One-way traffic

Tollway operators should be required to overhaul their faulty radio frequency identification (RFID) systems before demanding the imposition of penalties on motorists.

The goal is to have all vehicles traversing the privately operated roads sporting an RFID sticker with an adequate load, which equates to billions of pesos in advance payments to the operators from motorists.

The Department of Transportation (DoTr) suspended the penalties until next year to give the operators time to address the defective system and other operational issues.

How about the motorists who suffer from the inefficiencies of the toll system? Can they be given a choice to tolerate or not the road system that contributes little to alleviating the traffic problem?

The use of a single RFID has long been promised to motorists but still the inconvenience of having to maintain two accounts, which means topping up two electronic passes, remains.

Also, operators must be required to tell motorists how much was charged them upon their exit which does not now happen at several Skyway tollgates.

Enter the Skyway through the Buendia ramp and you will discover there is no longer a tollgate, which is agreeable since it does speed up vehicle flow since the defective system was removed.

When you exit through the Nagtahan gate, however, you get a blind charge since the electronic system does not reflect the RFID balance. This is unacceptable since many motorists complain that their wallets are quickly depleted, suspecting overcharging by the tollway operator.

Overcharging is a common problem. It was revealed during a public inquiry that there were instances when motorists were stopped due to a zero account balance despite having just loaded up.

They were then required to reload their RFID account and wait 48 hours or more for the operators to refund the balance that did not reflect on their account.

The convenient and “traffic-less” travel that the DoTr vowed to achieve through the imposition of fines should not be a way to shift the burden from the affluent tollway firms to the budget-strapped motorists who merely want a stress-free journey.

Consider the Toll Regulatory Board (TRB) estimate that around 100,000 vehicles, or 4.8 percent of all motorists, will be required to have RFIDs.

At a minimum of P500 loaded to activate the electronic card, the tollway operator would have an instant P50 million windfall, whether or not the top-up is consumed.

Another festering problem of motorists is electronic tags not being read by the scanners due to reader malfunction or poor tag placement.

In effect, the barriers at tollway entry points do not lift, leading to vehicle congestion.

Some motorists resort to weaving their vehicles to get their RFID tags to align with the scanners which at times causes accidents.

If that fails, the alternative is to use the plastic cards that come with the RFID stickers which means longer vehicle queues.

During the Congress hearings on the tollway problems, a suggestion was made to install a barrier-less system, like in other countries.

The DoTr and the TRB, which is the body that oversees tollway operations, must ensure that using the expressways allows for convenience and does not add to the stress of motorists.

For the taxes they pay, the public expects the government to provide infrastructure such as an efficient road system.

Since the tollways are given to concessionaires, the best service is expected of them, not the “pwede na yan or that will do” philosophy that is reflected in the tacky system motorists are forced to endure.