August 4 was yet another chaotic Monday as people were off to go to work, school, or whatever business that was needed to be done. Only that this particular Monday here in good old Metro Manila was more chaotic than usual. No thanks to not one, but two incidents of horrendous traffic that are the stuff of nightmares.
It all began early morning before daybreak when a truck along the southbound portion of C-5 near the intersection of Kalayaan Avenue, which originally got stalled on the road, began experiencing problems with the brakes and eventually rammed through 8 vehicles. One reportedly died in this collision and 7 others were injured.
This also brought about heavy traffic not only along C-5 but also on other major thoroughfares like Ortigas Ave.-Ortigas Extn. and EDSA. In fact the traffic was so heavy, commuters experienced being stuck on the road for 5 hours or more, causing many to be late for work or school that day.
It was only past 10 AM when C-5 was cleared and traffic began flowing somewhat normally again…at least until late afternoon.
This time, the culprit is the heavy rainfall brought about by the southwest monsoon (habagat) made stronger by the faraway Typhoon Jose. (international name: Halong) This brought about flooding in some parts of the metropolis and, inevitably, traffic that affected even the roads that have no flood incidents to report that day.
One netizen pointed out that such incidents in a certain part of the metropolis can manage to paralyze transport on a wider metropolitan scale just shows how messed up Metro Manila’s road network is right now. I partly agree with this, but I must add it also shows another unfortunate matter: our present mass transportation system which would have helped alleviate such situations is still very, very much lacking.
We have not even taken into account here yet the messed up policies of various government units, national and local, who are supposed to help improve the flow of transportation in the metropolis, as well as neighboring areas.
At the end of all this, we have to wonder how many more traffic nightmares do we need to bear before those in the government get their acts together and work on alleviating us from this constantly sordid situation. It is not like there’s nothing to start from. Heck, they can take their cue from JICA Dream Plan and move from there.
But ultimately, this would be an if and when situation. Until they manage to start doing the right things to do, assuming of course they would which itself is a doubtful situation sadly, the best we can do is to brace ourselves for possible future scenarios like this, even though we hope that we never get to experience a manic Monday like this ever again.
