At around this time last year, the MMDA bared the average number of vehicles plying along EDSA. The figure back then was 417,000 vehicles. A year hence, and guess where the number is now? A whopping 425,890! Yes, travel restrictions have definitely eased following the global crisis, and this is to be expected, right? But we do have a bit of new information this time, too, and that’s the average vehicle speed on EDSA.
Photo: MMDA
Based on the infographic above, vehicular volume along EDSA pre-pandemic was only close to 406,000. As restrictions started being lifted last year, that rose to the aforementioned 417,000. Just yesterday, we again see an uptick in the daily numbers which is 425,890. Based on 2019 numbers, that counts for a 4.93% increase.
Photo: MMDA
But on to the added information, the MMDA has also come out with the figures for average vehicle speed along Metro Manila’s main thoroughfare. Pre-pandemic, the northbound lane of EDSA would average shy of 22 km/h, and the southbound lane at a paltry 11 km/h. Fast forward to today, and those numbers went higher, AKA, vehicle speed got faster at close to 25 km/h northbound, and 22.46 km/h southbound.
Yes, many will argue that that’s a snail’s pace, regardless, but this is progress nonetheless. Particularly for the southbound lane average, that’s already double the previous speed which means your travel time has been cut to half of what it used to be. Slow as it is, we’ll take that as a win. And this is despite the increase in vehicle count along EDSA, too.
So what is the point of this shared data? We’ve thus far correlated an increase in speed with the increase in the number of vehicles traveling along EDSA. That correlation showed faster speeds, and as we said, that’s good. But what good is it if there’s no plan to further improve it? The MMDA believes that the key to effectively utilizing this information is “effective governance and enforcement of traffic rules”.
Whatever “magic” there might have been for us to see an increase in speed despite the growing number of vehicles on the road, we hope the MMDA has something more and better up its sleeve and again, we’ll take this as a win.
