Corruption

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Is this the answer to traffic in Manila?

I agree with part of this report, there needs to be more enforcement on the vehicles that cause pollution, the biggest offenders are taxis, buses, and jeepneys, you can see the black smoke just pour out of these vehicles each and every day.  I do see some enforcement on the pollution, enforcer are out there, but few and far between. And what about the lack of registration, can you believe cities, police and traffic enforcers allow vehicle to go unregistered as long as you give them a bribe once caught, your free to go on your way. Hell you don't have to use your head lights a night, as many jeepneys don't use, or not in working order, who enforces that law, not the police, not the cities, and not the enforcers.

QUEZON CITY, METRO MANILA – The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) is supporting a bill that proposes to “retire” old vehicles to help decongest traffic and reduce air pollution in major cities.
Senate Bill 2834, also called the “Accelerated Retirement of Inefficient Vehicles Act” authored by Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago, encourages the establishment of a five-year program of replacing old and fuel-inefficient vehicles for more fuel-saving models.
Vehicles covered by this proposal are those manufactured before 2008 that have fuel consumption of less than 18 miles (or 28.9 kilometers) per gallon.
DENR Secretary Ramon Paje lauded the said bill, saying it should encourage vehicle owners to choose more fuel efficient vehicles and “to have a deep sense of responsibility for the environment”.
Public transport vehicles are also covered by the said proposal.
Data from the Land Transportation Office (LTO) show that vehicle registration grew to an average of 6.6 percent annually from 2008 to 2010. In 2008, there were 5.9 million registered automobiles in the country. This grew to 6.2 million in 2009, then 6.6 million in 2010.
But Paje warned that many vehicles in operation are not registered due to lack of registration fees or failing the required smoke emission tests.
He also noted that pollution levels increase significantly during heavy traffic as vehicles emit as much as one kilogram of smoke in 15 minutes. The longer a vehicle stays in traffic, the more smoke emissions it produces.
Studies have shown that air pollution is one of the causes for respiratory diseases in the country, according to Paje. At least 18 million Filipinos are suffering from some form of respiratory ailment due to air pollution, which translates to P7.6 billion spent on healthcare every year.
Paje also encouraged local government units to implement traffic laws He said many roads were built before the growth of the vehicle sales business and these were not built to accommodate more vehicles. He also asked LGUs to prohibit the use of public roads as parking lots.

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