Traffic Agency Using RFID Tags To Ease Congestion In Manila

Manila, Philippines (AHN) - The agency managing vehicle traffic in Metro Manila will start on Sunday putting radio frequency identification (RFID) tags on some 2,500 buses plying the Philippine capital's main highway to ease traffic congestion in the said road.

The RFID tags will facilitate the electronic monitoring of bus queues in designated terminals along the Epifanio delos Santos Avenue (EDSA) by the Metro Manila Development Authority starting Dec. 15.

The MMDA currently uses numbered queue cards to manually check buses queuing at bus stops. The monitoring scheme allows the agency to dispatch buses at various stations along EDSA depending on passenger demand instead of letting all buses ply at the same time and compete for customers resulting in traffic congestion.

Terminals installed with RFID tag readers will also detect the time a bus stays in a terminal to load and unload passengers. The RFID information will be used as basis in fining operators or drivers of overstaying buses.

Only legitimate buses will have RFID tags, so buses that don't queue in RFID bus terminals will be identified and fined or banned from plying along EDSA. By discouraging non-licensed buses from operating, the traffic along EDSA will be lessened.