Inferno's Manila (Part 4)
“Six-hour traffic jams.†That's how Dan Brown's fictional character described Manila in his latest book, “Inferno.†The other descriptive tags were the “most densely populated city on earth,†which we tried to “decode†in our two last write-ups, and “suffocating pollution,†and “a horrifying sex trade,†all of which may be considered exaggerations but seem to be not totally untrue, too, nonetheless. Which is probably why it hit raw nerves, and prompted the MMDA Chairman to write Brown another letter defending the honor of our country's capital.
Of the four tags, the “six-hour traffic jam†seems to stand out as being the closest to describe Manila. The “most densely populated city on earth,†which we discussed last Thursday and Sunday, is actually an erroneous one, especially in this day and age of the “new urbanism†and “sustainable cities†and the like, which considered density an advantage rather than a bad adjective. But a traffic jam is never good, and 6 hours of it can really be such hell.
But what exactly is a six-hour traffic? Any number is as good as any; the one used is usually an overkill, six hours especially. Because if it's true, Manila would be good as dead, and we can kiss the 7.8 percent GDP growth rate goodbye. 2, 3, or 4 may look like it or a bit stretching it too far, but studies show that it still translates to billions of pesos lost in productivity which results to a dip in GDP growth levels. It would be a significant dip, because transportation affects all other GDP sources. We haven't answered the question yet - what is exactly is a six-hour traffic?
There are two ways of looking at it. First, a six-hour traffic as expressed by Brown's fictional character, most probably in exasperation, might mean that a person's trip from one part of the city to another would take six hours, “on the average.†Of course, this is really too long and downright frustrating, anywhere in the whole world, but exaggeration sells novels. We're just taking our cue from the book, a six-hour traffic might mean one man takes five hours to drive in that city from A to B, another may take seven hours, and others different time durations, all with the average of six hours. Again this is too much, anything more than four hours might already trigger a coup d'état in any country with such traffic congestion.
For those who can remember more than 15 years ago, we did hear about Bangkok's five-hour traffic in the mid 1990s, before their expressways and skytrains were built. School children have to wake up very early when it's still dark for them to reach their first hour of school. In cases like these, city buses need to have toilets at the back, or you can just imagine what it's like when your bladder is full. Have you ever seen a portable pee bottle? It's very convenient but unfortunately, it's designed for men only. So much for gender equality...
The other meaning of a six-hour traffic is from the side of a city traffic manager, and it simply means the length of time a road, a series of roads, or the whole city road network, is congested. Say, for example, Gov. Cuenco Ave., more commonly known as Banilad Road, circa 2007 (before the flyover). People's complaints reached a crescendo because the duration it was congested increased from just an one to two hours to three hours in the morning peak. This definition affects a person's choice to escape traffic. We say we'll just go home after 8pm because by that time, traffic would be normal. Not in Manila now, where even at 10pm, EDSA is congested in the direction of Quezon City. Wait! - 4pm to 10pm is six hours! Maybe Brown might be right after all.
However you look at it and the two views are actually linked and related to each other, no one can deny that traffic congestion is bad, the longer it is, the worse situation the city will be. This might actually prompt an ordinary citizen to tag his own city as “the gates of hell,†if you endure 6 hours of traffic every day, even if it's not continuous. We have to realize, six hours is already 1/4 of 24 hours, and its hours of productivity forever lost and wasted. It's bad for the person, and bad for the country. In fact, a city's livability index is measured in more developed countries by this measure, which we will try to discuss next. (To be continued…)
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