Yes, it works in some streets like in Commonwealth Avenue. For a while it made Quezon Avenue move, even quite slowly. But now, try driving through Quezon Avenue any day of the week! Traffic starts at the tunnel (crossing Agham and EDSA) – because a U-turn lane a few meters outside the tunnel’s mouth makes vehicles crawl from the Elliptical Circle!
Will someone please announce the comprehensive plan of the U-turn scheme – and if there is a completion date?
If infrastructure projects like roads, bridges, overpasses and trains announce their completion dates to the public, why not the U-turn traffic scheme? The U-turn scheme involves the building or tearing down of infrastructure (such as islands, sidewalks and pedestrian overpasses). Anything to do with the roads should be public knowledge – before it is fully implemented.
We would like to know if this U-turn plan is part of some masterplan. For example, how many U-turn openings will finally be in place along Quezon Avenue? I stopped counting at 10 on my way home from España the other night.
That way, all road users can look forward to the time when all U-turns and related construction activities are completed. Then motorists don’t have to wake up to a new U-turn opening, or to a closed intersection.
Waking up to a closed major intersection
Even if I am not an engineer, I know that closing any intersection just transfers the bottleneck from the corner to the U-turn opening.
Imagine what that did when they recently closed the Welcome Rotunda and created a U-turn about a hundred meters away. (Isn’t a rotunda a form of a U-turn scheme?)
Since most vehicles coming from E. Rodriguez are on their way to España, you can imagine three lanes of vehicles making the right turn! That maneuver almost closes the path of vehicles coming from España on their way to Quezon City. When a vehicle pushes its way into this flow, it slows down traffic as the driver now tries to bring the vehicle away from the inner lane.
The same thing happened when they closed the EDSA-Quezon Ave. intersection. The bottlenecks are now not at the crossroads, but at the U-turn openings – for those going towards Quezon Avenue, or to EDSA.
Need for instruction manual
The MMDA should now issue printed materials (like brochures) to inform the public about the proper use of U-turns. For example, drivers need to be instructed on how to execute a U-turn. Note that many still think they can make a complete left turn from a U-turn lane – therefore endangering themselves from oncoming traffic, or slowing down vehicles during rush hour.
Driving through a traffic scheme of U-turns and closed intersections need some advance information. I suggest that this information should be included in the "Welcome to the Philippines" video usually played before an international flight lands at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.
In addition to tourism information, tourists should also know that we have a unique traffic scheme in Metro Manila. Remember that there are tourists – or traveling businessmen – who may be here for the first time, but will dare to rent a car and drive around. After all, traffic seems to have universal standards – which aren’t always enforced in our city.
The information should also include the fact that there are cement barriers that close the U-turn lanes. These may surprise first-timers driving along a dark Commonwealth Avenue, for example, where the barriers jut out of an assigned lane and can cause serious damage to a vehicle.
Please also include the fact that the flashing red lights are "suggestions to stop" when pedestrians are seen. If one pauses or comes to a full stop, he or she might be crashed by a driver who ignores the "suggestion."
There are many other information that this brochure should contain. In fact, someone should rewrite the instruction modules in driving schools. During my time, there was such a thing as "shifting to slow down when coming to an intersection; then look to the left and to the right."
Now, the student has to be trained to change lanes quickly when he or she comes near a U-turn opening – and that’s not such an easy maneuver for a new driver.
Pink signs?
My friends who are traffic authorities tell me that there is such a thing as a 1968 Vienna Conventions of the United Nations on Road Traffic and Road Signs. This was officially adopted by the Philippines on June 6, 1973. One of the standards set is the color of traffic signs – such as white letters on green or blue background for directional and information signs.
Well, this is not so in Metro Manila where you can find directional signs in pink. Check the ones at the corners of the Welcome Rotunda. Or are those not under the category of information signs?
Shall we see more pink signs along the roads while Bayani Fernando is MMDA chairman? Maybe we should include this detail in the brochure and "Welcome to the Philippines" video: "Pink signs mean what they say!"
