After racing over 100 kilometers in the 148-km first lap of the 7th Tour of Luzon from Antipolo to Lucena last Thursday, the international group of cyclists found itself unable to proceed due to a traffic jam caused by road construction. The lap was thus unceremoniously cancelled. The incident showed, among other things, that the traffic problem has grown beyond Metro Manila where, to this day, after so many months of various solutions tried by so many officials and agencies, the consensus is that it has not been solved. Two to three hours is now normal to get from one end of the Metro area to the other – an hour more during the rush hours. A number of action plans have been proposed to improve the situation – even stricter traffic enforcement, clearing of streets that are still unusable due to construction projects, ensuring that the trains of the [...]
