Manila’s 'Christmas Lanes' Streamline Holiday Traffic

Just like in the U.S., the holidays are high season for shopping in the Philippines. The streets of Manila jam up with consumers crawling their way to malls and shopping centers. Traffic has become such a problem that officials have created a citywide solution: temporarily removing street parking, stop signs and traffic signals on roads leading to major shopping destinations.

Known as “Christmas Lanes,” this network of roads-turned-highways launched last December on 12 streets, covering 157 kilometers. The streamlined sections of roads create one-way feeder routes that are intended to ease traffic congestion as shoppers flood into the city toward shopping centers. This holiday season, the city has expanded its Christmas Lanes to cover 45 streets and more than 200 kilometers.