Supporting the city's car ban

What makes Cebu City Mayor Tommy Osmeña a standout among the mayors in this country is his innovative thinking. And with the spiraling prices in oil and basic commodities I think the Osmeña solution may help a great deal to his constituents. 

What's the Osmeña solution anyway? It's very simple – "ban private vehicles" on the city's main road during peak hours. Osmeña says that private vehicles consume more fuel than public vehicles and carry less people to their destination at a specific time compared to jeepneys.

But if I were to make a bolder suggestion, I'd want them banned twice a week for the sake of the environment and to show to these oil interests that consumers will never take their increases sitting down but walking heads up.

The idea, according to Osmeña, is said to help jeepney drivers cope with the rising prices at the pump level by generating more commuters from those who are used to their private vehicles to get to their workplaces. More than just giving drivers their passengers, the proposal would keep them from clamoring for fare increases which in effect would also spare the low-waged commuters from having to bear the brunt of the fare increases.

I must say Osmeña's proposal also has a great impact to easing traffic during peak hours as well as reduce greenhouse emissions in the biosphere.

Of course, I won't be surprised if [private] vehicle owners would oppose the proposal. I'd bet Osmeña already knows what they are going to say later. But I guess those who are used to the comforts and glamour of private commuting would alibi that jeepneys are unsafe, waste of time and a lot of mundane reasons. But it makes me think why the Dutch people never complain about taking the public transport. 

When I was in Holland many years ago, people didn't care who they were sitting with. In here, you will find a lot of people pay a lot of gas in their cars to avoid sitting beside lowly passengers from the ghettos.

In Cuba, former president Fidel Castro required empty private vehicles to carry passengers to the nearest public transport convergence. The policy is still enforced today. I also remember Castro, the president he was, in an open and dilapidated military jeep that conked out in the middle of a dusty suburban area. Castro is an epitome of frugality, practicality and humility in Cuba.       

Also in Cuba, it is not an unusual sight to find doctors, engineers or professionals, public officials on their bikes or sitting beside farmers and laborers in a bus.

And I just hope that the city government will be the first example if ever this proposal pushes through.

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The government should also seriously look into air-powered cars. And ditto for car distributors. I mentioned this a while back about the world's first air-powered car that's currently being developed in India.

The car, developed by ex-Formula One engineer Guy Nègre for Luxembourg-based MDI, uses compressed air, as opposed to the gas-and-oxygen explosions of internal-combustion models, to push its engine's pistons.

MDI says it should cost around $2 to fill the car's carbon-fiber tanks with 340 liters of air at 4350 psi. Drivers also will be able to plug into the electrical grid and use the car's built-in compressor to refill the tanks in about 4 hours.

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