OFFICIALS of the North Luzon Expressway (NLEX) Corporation has met with officials of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) and some local government units (LGU) to discuss measures that can increase motorist convenience and smoother traffic flow at toll plazas.
NLEX Corporation President and General Manager Luigi Bautista shared their traffic measures with MMDA General Manager Jojo Garcia, Caloocan City Mayor Oscar Malapitan and Liga ng mga Alkalde ng Pilipinas-Bulacan Chapter President and Guiguinto City Mayor Boy Cruz.
Bautista met Malapitan and Garcia separately when they visited the ongoing operations at the NLEX Balintawak toll plaza in Caloocan City. Cruz hosted the NLEX operations team at his office in Guiguinto City.
To quickly address customer concerns during the transition to the radio frequency identification (RFID) cashless, contactless system, the tollway company has laid out its action plan, which includes reopening cash lanes and the transfer of the ongoing RFID sticker installation and reloading activities away from toll plazas.
Following a dialogue with the Toll Regulatory Board to ensure faster traffic flow during expected traffic surges, a "barrier-up" procedure will also be implemented on RFID lanes. This means that on RFID lanes where the lane barriers are kept raised, RFID subscribers do not need to stop and go during their passage, even as the scanners/readers continue to operate and record toll transactions.
"We will be opening cash lanes in all toll plazas during this transition towards 100-percent cashless transactions. For the smaller plazas, where there are limited lanes, we will have an exclusive RFID lane beside a combined cash/RFID lane," Bautista said.
He added sticker installation and reloading of RFIDs will also be relocated to other locations in order not to compete with the limited road space. They will be moved to other strategic areas in and out of the expressway.
"NLEX Corporation will always be ready to contribute to helping solve Metro Manila's daily traffic bottlenecks and alleviating the traffic woes of motorists during the holidays," Bautista said.
