There exists in our country a great divide in transportation that is of course very much reflective of the gap between the rich and the poor in our society. It is there, regardless of the many roads and bridges built, the rails expanded and airports modernized. Such gap needs to be pointed out for our policy-makers to begin doing steps to close it. So far, the gap is getting wider, and it may tear our society apart unless the government does something real and immediate to solve it.
Just take a look at any road corridor, like Edsa. Of its five lanes, three are allotted for private vehicles, while only one lane is allocated for mass transport. The half of the remaining lane is the pandemic-created bike lane, and the remaining half is undeclared for motorcycles. This therefore equates to 60 percent of road occupancy allocated to what is supposed to be just 20 percent of those traversing Edsa. More worrisome is the fact that 60 percent of our public transport commuters are cramped into those two remaining lanes.
And then, while we, who are in our private cars, complain about traffic, road conditions and limiting regulations such as the number coding schemes, majority of the riding public have to contend with the narrow, if non-existent sidewalks. They have to compete with sidewalk vendors to go to makeshift terminals for their tricycle and jeepney rides. Then the commuters are exposed to the elements, not to mention the fumes from our private vehicles. And while we line up impatiently to secure our parking space entering the malls, our commuting public have to wait in line nearby, without much protest whether the ride they get are legal or colorum vehicles, therefore with not much protection when they unfortunately meet an accident.
The riding experience of majority of our commuters has more or less been the same for the past several generations. Cramped like sardines even during the pandemic, it is the same experience for the commuters availing themselves of the available modes of public transport—whether it be buses, trains, jeepneys or tricycles. Personal comfort and privacy is set aside, just to make sure one gets to his destination. Predictability of trips is not even being discussed, and accommodations for people with disabilities are nonexistent. Worse, in some areas in the Philippines where there are wide and newly paved roads but no public transport available, commuters have no choice but to ride the “habal-habal” and the “skylabs,” or motorcycle with outstretched wooden planks that allow seating capacity for seven to eight persons.
It is said that a country has reached its full development when mass transport is not just democratized, but convenient, affordable and comfortable enough to be utilized across the whole spectrum of society. Our state of public transport is far from such an ideal. And this is not a matter of time but a matter of political will. Yes, there had been improvements here and there for the past several administrations, and the quest for modern transport and mobility has been more pronounced in these recent actions of the government, but there is much work to be done.
We can only look forward with fervent hope to the new leaders of the land this coming 2022, with the hope that they will have that political will to make it happen. But that can only succeed if our leaders of tomorrow will get out of their private cars and experience how it is that every Juan traverses the transport challenges every day. Better yet for us if we will have a leader who, by force of past circumstance, had taken public transport in its rudest and cruelest form. That leader who experienced how the majority commutes will make that difference, rather than one who has not lined up for anything in life and has not sweated it out in a bus or a jeep ride that most of the people he/she commits to serve, are forced to take everyday. When we have a leader with insight and empathy, will we have a better chance of narrowing that great transport divide that pervades in our country.
The author can be reached via: thomas_orbos@sloan.mit.edu