The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) on Thursday lowered to 50 kilometer per hour the speed limit for public utility vehicles, especially passenger buses, along EDSA.
“We are setting a new limit upon the approval last week of the MMC (Metro Mayors Council),” Bong Nebrija, supervising operations officer of the MMDA, said.
He added that there is no stopping MMDA from imposing the new speed limit, slashed from 60 kph, even though the agency has yet to finish recalibrating all of its speed guns.
Under the contact apprehension scheme, MMDA speed gun operators work with a remote partner who radios the license plate number of over speeders to MMDA traffic enforcers who apprehend the vehicle on the ground.
Speed guns are used to monitor over speeding vehicles.
“The new speed limit is meant to reduce the number of road crashes and accidents on major roads in the National Capital Region,” Nebrija added.
The record of Metro Manila Accident Recording and Analysis System showed that there were 109,322 road accidents in Metro Manila in 2016 – an average of 299 accidents a day.
These incidents resulted in the deaths of 446 people and injuries of 20,876 others.
“And that is why we are setting the limit,” he said.