MANILA, Philippines - The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) and the Metro Manila Council (MMC), the agency’s policy-making arm, agreed Thursday to impose a maximum speed limit of 60 kilometers per hour (kph) for all types of vehicles along Diosdado Macapagal Avenue in Pasay City.

MMDA chairman Francis Tolentino said the speed limit is needed to minimize the high rate of vehicular accidents caused by drag racing along the avenue, which links southern Metro Manila and the province of Cavite. The avenue has a total of eight lanes, is 35 meters wide and almost five kilometers long.

He said the shopping centers and other establishments that have cropped up along Macapagal Avenue multiplies the volume of vehicles, “which results in the high rate of road accidents and tragic loss of lives, limbs and property, especially during nighttime when (the road) is also being used by drag racers.”

Tolentino said the speed limit will take effect 15 days after the publication in two newspapers of general circulation of the MMC resolution. The MMC is composed of the metropolis’ 17 mayors.

The MMDA imposed a 60-kph speed limit along Commonwealth Avenue in Quezon City in January to curb the frequency of fatal vehicular accidents, the most recent of which claimed the life of University of the Philippines journalism professor and veteran journalist Lourdes “Chit” Estella-Simbulan last month.
I guess speed limits are to Tolentino as U-turn slots are to Fernando.