Lacson-Espaa flyover takes off despite protests

Another flyover is preparing to soar in one of Manilas most populous districts.

The district is Sampaloc, whose already dense population is aggravated by the daily influx
of thousands of students who attend the University of Santo Tomas (UST), Far Eastern
University, National University, University of the East and other vast campuses in the
University Belt.
The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) announced plans to construct the
flyover on Lacson Avenue, eventually to be followed by a Metro Rail Transit (MRT) line on
Espaa Boulevard.
The Varsitarian, official student paper of UST, quotes government officials in a report as
justifying the project to alleviate traffic congestion at this major intersection.
To alleviate traffic, whether vehicular or human, is an absolute necessity in Sampaloc and
in the rest of the city as well. But is a flyover the answer?
A flyover is the easiest answer, a stock solution to traffic management that favors the
movement of vehicles over the movement of people.
The Varsitarian says, the DPWH has argued that, from studies we made, we found out
that the level of service has already plunged to the F level, referring to the worst condition for
traffic.
The flyover construction has been preceded by a road-widening project that will eat into
Lacsons sidewalks, displace pedestrians many of whom are students, and cut down trees.
The Varsitarian says the Department of Environment and Natural Resources has allowed
trees which have a measurement of 30 cm or more to be cut down for the road widening and
the flyover construction.
A traffic-impact assessment is being prepared to justify the flyover project.
Traffic management
There are many ways to reduce traffic. An integrated master plan that looks at design
technology together with transit development is normally done for an overview on solving
traffic problems.
Other methods include coordinated traffic lights to allow smooth flow, andthis is a more
far-fetched but overdue solutionthe reeducation of Filipino drivers.
Even simply controlling the crush of jeepneys at loading points (jeepneys have made the
corner of Lacson and Espaa their terminal, apparently with the blessing of City Hall or the
MMDA); strictly controlling parking and imposing the provision of off-street parking facilities by
all new constructions; clearing sidewalks from obstructions and illegal hawkers; and other
relatively simple housekeeping measures will alleviate traffic.
These methods are hardly carried out on Lacson-Espaa and elsewhere. When the traffic
mess piles up, the DPWH and MMDA and the rest of government get an excuse to construct
multimillion flyovers. (The Sampaloc flyover is estimated to cost over P900 million.)
Lack of impact studies
However, none of the studies by the DPWH takes into account the software aspect. Has the
impact of this project with respect to zoning laws and to visual congestion of the area been
studied?
Have community-impact and cultural heritage-impact assessments been done?
Despite being a highway project, its not just a road job. It has strong social implications
that maybe the road people dont see.
The proposed flyover impacts on the local community which has to live with the wages of
flyover long after DPWH completes its construction. It will, actually, change peoples lives. It
may have the same impact as the LRT on Rizal Avenue, which has caused the death of
business and street life.
So many flyovers detach, distort and scar the city, professor Rizalito Mendoza of the UST
College of Architecture is quoted by the Varsitarian as saying. The flyovers autocentric

design dehumanizes the city, separating the people because of its focus on vehicular rather
than pedestrian mobility.
(The Varsitarian, in its July 7 editorial, Down with the Lacson Flyover, has protested the
constructions. Visit www.varsitarian.net.)
Urban neighborhoods have been sliced in two by flyovers, dividing what once was a
homogenous population and cutting off contact, which abets urban decay and blight.
Is flyover progress? Are we looking at outdated development models? The Los Angeles
model, vehicle-friendly but people-unfriendly, divides neighborhoods, isolates sections of the
city from each other, destroys the human activity of simply walking, has been proven to be
harmful to community life.
To restore community life, some American cities have gone to the extreme. Flyovers and
elevated highways are being taken down at great cost and replaced with open green areas.
Urban quality of life is what cities are recapturing. We want to live in comfortable cities
that we can be proud of.
Assault on heritage
Heritage is, of course, an important part of the urban quality of life and forms the identity
of a city.
UST is the oldest university in Asia and a national heritage site: Four of its campus
landmarks were declared National Cultural Treasures by the National Museum in 2010. Last
January, when UST turned 401 years old, the National Historical Institute declared UST a
National Historical Landmark.
With a national-heritage declaration come sanctions to development taking place around
the heritage site.
A flyover trivializes the historic and cultural significance of the UST campus. Sight lines to
the heritage site must be maintained. UST must not go the way of the campus of De La Salle
University on Taft Avenue that was forever ruined by the elevated tracks that run across its
entire length.
Progress? At what cost? It is time to rethink our image of progress.
The pressures on the fragile quality of Manila life are increasing at an alarming rate.
Alarms should ring loud before another flyover accelerates the citys degradation rate.
Read more: http://lifestyle.inquirer.net/60807/lacson-espana-flyover-takes-off-despiteprotests#ixzz3OIwAVTan