Tan Kin Lian's Blog: Skyway in Manila

Monday, November 22, 2010

Skyway in Manila

I am now in Manila to speak at a seminar. On the way to the hotel, the limousine went up a road called the "Skyway". It is an elevated highway. There is no toll fee. The skyway is not congested and the traffic flows smoothly. Most cars use the ground level road as they travel a short distance and have to make turns. The skyway is useful for long distance travel.

14 years ago, I suggested to the Minister for Transport to build a second level expressway above the Central Expressway. This would be suitable for long distance travel and would relief the congestion on the CTE. He consulted his engineers and replied that there were technical constraints. They did not want to talk to me. I disagreed with the assessment, but did not wish to pursue the matter.

I believe that the elevated highway is a good approach to relief the traffic congestion and should be considered as a possible solution.

Tan Kin Lian

4 comments:

Anonymous said...: There is a possibilities of dual level highways in Singapore as even HDB flats are built higher and higher up to 50 storeys.; November 22, 2010 3:41 PM
Jamesneo said...: Although i agree that elevated highway can solve the congestion problem. However, should we do it now when we should be instead aggressively expanding the public transports like more Mrt lines? I believed that the fuel costs will escalate in the coming decade to an extremely high level. Moreover, as your comment earlier about us suffering the same fate as Ireland, cars will become too expensive for a significant amount of the middle class whose wealth will be wiped out during the crash.; November 22, 2010 6:28 PM
Lye Khuen Way said...: At this juncture, it may not make sense with higher fuel cost to cater for vehicular traffic, but that "technical constraint" excuse years back was just that, an excuse.

Actually, I have a feeling that LTA/MND were just schemming to let road-users suffer, while collecting more COE/ERP. How else to explain the dis-connection with a " 3% vehicular growth" and the jams we now have in SIN ?

As far as building more MRT lines ( That is a real physical & monetary constraint, if you ask me) or improving the Bus-system, if the Authorities ( Not clear LTA or Traffic Police ) are not prepared to state clearly whether heavy veh/ Buses/Van are allowed on the 1st and 2nd lanes of a 4 lanes Expressway, be prepared to drive your saloon car on the 4th/ 3rd lane to get ahead.
Uniquely, Singapore - I always point out to my passengers !; November 22, 2010 7:46 PM
davewongblessing said...: building more roads is counter intuitive if the long term goal is to discourage car usage. instead i feel the govt could focus on developing a 2nd or 3rd CBD area and ease traffic in the main belt. but such mammoth project will take 20 yrs as opposed to 3-5yrs for elevated highway. my bet is, physical infrastructure will not be the solution. in 10yrs time, dun be surprised that many jobs will be performed from home, aided by technology (cloud computing, seamless connectivity, virtual teleconf etc). the shift will be motivated mostly by cost cutting measures (at the expense of office landlords), higher fuel costs, lost productivity due to traffic jams and pursuit of more balanced work-life. even shopping has gone virtual, as most young people can testify to more online purchases (clothing, books, e-books, food products etc). technology is a game-changer!!!; November 23, 2010 9:31 PM