I find this argument from the Management Association of the Phils. (MAP) funny.
Calamity declaration needed to deal with road congestion — MAP
March 21, 2024 | 9:07 pm
https://www.bworldonline.com/economy/2024/03/21/583524/calamity-declaration-needed-to-deal-with-road-congestion-map/
"He (Eduardo Yap, MAP) added that electric vehicles (EVs) should be encouraged through incentives and that public buses on the EDSA Busway be progressively converted to electric power.
Exempting private EVs from road congestion charges..."
Awww. These business leaders are only interested in pushing the EV business, not in "solving" heavy traffic congestion. Traffic is an engineering problem with engineering solutions, not bureaucratic or cronyism solutions.
HK should be traffic-choke. So many people and visitors/tourists (about 25 million/year pre-lockdown dictatorship) in few flat lands including reclaimed and artificial lands as HK is largely mountainous. Yet little congestion. Lots of trains, about 200 meters long each and can accommodate hundreds of passengers each trip. And the trains leave every 5-10 minutes.
Photos below I took when I and my family were in HK last January.
And many bridges, long tall sturdy bridges connecting islands. Within the city there are many overpass, underpass, tunnels for vehicles. These are all engineering solutions.
You hardly see a "traffic enforcer" on the roads or bridges or tunnels. In the PH we have so many "traffic enforcers", bureaucratic solutions that hardly work.
Now MAP and Eduardo Yap want to introduce another non-engineering solution -- EV cronyism, plus declaration of "traffic calamity." Ewww. Nasaan ang eng'g solution dyan?
Yes, city trains should run on electricity, whether above ground like our MRT/LRT or subway. Not cars running on electricity. And train stations should be right in commercial centers and bus stops, not 200-300 meters away then make the public walk far.
Underground walkways between train stations, shops.
Walkalator underground, HK Central station. Just like an airport.
By 2029, the Metro Manila subway system -- 33 kms long with 17 stations from Valenzuela to Bicutan and a spur line to Terminal 3 of NAIA -- will start operation. It will be the first modern subway system in this country. Long trains running on electricity. And we'll be needing huge new supply of electricity, those that produce power 24/7, even if the Sun is not shining (night, cloudy, rains) and even if the wind is not blowing, zero blackout or power fluctuation even for a minute.
Subway trains and their stations are very energy intensive. Intermittent wind solar cannot provide reliable power. Only thermal plants (coal, gas, oil, geo), big hydro, or nuclear.
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See also:
Transport Econ 22, Uber's merger with Grab, April 04, 2018
Transport Econ 23, Penalizing commuters with far away bus/LRT stops, February 12, 2020
Transport Econ 24, Trains, tricycles and government-created route monopolies, March 16, 2024
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