to a perceived alternative to ease traffic congestion elsewhere, but please implement a single-lane system for trucks and buses on Roxas Blvd. with the same strictness that is being observed along C5, if only so that a major thoroughfare like Roxas Blvd. can be spared from being another failed traffic decongestion experiment.