You plan to move to the Philippines? Wollen Sie auf den Philippinen leben?

There are REALLY TONS of websites telling us how, why, maybe why not and when you'll be able to move to the Philippines. I only love to tell and explain some things "between the lines". Enjoy reading, be informed, have fun and be entertained too!

Ja, es gibt tonnenweise Webseiten, die Ihnen sagen wie, warum, vielleicht warum nicht und wann Sie am besten auf die Philippinen auswandern könnten. Ich möchte Ihnen in Zukunft "zwischen den Zeilen" einige zusätzlichen Dinge berichten und erzählen. Viel Spass beim Lesen und Gute Unterhaltung!


Visitors of germanexpatinthephilippines/Besucher dieser Webseite.Ich liebe meine Flaggensammlung!

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Showing posts with label Edsa. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Edsa. Show all posts

Wednesday, June 22, 2022

High gas prices mean fewer cars on EDSA

By Christian Crow Maghanoy, Manila Times


THE Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) has noted a decrease in the number of vehicles traversing EDSA as a result of oil price increases triggered by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.


In a news briefing on Tuesday, MMDA Chairman Romando Artes said the drop was noticed before the May 9, 2022 elections when they logged 27,000 users, a decrease from the daily average of around 500,000 pre-pandemic.


"On May 5, 2022, 417,000 vehicles traversed EDSA or above the 405,000 pre-pandemic level. But on June 9, we counted only 392,000. The other day [June 19], we counted again, and there were only 390,000 users. I think a big factor here is the continuous increases in prices of petroleum products," Artes also said.


He added that the MMDA will not expand the number coding scheme or the Modified Unified Vehicular Volume Reduction Program (MUVVRP), which bases the scheme on license plates on particular days of the week, except holidays.


Under the scheme, from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m., license plates ending in 1 and 2 are barred from Metro Manila roads on Mondays; 3 and 4 on Tuesdays; 5 and 6 on Wednesdays; 7 and 8 on Thursdays; and 9 and 0 on Fridays.

Sunday, December 10, 2017

When in Manila ...

Beyond EDSA and Commonwealth, other crash-prone QC roads need more enforcers


A Quezon City DPOS officer managing traffic flow at Commonwealth Ave. QC Public Affairs Office
On Quezon City’s roads, death awaits drivers as the night deepens.

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If you’re one of them, your chances of dying in a road crash peak from 11 p.m. to 1 a.m., data from the Metro Manila Development Authority show.
Yet, in these deadliest hours, the streets are clear of traffic enforcers who can help save your lives.
From 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., traffic enforcers take turns manning the city’s busiest roads, each of them stationed at “choke points” or areas notorious for heavy traffic. Beyond these hours or when most fatal crashes happen, the roads are unguarded.
Quezon City recorded a total of 33,717 road crashes last year, the highest in Metro Manila according to the MMDA.

For the government, it’s traffic over safety. In fielding the bulk of enforcers, officials prioritize congested roads over crash-prone ones.
“Our deployment depends on where there is heavy traffic, or where areas are congested,” said Glenda Lim, chief of Police Community Relations at the Philippine National Police Highway Patrol Group.
Black spots, or areas notorious for road crashes, come secondary in traffic deployment, even as studies have shown the presence of traffic enforcers deters reckless driving behavior that results in road crashes.
Quezon City’s deadliest roads, ranked by data science firm Thinking Machines based on the number of road crashes in 2016, are EDSA, Commonwealth Avenue, Quirino Highway, Katipunan Avenue, Quezon Avenue, Aurora Boulevard, Andres Bonifacio Avenue and E. Rodriguez, Sr. Avenue.
Of these roads, there’s a higher likelihood of enforcer response in the event of a crash in EDSA, Commonwealth and Katipunan, compared to other roads.
VERA Files, culling traffic deployment data from the MMDA, PNP-HPG, the Quezon City police and the local Department of Public Order and Safety, ranked the city’s crash-prone roads based on enforcer to crash ratio.
The enforcer to crash ratio corresponds to the number of enforcers likely to respond to a crash on a particular road on a given day.

If a crash occurred in Katipunan Avenue, there are 47 enforcers likely to respond on a given day.
If it happened in Commonwealth Avenue, once dubbed the country’s “killer highway,” there are 33 enforcers who are likely available to assist.
In 2016, Commonwealth Avenue recorded over 2,000 crashes, the second highest in the city next to EDSA, which saw over 4,000 crashes.
Along EDSA’s various junctions from Balintawak to Santolan in Quezon City, there are some 23 enforcers who are likely to attend to you in the event of a road crash.
Notably, Katipunan, Commonwealth and EDSA are notorious for heavy traffic, thus the abundance of enforcers.
  
Lim of the PNP-HPG, a member of the Inter-Agency Council for Traffic, says EDSA is already “safe.” The goal, after all, is to facilitate the movement of vehicles though slow, she said.
Yet, in other roads with fewer choke points but are equally high-risk, the odds of being saved get smaller.
One’s chances of being saved may be higher in Katipunan, which has 160 percent more enforcers than in Aurora Boulevard with only 18 enforcers likely to respond on a given day.
More, the 12-kilometer Commonwealth Avenue has 100 percent more enforcers than in Quirino Highway, despite having the same length. On a given day, Quirino only has 15 enforcers who are likely available to assist.
The gap between enforcers and crashes is biggest in the case of the four-lane Andres Bonifacio Avenue, a 1.9-km road that connects the North Luzon Expressway to the southern city of Manila. There are only four enforcers who could provide help.
“That’s alarming, right? Why is the [disparity] too large?” Lim said in Filipino.
“I wouldn’t want to pass through that road anymore,” she said jokingly, admitting though that she doesn’t take the route on a regular basis.
Surprised by the shortage of enforcers on crash-prone roads such as Andres Bonifacio Avenue, Quirino Highway and Aurora Boulevard, Lim recognized the need to refocus efforts in these areas.
“There are more cases to investigate in these areas, so there should be more police officers,” Lim said. “[Motorists] may be more careful when they see traffic enforcers,” she explained.
The relationship between road crashes and traffic law enforcement has been studied extensively.
In a book published in the United Kingdom, a chapter on the “effectiveness of traffic policing in reducing traffic crashes” found that if motorists perceive they might get caught violating road rules – by an enforcer, or tracking devices such as speed guns or CCTV cameras – they will adjust their behavior. This in turn reduces the likelihood of a road crash.
While the city’s roads are equipped with closed circuit television cameras in select areas, these cameras are used mainly for monitoring traffic situation and are not designed to capture traffic violations and road crashes in real time.
Speed guns targeting speeding vehicles are also limited in number.
In May, the World Health Organization highlighted that excessive speed is among the key behavioral risk factors for road deaths and injuries, contributing up to half of deaths from road crashes in low- and middle-income countries like the Philippines.
For its part, Lim said PNP HPG has intensified campaigns, in the form of infomercials and graphics, among others, advocating speed reduction as a safety measure.
Last year, the agency recorded a total of 32,269 road crashes in the Philippines mostly from reckless driving, or an average of 88 incidents daily. Of this number, 2,144 resulted in deaths.
Focused on Metro Manila road crashes alone, the MMDA reported a total of 109,322 incidents. In Metro Manila, Quezon City, the largest city in terms of land area, recorded the highest number of crashes.
To reduce the number of road crash deaths and injuries in the city, the local government has approved on third and final reading the Quezon City’s Road Safety Code.
The code, a signature away to becoming an ordinance, introduces interventions such as setting specific speed limits on main roads and implementing a no helmet, no travel policy.
In a news report, Vice Mayor Joy Belmonte said the local government will also deploy more traffic enforcers at night to deal with road crashes.
Yet, for DPOS Traffic Operations Chief Dexter Cardenas, augmenting enforcement alone wouldn’t solve road crashes.
A disregard for road rules resulting in road crashes, he said, usually happens in between intersections without traffic lights or enforcers.
“In between those intersections, when a crash occurs, there are no enforcers assigned to monitor because there is no traffic congestion in those areas,” he said.
“Deploying an enforcer is not an immediate solution. Perhaps, their visibility would instill fear, but there are three approaches to [addressing road crashes],” Cardenas said, adding that education and environment are as crucial.
“Because what people see as the only solution to road crashes is enforcement, which should not be. There must also be education, teaching people to be obedient to the law. And secondly, the engineering and design of the road,” he said.
Cardenas eagerly awaits the passage of the Road Safety Code of Quezon City, which he said will now enable traffic safety officials to examine the causes of road crashes in blackspots, and evaluate the reasons behind these.
“Does the road need enforcers, or just some lane markings and certain signages? The engineering design of the network or the quality of the road surface could also be the problem,” he added.
___
This story was produced under the Bloomberg Initiative Global Road Safety Media Fellowship implemented by the World Health Organization, Department of Transportation and VERA Files.VERA Files is put out by veteran journalists taking a deeper look at current issues. Vera is Latin for “true.”

Thursday, February 25, 2016

Duterte/Cayetano: The Spirit of Edsa

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25 February 2016


The spirit of Edsa lives on in our fight to end the country's disorder
(Joint statement of Davao City Mayor Rodrigo "Rody" Duterte and Senate Majority leader Alan Peter Cayetano)

It has been 30 years since the 1986 People Power Revolution, and today, as we commemorate the momentous restoration of Philippine democracy, we are also reminded of what it was that the Filipino people had fought and died for.

The EDSA Revolution was not a battle between two political families. Rather, it was the battle between a dictatorship mired in corruption and abuse and the Filipino people’s aching desire to restore democracy, order, and the rule of law. The spirit of EDSA lives on, embodied not just by one person, nor a handful of political families. The spirit of EDSA lives on today in each of us, and it binds us together as the Filipino nation.

Certainly, the spirit of EDSA lives on in each of us, but so do the problems that EDSA had sought to end. Crime, illegal drug trafficking and corruption are some of the social ills that contribute to the people's daily woes. This is precisely why we wage a war against disorder and suffering. In this war, we must remember the lessons of EDSA. It is not enough to elect a competent government. We must ensure the government we elect doesn't become corrupt and abusive. The leaders we choose to govern us must be leaders who are truly democratic and would stand up against any and all forms of oppression, abuse, and neglect. As a people, we must exercise vigilance to protect the freedom that we have won many years ago.

Today’s youth, particularly the millennials, enjoy civil and political rights and the freedom to be part of nation-building that was taken away from the youth 30 years ago. 30 years ago, the youth endured a difficult struggle to overthrow an oppressive government, so that succeeding generations would not suffer the same fate under the hands of a dictator. We implore all young Filipinos to remember one single truth: The youth in the ‘70s and ‘80s made a tremendous sacrifice, so that the youth today will be free.

As we celebrate three decades of our freedom, let us not forget the main message of the People Power Revolution: Real Change. The battle that culminated in EDSA in 1986 was only the beginning of our fight for a better nation.

Ang laban para sa tunay na pagbabago ay hindi natapos sa Edsa, kundi patuloy na nagaganap sa kasalukuyang henerasyon. Upang maipanalo ito, kailangan ng mga lider na may tapang at tibay ng loob na tapusin ang gulo at hirap sa buhay ng tao. Ito mismo ang pundasyon ng tambalang Duterte-Cayetano.

With bold solutions and swift action, the Filipino nation will achieve a level of order and development that ensures not only the welfare of this generation, but of the future generations of the Filipino people. #