As its means to address heavy traffic in Metro Manila, the MMDA is proposing two number coding schemes where cars cannot use public roads on two weekdays.
Under its proposal, cars with odd last numbers on their plates cannot use public roads from 7am to 10am and from 5pm to 8pm every Monday and Thursday, while cars with even numbers cannot use public roads every Tuesday and Friday for during the same hours. According to MMDA, this proposal aims to cut down traffic by 50 percent–even if this means that all cars are allowed to use public roads on Wednesdays.
The first proposal aims to cut down traffic by 50 percent. It will ban vehicles having registration plates with odd last numbers — 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 — off public roads on Monday and Thursday from 7:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. and from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
The second proposal also bans vehicles from plying on public roads for two weekdays during the same hours, but has a more complicated scheme, which is as follows:
- Monday: plate numbers ending in 1, 2, 3, 4
- Tuesday: plate numbers ending in 5, 6, 7, 8
- Wednesday: cars with plate numbers ending in 9, 0, 1, 2
- Thursday: cars with plate numbers ending in 3, 4, 5, 6
- Friday: cars with plate numbers ending in 7, 8, 9, 0
The second proposal does address the lack of a number coding scheme on Wednesdays with the first proposal but is harder to memorize and only reduces 40% of traffic on paper.
MMDA Chair Romando Artes explains that the current number coding scheme only reduces traffic by 20%, and that “60 to 70% of the 300,000 vehicles sold in 2021 enter Metro Manila.”
