Mass transportation

If you want less traffic in Metro Manila, take mass transportation, government officials told private car owners.

So that’s what I did the other day: I took a bus, taking the long route from southern Metro Manila to Manila’s Port Area. The last time I did this was about a decade ago, when floods prevented me from taking my car to the office. There is no overhead railway service in my part of town.

I cheated a bit, taking the bus at past noon instead of the morning rush hour, and choosing an air-conditioned one to avoid pollution. I was also dropped off at the bus terminal, skipping at least one phase of the mass transport system.

The WHHL bus moved out of the SM Southmall terminal quickly enough, in five minutes, without waiting for the bus to be full. I saw another bus of the same line quickly pulling up to the parking slot.

My bus was new and the air-conditioning worked fine, but the music was loud enough to be heard all the way to Manila. I found a seat away from the amplifier and started timing the trip.

We crawled westward along Real street, or the Alabang-Zapote Road, with the bus stopping not just at every corner but at every potential rider, every 10 meters or so, and even in the middle of the street. A peanut vendor expertly jumped in, strode to the back and then jumped out.

If we want to ease traffic and speed up mass transportation, commuters also need discipline. Passengers want to board and get off buses and jeepneys wherever they please, ignoring designated areas for loading and unloading. We all end up slowing each other down.

This has been the Pinoy commuter’s attitude for as long as I can remember, reinforced by bus operators’ scheme of paying drivers more if they take more passengers. Old habits are truly hard to break.

At the junction of Coastal Road and Airport Road in Paranaque, my bus stopped right in front of the No Loading and Unloading sign, where all the passengers waited along Roxas Boulevard for rides. There was no traffic aide in sight.

Bus drivers do follow traffic cops. In front of the Redemptorist Church in Baclaran, there were traffic aides and cops at the no-loading area and the bus did not stop there. On the southbound lane, however, there was again a failure of traffic enforcement, with buses and jeepneys turning the spot into a terminal and leaving barely one lane for southbound traffic.

Along EDSA, the traffic gridlocks are always where authorities fail (or refuse) to stop public utility vehicles (PUVs) from turning the thoroughfare into their terminal.

I don’t know where President Aquino got caught in traffic the other night, when he arrived late for a gathering in Quezon City of the University of the Philippines Beta Sigma fraternity. But we’re waiting for him to do more about the problem.

“Damang dama ko po ang traffic ng Metro Manila kanina papunta dito,” P-Noy reportedly said, complaining about how deeply he felt the impact of the traffic problem.

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There was no stopping for my bus along Roxas Boulevard beyond EDSA – it probably helped that the US housing facility was located along that stretch. But we returned to a crawl as the bus turned right to Gil Puyat going to Taft Avenue.

Along Taft the traffic was so slow the bus conductor had time to jump out in front of the National Bureau of Investigation headquarters to buy ube-flavored sago-gulaman for the driver.

We arrived at the end of the bus route, in Lawton past City Hall, after an hour and a half. The few passengers left asked if the bus would go to Liwasang Bonifacio in front of the Manila Post Office, but the conductor said this was not allowed. So they do follow rules – if these are enforced.

We all filed out of the bus. The full fare was P49 – about a fifth of the fuel cost if I had taken my car, but it was double my usual travel time, and I needed one more ride to the office.

Seeing heavy northwest-bound traffic in front of Manila City Hall, I decided to skip the jeepney part of my commute and called to be picked up in front of the Manila Post Office.

I walked through what was supposed to be a park, under the approach to MacArthur Bridge. The fountain was working, but I wouldn’t advise walking in that area at night. It’s a spot where a son of one of my colleagues was mugged in a jeepney with other passengers some months ago, and where two of my relatives had their earrings and necklace snatched while riding in a jeep in two separate incidents.

The place is dark and filthy. At the bus stop street people sorted out empty plastic water containers for sale to recyclers. There were spots that obviously served as dwellings for street people.

If authorities want people to take mass transportation, they should improve public safety. There are panties for sale in this country with zippered pockets in front. I was told by regular commuters that the pockets are where they keep their cash and other small valuables especially when taking a bus to the provinces.

Some commuters always carry with them two wallets – one with a small amount of cash – and two cell phones, one of them a cheap model. Thugs don’t like it when they can’t get anything of value, so those are items that can be readily handed over to robbers while more valuable possessions are concealed.

These are not minor concerns. If authorities want people to give up their cars and take mass transportation, these problems must be adequately addressed, on top of the need to provide vehicles that can go faster than 20 kilometers per hour in good weather. It’s been noted that an advanced economy is not one where everyone owns a car, but where the rich take public transportation.

Unless these problems are addressed, we will hang on to our cars. If the traffic coding scheme is expanded on EDSA, those who can afford it will just buy more cars.

At the Beta Sigma event, P-Noy reportedly said, after sighing about the traffic, “We are confident that in the second chapter of our term, our services will gain more speed.”

That’s one promise we eagerly wait to be fulfilled.