Cosmetic

Tremble in your shoes and prepare for Armageddon. It has just been announced that Edsa, this paradise of congestion, will undergo two years of "rehabilitation."

- ALEX MAGNO

Edsa, we all know, is the boulevard of all our broken dreams. It is the icon of all that is wrong with the manner the National Capital Region has been governed the last eight decades. It is the reason why, apart from having the world's worst airport, we have the world's worst traffic flow.

Like the entire metropolitan tangle Edsa is supposed to serve, everything along this avenue happens as an afterthought. We have a substandard light rail line that not only eats up scarce road space, it also needs to be supplemented by a bus "carousel" that plies the exact same route as the rail line. Furthermore, this "carousel" forces commuters to walk long distances and board in the middle of the road.

We have a pedestrian crossing so elevated it is nicknamed "Stairway to Heaven." One needs to be a mountaineer to climb it. In so many years, I have never seen one pedestrian using this hurdle.

Over the years, we allowed huge malls to crowd the avenue, further restricting traffic flow. To compound that, we allowed dozens of high density condominium buildings to line this avenue. The car and pedestrian traffic these buildings create will further jam the avenue. There is no way any more road space could be carved out to ease traffic movement.