Buses can be the boon or bane

Let’s face it, the jeepneys created this kind of “tamad” culture among Pinoy commuters of wanting to be unloaded right in front of one’s abode or destination. We have been spoiled to the max—we refuse to walk!

In many developed and developing countries, aside from taxi cabs commuters have buses and mass rail transit system to choose from. And these modes of public transport have specific stops where loading and unloading are done with no stops in between allowed. And this practice makes for a more organized traffic flow of vehicles. Commuters walk from the designated stops to where they’re going or to the next stop where they may need to take another ride to their final destination. And this is their way of life—no fuss or beef about it—people there have accepted the fact that they have to walk if they needed to.  

Perhaps one great sacrifice our populace needs to make in order to contribute to solving the daily traffic problem is to change this mindset of wanting to alight from a public transport anywhere convenient and near to one’s destination regardless where—legal loading or unloading zone or not. I guess it’s about time we walk if we needed to!

Last week we mentioned in this column that the basic cause of our daily traffic woes in the metropolis is that there are just too many vehicles, private and public for the size and number of roads that we have in Metro Manila. We also established that reducing vehicles is a more practical and logical approach to solve the problem than the widening of roads or the addition of new ones.

The reduction of private vehicles has been addressed, by instituting the number-coding traffic reduction scheme. The weeding out of colorum vehicles would greatly reduce the presence of too many buses in EDSA, a lot more than the commuters opting to use them. And getting those provincial bus terminals in the north and south gateways to the metropolis would stop those humongous provincial buses from competing with everybody else for the already very limited road space in Metro Manila.      

But according to one of our avid readers, the jeepneys’ unquestionable contribution to the number of vehicles in the metro causing more traffic may have been inadvertently left out. Our reader, who opts not to be named maintains that buses are definitely more cost effective and occupy less space than the jeepneys. The length of three jeepneys may equal that of a bus but the number of passengers is definitely more especially if the bus is a double-decker. There would definitely be more passengers transported by buses compared to jeepneys and they can be more comfortable and safer due to its size.

As long as traffic routes are properly managed buses can even travel in narrow roads while sharing with private vehicles as long as they are one way streets. You can see this in European countries where many roads are old and narrow but the traffic is well managed. There are even trams in the narrow streets of some countries in Europe.

But bus drivers in other countries do not hazardously jockey for position on the road while competing for passengers like our bus drivers wantonly do. This is simply because they are paid monthly and not on commission basis like the practice here that depends largely on the number of passengers they transport in a day. And speaking of, whatever happened to all that media hype about how the government would strictly enforce a measure where our bus drivers and conductors would be paid monthly, ending decades-old of this malpractice of the “boundary system” that entices drivers to throw caution to the air in exchange for the fare of one passenger.    

Presently buses may be the bane in Manila’s streets. But this is simply because they share the streets with the jeepneys—that’s a double whammy for the traffic managers. But of course, despite the advantages of the buses over the jeepneys, the political consideration would definitely tip the scale in favor of the latter, as jeepneys would mean more voters.

We need to overhaul the entire public transport system in order to enjoy some breather from the daily aggravation of traffic jams in the metro. But then this should be an ongoing concern as the country continues to progress and develop. With progress comes the development of the auto industry or perhaps the development of the auto industry contributes largely and significantly to the country’s economy—whichever, it would mean more vehicles by the year—and yes, more traffic.

Come to Sofitel

for a Peugeot test drive

“When we first introduced Peugeot to the public during last year’s Auto Focus Motor Show at the SM Mall of Asia, we made a promise to bring the Peugeot ownership experience closer to the buying public. In line with this promise, apart from committing to 12 dealership openings in 2013, we also deemed it proper to bring our products to places that prospective Peugeot owners frequent—hence the decision to stage a display and test drive activity at Sofitel Philippine Plaza Manila” explained Dong Magsajo, marketing & communications director of Eurobrands Distributor Inc. (EDI), exclusive importers of Peugeot vehicles in the country..

The display/test drive activity for 3008 Crossover, 5008 Compact MPV—all featuring Peugeot’s revolutionary fuel saving micro-hybrid technology—and the sleek RCZ Sports Car is going on up to September 8 with lucky test drive participants having the chance to win overnight stays at the hotel, lunch or dinner buffets at the Spiral restaurant or Le Spa gift certificates.

How’s your favorite automobile doing in the polls?

Data from the Land Transportation Office (LTO) through Stradcom, their long-time official IT Provider regarding the number of automobiles sold in the country for the first two months of the year (January and February) have been submitted and combined with the votes cast online on the 2013-2014 Auto Focus People’s Choice Awards public polls.

You can still vote for your favorite automobile model through our Face Book page. And you also stand the chance to be one of the 5 daily winners of a loot bags of valuable giveaways for your room or office like STV mini clocks, STV coffee mugs, ballpens, etc. or a Samsung celfone that’s given away every month (July, August & September).

You can cast your vote every week up to midnight of September 30, 2012.

Be involved, file your report

Check out our Motoring Today Facebook page to report motoring problems in the metro as well as sightings of wanton disregard for traffic rules and regulations. Send photos or videos showing location of the problem and plate numbers of the violators.

You report it, and we refer it to the government agency involved for the appropriate action.

Happy Motoring!!!

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