These past three weeks of April has had me traversing the Makati-Pasay-Laguna route several times. And the trips have been short and sweet thanks to the elevated Skyway which now extends all the way to Alabang from Makati. The detour to NAIA 3 has also been helpful since you no longer had to battle it out on Tramo on your roundabout way to the airport. What's even more helpful is that I've traversed the length of the Skyway before the imposition of the new toll rates which sadly begins today.
I've delivered and picked up passengers at the NAIA Terminal 3 several times these past weeks and the NAIA 3 entry and exit points on the Skyway had been quite helpful in avoiding the traffic stress. From Makati, you can take the Skyway ramp on Pasay Road and drive effortlessly until around the FTI-Taguig area where you turn right to exit to NAIA 3. From NAIA 3, up the ramp you exited earlier and turn right to Alabang for a 10-minute ride to the new SLEX Skyway exit just right after Sucat Exit.
From Makati to Laguna (Susana Heights, San Pedro, Southwoods, or Carmona), what used to be a travel of an hour and a half (without traffic) has been greatly reduced to just under 40 minutes thanks to the shortened 10-minute Skyway drive. I've been timing my drives on the Skyway and at roughly a maintained speed of 80-90 kph, the length of the Skyway takes about 10 minutes. Other vehicles are running faster at over 100kph so it can even be shorter than 8 minutes but there's something about being elevated that makes me want to slow down a bit.
True, part of the enjoyment of the Skyway drive the past few weeks has been because it's been free to use. You pay the old Skyway rate of Php 85 from the Makati entry to the pre-Alabang exit toll, plus another Php 20 or so (depending on your exit point in Laguna). However, new toll rates take effect today and looking at the fare matrix, using the Skyway to get home to my parents home in San Pedro, Laguna via the Southwoods exit will now cost Php 178 pesos. If I avoid the Skyway and instead use the old SLEX, that rate goes down to Php 137 (it used to cost less than a Php 100).
If you want to know the new toll fares to all the possible exits in the south, check it here from the Skyway website.
Travel recently has been a breeze and hopefully, the new Skyway and rehabilitated SLEX will really ease the traffic flow going to and fro the south. So far, the speed at which you reach your southern destination and the gas savings you make thereafter for me justifies the new rates. NLEX is a breeze to travel and hopefully the same situation will persist for SLEX.
However, if the traffic snarls up again (waiting to see the situation come June when school opens anew) on both elevated and at-grade level, the new toll rates won't be justifiable and I might just join the millions of southerners demanding a toll hike recall.
