By Rio N. Araja

Erring motorists will be spared the long wait for a traffic violation receipt to be filled out by an apprehending officer, thanks to palmtop technology.

Executive director Angelito Vergel de Dios, head of the Metro Manila Development Authority traffic operations center, said booklets would be retired with the introduction of handheld devices that would print out citations.

Without identifying the supplier, he described the innovation as part of MMDA?s thrust of seamless traffic management while weeding out red tape and corruption.

De Dios said about 30 portable TVR machines, valued at about P80,000 each, are expected to arrive this month.

Metropolitan motorists face some 1,500 traffic enforcers with TVR booklets.

The palmtops are expected to be piloted on Edsa with its big volume of vehicular flow.

By the road side, a flagged down motorist will have his citation in seconds as the traffic enforcer keys in details about the vehicle, driver and nature of violation.

De Dios said the device is tapped into the agency?s main database allowing verification on the spot.

?One big advantage with this is the traffic enforcer will no longer have to call MetroBase to determine if the apprehended driver has previous unsettled violations.?

In practice, he said motorist-enforcer interaction would be diminished, thus reducing chances of extortion or bribery.

?What we want to do here is to minimize contact between the traffic enforcer and the motorist and prevent them from making any kind of under-the-table transaction,? De Dios said.

?We can prevent abuse and corruption because as soon as the traffic enforcer inputs the violation to his machine, he can no longer take it back, the machine automatically records it.?

De Dios said the device was also capable of radio frequency identification, a key aspect of the Organized Bus Routing Scheme which was adopted to eliminate out-of-line passenger buses that contribute to congestion in main roads.

The system enables MMDA to monitor bus availability against passenger demand, based on cost-effectiveness in fuel use and avoiding unnecessary trips.