A company aiming to fix Baguio City’s traffic problem is proposing a congestion fee of P250 or more for motorists every time they enter the city’s central business district.

Metro Pacific Tollways Corporation (MPTC), a company under the Manny Pangilinan group of companies, is a Public Private Partnership initiative looking to reduce traffic in the country’s summer capital through congestion charges and other transport technology solutions.

It is an idiotic idea that would do nothing except to create more congestion and an implementation nightmare.

So are they now going to establish toll gates at the top and bottom of Session Road or entrances to Burnham Park? Would the fee cover a full day or per entry?

Are the proponents so naive to think that traffic congestion only occurs on Session Road or heading to and from SM Baguio? And did they even stop to think that limiting traffic along Session Road would only create more traffic along peripheral roads — from Harrison Street to Magsaysay Avenue to General Luna Road to Abanao Street?

Perhaps it would have been better if the brilliant technocrats thought of altogether banning private cars from going up to Baguio if congestion was their main concern.