The Problems Of Traffic In Metropolitan Manila

Traffic is very common in Metropolitan Manila. When we drive around Metropolitan Manila, the thing that we always experience is traffic. Traffic gives us headache, stress, and sometimes high blood pressure. Since the traffic is getting worse, many commuters spend hours on the road just to get home. Why do we have a huge traffic problem? It is because the traffic laws are not that strict and it's not organized properly. The government tried many ways to solve the traffic in Metropolitan Manila but they always fail at finding the right solution. Especially during night time because all of the workers go back to their homes. How bad is the traffic in Metropolitan Manila? Traffic is so bad that many commuters spend hours on the road just to get home. Some manage to reach their destination past midnight. There’s always traffic, whether it rains or not. Traffic happens everyday at the same place and at the same time in Metropolitan Manila.

There are many causes of having a traffic jam. According to Miyako Izabel, the first cause of having a traffic is the increase of population. When population increases, there will be an increase of commuters and car riders. That means there will be more vehicles running around on the road. But because of those vehicles, the government should expand or make the roads wider but that would cost a lot of money and a long time to work on. The second cause of having traffic is high employment. Increase of workers can cause traffic because most of the workers have similar time schedule like lunch time and the ending time. Usually it is very traffic in Metropolitan Manila during 5 p. m. because most of the workers go home at roughly the same time. The third one is discretionary income. Those who have high payments after they pay for the taxes, if they have leftover money they tend to purchase cars if they can afford it so they won't be commuting anymore. But because of that the roads will be full of cars and that causes traffic. The fourth cause of having traffic is because of their flashy lifestyle. Owning nice and expensive cars in the Philippines is a status symbol. They drive them around to show off that they have expensive cars. Those who can afford more than one car, they tend to buy cars again and again, because of that it occupies all the spaces on the roads. Even though they go somewhere near, they still drive so they can show off their cars. Lastly, the cause of having traffic is because of the provincial commuters. Most of the people from the province go to the cities so they can find a better job. Since they need to travel long distance, they tend to ride buses but now these days the buses occupy more road space and worsen the traffic. Traffic can also affect our health. According to a CNN report, long commutes eat up exercise time. Having traffic can give us stress. One of the stress triggers while driving during a traffic road is impatience. Waiting for the traffic and dealing with the mistakes of other motorists on the road. Impatience can make us mad and sometimes it can also cause an accident. Air pollution can be one of the effects of having traffic. In the Philippines, jeepneys and motorcycles are one of the reasonss why we have air pollution. Smoke from jeepneys and motorcycles are always dark and it is really bad for our health and the smoke can make our lungs unhealthy.

Many Filipinos ride jeepneys and motorcycles because the payment isn't that expensive. So whenever we go out we should always bring our handkerchief with us so we can cover our nose and mouth. Some commuters who always get caught in the traffic always experience lack of sleep. Lack of sleep can cause anxiety, exhaustion, frustration and more. So most of the commuters get up early in the morning so they wont get caught in the traffic and people who live far away from their working place, they tend to get up during mid night.

Here are some solutions that can solve traffic in Metropolitan Manila. The drivers are strictly required to follow the laws. They should also fix the broken stop lights because without the stop lights, the roads will turn into a disaster. They should also ban double parking especially in the narrow roads because that can cause traffic. Public transportation is very important in the Philippines, but public transportations are the ones that usually cause traffic. Buses should stop in the place where they are assigned. Jeepneys are not allowed to stop any where and we should make a place where jeepneys are assigned to stop. We should avoid sudden changing lanes. Because that can lead to a big accident and that accident can be the cause of having a traffic. If we are driving in the middle lane, we should stay in our lane but unless you will move to the left side we should give signs to the others cars so we can avoid conflict and accidents.

For many years, traffic has been a problem in Metropolitan Manila and until now, no one was able to solve the problem of traffic. Therefore I want them to try their best to solve this problem because the government tried to solve it but they failed and we should help each other to decrease in making traffic. By reading this, I wish they learn the causes and effects. Avoid the causes and help each other to avoid getting into a traffic. But of course we should cooperate to each other because we are the driver and commuters.