Macalua.com

Almost anyone who’s familiar with the Emerald Avenue-Julia Vargas pedestrian overpass will tell you that it’s a prime candidate for the Most Unusable Design award, if the Philippine construction industry ever held such a contest. I used to shuttle back and forth between Orient Square (along Emerald) and Antel Global (along Julia Vargas) daily. I can tell you the trip’s longer without any obvious improvements on the traffic condition below.

Some bad assumptions:

• Single direction access/exit points - why did the designers assume majority of the pedestrian traffic would be headed in the direction of SM Megamall? Yes, forget about the ‘minority’ who actually use the overpass to get to the different buildings along Emerald Avenue.
• Incredibly steep and small steps - if you have bound feet, you wouldn’t raise hell, but for the ‘minority’ of us pedestrians who have normal-sized feet, the steps can get a little bit dangerous; never mind that this is a business center: ladies wear high heels, people tend to walk faster than usual…all it takes is just one misstep.

I also think it’s asinine that the Pasig government had to seal off two access points along Emerald Avenue just to encourage usage of the pedestrian overpass. What’s up with that? Why can’t Pasig just follow Makati’s lead?

If you’ve used the overpass, I’d like to hear your comments.

And yes, my heart bleeds for the Ministop franchise in Taipan.