Passing though Edsa is a bane of motorists' lives, whether it’s the daily bottleneck during the commute to work, or endless delays at the start of the holidays. If you think your journey is bad, spare a thought for drivers in New York City, or in Sao Paulo Brazil, they would probably have the same complaints as you have here.
Here's some tips to help you beat the traffic in Edsa and in Metro Manila:
1. Make the "after 10am" habit - When someone lives in the metro where inbound traffic is a horrible, infuriating, stressful ordeal from 6:00 am to about 8:00 am, after which becomes pretty bearable until about 10:00 am, he would probably tell himself to avoid driving along Edsa (or any other streets) until 10 or 11 am. If you're a freelance worker or arranging a meet-up with somebody in the Mandaluyong or Makati area, adjust your schedules only after 10 am - and never earlier.
2. Ride mass transportation - If you're a company employee and can't do flexi-time skeds, make it a habit to leave house early. You should be out in the streets at around 5:00 am, or maybe a bit earlier if you live somewhere further in the north. Queues at the Metro Rail Transit (MRT) are shorter by a mile before 6 am. If you're not comfortable with the MRT, use the bus, preferably the P2P (point-to-point) buses. They can be slower than the MRT, though.
3. Car-pool, "park-and-ride" systems - Contact your friends and relatives who also work (or pass by) in your vicinity. Offer a share on petrol expenses and some "merienda" along the way. Or you can use a car-pooling app now available on smartphones. If you're not comfortable riding on someone's car. you can do the "park-and-ride" system. Park your car at a mall beside the MRT station, leave it there and ride the MRT. Vehicles are safer there with all the guards and automated parking tickets. Keep in mind that one less vehicle out from Edsa can help alleviate traffic congestion.
4. Learn the side streets - Being familiar with the side streets is an advantage. Don't rely on Edsa and the legendary "car routes" too much. Car routes (e.g. Katipunan Ave., Gilmore Ave., Balete Drive, among others) are always and absolutely jampacked with motorists who refuse to pass through Edsa. Use adjacent and parallel roads. Be an adventurist. The more virginal the road is, the better. Use them often to familiarize yourself. Get some rescue from navigation apps, they help a lot.
5. Work at home - If all else fails (or if you simply HATE Edsa), choose the "work-at-home" jobs. Make a career out of your laptop. It's doable and it's hip. No more hours spent deciding which shirt or dress to wear, no more MRT queues, no more petrol expenses. If you don't want to leave your company just yet, you can try asking your boss about the idea. Tell him the pros and cons. Tell him it's always the quality of work outputs. Who knows, he may just approve of your ideas.
We always hear the saying, "be part of the solution, not the problem." If you think you and your car is contributing to the traffic congestion, air pollution, and billions of pesos lost in Metro Manila, then stop using your car. Instead, use your inherent Filipino "madiskarte" attribute and start finding ways to reach your destination in the earliest time possible, and with the most limited resources.
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