Insanely Edsa inefficiency has got to end

By Al S. Mendoza

 

WHEN will it end?

I refer to the seeming practice of making Edsa a traffic laboratory.  Guinea pig.

How many new ideas have they introduced in a bid to improve the flow of traffic at the country’s premiere artery?

Too many that I’ve lost count already.

Not one was close to being successful.

The latest is requiring buses to load/unload passengers at the innermost left lane of the highway, abandoning the right lanes as loading/unloading bays.

If that’s not the most insane scheme of all, what is?

Torture for the passengers without let-up, almost.

With the new system, you alight at the designated bus stop, only to climb up the overpass again to get to the other side of the highway.

Upon descending from the overpass, you take another bus for your next destination.

Clearly, a waste of time, energy and, worst, money.

Instead of the usual one ride to get to your destination, the new format forces you to transfer buses twice, even thrice, to complete your trip.

Thus, instead of shortening your trip, the new setup has become way too longer since the new framework began this week.

Sadly, indeed, the MMDA (Metro Manila Development Authority) has been bungling everything since it transformed Edsa into its own workshop of outlandish concepts.

On the first day of the plan’s implementation on Wednesday (July 8), chaos marred the project as commuters were immediately thrown in disarray.

They virtually groped for new bus protocols at the Monumento-to-Baclaran highway.

The “organized confusion” was abetted by lack of, if not an incomplete, infrastructure.

Of the tabled 20-plus loading/unloading zones, only four were operational on the day the new platform was introduced.

What kind of a battle plan was that?

You are talking here of thousands of commuters relying mainly on buses as chief transporters—remember, the MRT 3 is on shut down mode—but what do we see but an unprepared flock of MMDA enforcers.

Simply put, they went to war without weapons.

Or, if they had, what type?

Clearly, their guns fired nothing but duds.  Whoa!

What kind of leadership do we have at Edsa?

It’s quite a bit too long now that we’ve been seeing bumbling supposed experts manning the fort at Edsa, with their front line soldiers also mostly equally inefficient to the max.

Can’t we bring back Tim Orbos, who made a lot of sense running his own space when he was still among the top guns at Edsa?

Compounding the Edsa bedlam was the shuttered MRT 3, the railway system from Trinoma Q.C. to Baclaran and back, caused by its personnel being badly decimated by Covid-19 infections.

With more than 200 train employees from the MRT 3 workforce of 3,000-plus felled by the coronavirus, train services at the 13 stations were canceled on Tuesday (July 7) and, hopefully, to resume only on Saturday (July 11).

May God give guidance to our public servants in aiding our commuting folk, long suffering from massive inefficiency at Edsa, with long-delayed relief.  Have mercy, oh Lord.

Share your Comments or Reactions

comments

Powered by Facebook Comments