To further reduce the volume of vehicles in major thoroughfares, the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) is mulling over the re-imposing the number coding scheme on public utility buses (PUBs) that could affect 4,000 drivers plying Metro Manila routes.
 
Based on their assessment, MMDA Chairman Oscar Inocentes said fewer and fewer passengers are patronizing buses prodding them to reconsider lifting the exemption of the PUBs in the Unified Vehicular Volume Reduction Program (UVVRP).
 
“There are simply too much of them (buses) running on the roads empty. They only add up to congestion,” the MMDA chief said, adding that the plan seems to be a feasible idea given the completion of mass rail transport system in Metro Manila, such as the Metro Rail Transit (MRT) and the Light Rail Transit (LRT) loop.
 
There are approximately 4,000 PUBs plying Edsa and other major thoroughfares daily.
 
If the inclusion of PUBs in the implementation of UVVRP would be approved, MMDA’s Organized Bus Route (OBR) chief Antonio Pagulayan, Jr. said the number of buses a day would be reduced by at least 20 percent.
 
“Statistically speaking, that would be a big help. We only need to cut down the number of buses by at least 20 percent a day and we will have a noticeable improvement in traffic condition,” he explained Pagulayan.
 
Inocentes said the inclusion of PUBs in the implementation of UVVRP will complement the MMDA’s Organized Bus Route (OBR) program, which seeks to limit buses on Edsa through scheduled fielding of buses from common terminals.
 
“We hope we can come up with a sort of compromise, after all, solving traffic is not only the responsibility of the MMDA. We all have to do our part,” he said.
 
The UVVRP, he pointed out, will even help bus companies reduce its expenses on fuel and vehicle maintenance by reducing the number of buses they operate per day.
 
PUBs were covered by UVVRP until 2004 when then President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, upon the strong lobbying of the bus operators, ordered the suspension of the traffic scheme for passenger buses.
 
Meanwhile, Inocentes also ordered the Traffic Operations Center to further limit the issuance of UVVRP exemptions by as much as 50 percent.
 
He said giving out exemptions runs counter to the MMDA’s traffic reduction program.
 
Under MMDA Regulation No. 96-005, only ambulances, police, military, fire trucks, and government vehicles, diplomatic vehicles with diplomatic plates and duly franchised school buses are exempted from number coding.