A place for the gondolas

Department of Transportation Secretary Art Tugade might want to take a trip up and down the Pasig River because it has the greatest potential for his “Gondola” or cable car idea as well as an alternative network of “Short Trip” ferry rides that can transport people and products. By establishing “short trip” ferries, the boats simply go back and forth a fixed route and not have to go the long loop up and down the Pasig River. My Wife Karen, our daughter Hannah and I used to take the ferry down to Quiapo and as “slow as it was” there was certainty that we would get to our destination at a given time. Last, we also discovered that there was a “makeshift ferry” or the river equivalent of the lowly tricycle that ferries people from Barrio Kapitolyo over to J.P. Rizal Street on the Makati side.

I wrote about how this could be improved and promoted as a “barangay” or LGU livelihood program while creating alternative routes and rides for workers and travellers. Instead of giving the business to companies, let the LGU make it their “service’ for their community. If Secretary Tugade takes the trip along the river he will surely see a lot of potential sites for his Gondola across or along the river. There might be points where the Gondola system could be both useful as well as having the potential for becoming tourist attractions.

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Once more with feelings!

A joint task force of the LTFRB, LTO, PNP and MMDA once again proved yesterday that colorum buses cause the traffic on EDSA. It seems word leaked out that the task force would be on EDSA so an estimated 40 percent of buses disappeared resulting in driving bliss for the rest of the drivers doing the morning rush. This proves that the income of colorum buses is too irresistible and profitable that it’s all worth it. Even the P1-million fine is meaningless because it is all based on the capacity to pay and what a bus owner stands to lose if they don’t pay. If I have an old bus that has returned investment so many times, I don’t lose much especially if I only have one or two units and not a fleet that could be shut down.

Perhaps it is time that LTFRB push for a law that will send owner operators and drivers of colorum vehicles to jail for a mandatory three to six months if they fail to pay the P1-fine and their bus or van must be destroyed just like any contraband or instrument used in committing a crime. In the mean time, General “Bato” of the PNP should send out the word to his officials and personnel to put an end to their sideline businesses of operating colorum vehicles or moonlighting with their vans while ON DUTY. During the stake out of EDSA, the anti colorum task force flagged down and arrested two active police officers driving their colorum UV Express!

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If the “New Normal” is a 24/7 economy or life and business operating 24 hours/7 days a week in Metro Manila, then why are our systems and thinking still based on eight-hour sets / six-day work week?

Yesterday, I was visited by Pasig Traffic Officer Bunda just to inform me that his boss Ms. Lydia (excuse my poor memory but better a right nickname than a wrong surname) was leading the delivery and installation of materials for the elevated circular walkway on Shaw Boulevard where the old Shaw Rotunda used to be. The project was stalled due to technical problems initially but after visiting it myself, it looks like Pasigueños will no longer have to play chicken or dodge cars while crossing Shaw Boulevard. I really appreciate that the people in charge of traffic engineering in Pasig City take the initiative to respond to questions and actually keep  concerned citizens posted.

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In the course of following up on traffic issues along Shaw Boulevard, I’ve often asked contacts at City Hall why no one attends to traffic jams along Pioneer street going into Shaw Boulevard and turning left into Meralco Avenue in the evenings? On several occasions I’ve been stuck in traffic jams in the area that suddenly fills up and piles up with cargo trucks after 10 p.m. As a result many vehicles trying to go past the intersection are blocked by the huge trucks. This route is apparently now popular to trucks after Pasig made an opening on the center island allowing left turns to Meralco Avenue that leads down to C5 via Lanuza St., Ortigas etc.

What I discovered is that while the public or business now operates on 24/7 mode, the government, particularly Local Governments such as Pasig, Mandaluyong etc. still operate on eight-hour shifts, generally two shifts only and only from Monday to maybe Saturday. While we assumed or were led to believe by MMDA officials that traffic management in Metro Manila was a full time 24-hour concern, the reality is that traffic management is limited to about 8 p.m. if not earlier.

There is a clear disconnect once vehicles get off EDSA, C5 or any main road and enter busy secondary roads. It seems that when the MMDA promoted their alternative routes which they called the Mabuhay or Christmas lanes, they conveniently forgot to provide funding, manpower or even management of those alternative lanes. In the mean time, local governments get hell from local residents because many of us can’t get home without going through a nightly crawl on the road. As far as the specific intersection is concerned, I hope Mayor Bobby Eusebio can arrange something with the MMDA or somehow provide for a third shift for traffic management and ban the entry of trucks at that intersection.

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