Heads up, motorists. For those of you who find yourselves traveling along the northbound stretch of EDSA-Shaw, don’t be surprised to see the MMDA implementing and enforcing a stop-and-go scheme. While no specific times were mentioned, its implementation begins today, February 7 until February 10. This follows the holding of the 52nd Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization (SEAMEO) Council Conference.
685 MMDA personnel will be deployed for the duration of the scheme
Photo: MMDA
The scheme will be implemented before approaching the Shaw Boulevard tunnel along EDSA. We can’t exactly see how they’ll do it, but the MMDA stated that “all vehicles on the said portion will be ordered to stop whenever delegates pass by. Based on the arrows, we can’t tell if the delegates will be coming from the bus lane and will merge into the outer lanes, or if buses will be the ones to merge and leave the leftmost lane open for the delegates.
The Conference is being held at the EDSA Shangri-La hotel, so this area will be critical.
Regardless, the merging will happen, and again, at no specific times. It will all depend on when delegates will make their way through EDSA. Not a very promising premise, isn’t it? With the scheme’s implementation starting today through Friday, it’s possible that the MMDA will have to make people stop and go in the thick of rush hour.
The agency will be deploying 685 of their personnel to “ensure the smooth flow of traffic”, though. With that, all we can carry is the hope that our travels don’t get hit, and that we have enough patience left after a long day at work.
It’s very unlikely that we can simply steer clear of this stretch, so again, just be ready, and please do be patient. If you do and if you can, many others will probably have the same idea so you can safely expect build-ups along interior roads, too.
At least once the weekend comes, it all goes back to “normal” again.
