MMDA to bring back ‘pre-pandemic’ number coding scheduling next week

Starting next week, the Unified Vehicular Volume Reduction Program (UVVRP) — also known as the number coding scheme — will be implemented again in the National Capital Region (NCR) to its timeslots before the COVID-19 pandemic started locally.

The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) said that beginning Monday (August 15), vehicles with license plates ending in 1 and 2 are prohibited on Mondays, 3 and 4 on Tuesdays, 5 and 6 on Wednesdays, 7 and 8 on Thursdays, 9 and 0 on Fridays during 7 a.m.- 10 a.m. and 5 p.m.-8 p.m. (except during holidays).

The announcement came following the issuance of MMDA Resolution No. 22-14 Series of 2022, which was approved by the Metro Manila Council (MMC) yesterday.

The reimplementation of the program will be enforced despite the expected increase in volume of traffic in the NCR with the resumption of the face-to-face classes later this month.

The agency expects that the initiative will cut down traffic volume by 20 percent during the aforementioned peak hours.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the average number of vehicles plying Epifanio delos Santos Avenue (EDSA) in a day was at 405,000. Based on the latest vehicle volume count of the MMDA Traffic Engineering Center last August 4, around 387,000 vehicles are currently using the major thoroughfare.

“The volume is expected to balloon to 436,000 or higher than pre-pandemic level,” the MMDA shared.

MMDA Acting Chairman Engineer Carlo Dimayuga III said that from August 15 to 17, the MMDA will only remind motorists of the expanded number coding scheme. “From August 18 onwards, the MMDA will start apprehending and will issue traffic violation tickets on ground and through our non-contact apprehension policy," he added.

He noted that those exempted from the UVVRP are public utility vehicles (including tricycles), transport network vehicle services, motorcycles, garbage trucks, fuel trucks, marked government vehicles, fire trucks, ambulances, marked media vehicles, and motor vehicles carrying essential and/or perishable goods.

Composed of 17 local government units of Metro Manila, the MMC is the MMDA’s governing and policy-making body.

Photos from Metropolitan Manila Development Authority, Ruben D. Manahan IV

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