Manny Pangilinan Eyes Barrierless Tollways by 2025 to Ease Traffic Flow

Business mogul Manuel Pangilinan revealed on Monday that MPTC is targeting a “barrierless” tollway system by 2025, a move intended to improve traffic flow and alleviate congestion at entry and exit points across the expressways they operate. Currently, 84% of vehicles using MPTC tollways, such as NLEX, SCTEX, and CAVITEX, already have RFID devices, but still must queue due to existing barriers.

“The goal is barrier-free tollways. We want to remove barriers to ease entry and exit and let motorists drive through without delays,” Pangilinan shared at a Bonifacio Global City event. He compared this to Hong Kong’s barrierless system, describing it as convenient for motorists.

With a barrierless toll system, MPTC will need to expand RFID usage to ensure motorists can be billed automatically, even if they have insufficient load. Currently, the remaining 16% of vehicles still pay cash, making them harder to track.

“If we reach over 90% RFID adoption, we could more confidently roll out barrier-free tollways,” he added, emphasizing the importance of MPTC’s internal database for user tracking.

MPTC, along with their technology partner EGIS, is actively developing this system and anticipates a phased launch in select areas by next year.