We might as well open all roads to the public

I came across another ridiculous proposal last week by one of our prominent and respected legislators. It is a House bill that seeks to open major and exclusive private subdivision roads in Metro Manila to ease the terrible traffic congestion. The author of the bill, Cagayan de Oro Representative Rufus Rodriguez has (together with his younger Party-list brother in Congress) filed several sensible measures that many of the voters have supported in the past. In fact, I myself consider that they are truly deserving of their positions as a public voice in the House.

I have come across Rufus a few times in the past and I have thought he was a decent and hardworking official. This time, however though, I can’t get on board with his idea. It just seems like a lackluster “solution” to a problem that will only continue to grow worse unless properly addressed with real solutions and no meantime fixes.

According to the proposal, the congressman is asking certain private subdivisions to open at least one or two roads within the subdivision for cars to pass through on their way to work. This will supposedly help ease the traffic that has caused so many motorists to be late for work too. According to the bill the terrible traffic in the Metro has also caused the delay of goods and services causing an increase in the cost of goods and services.

The bill proposed that these selected subdivisions offer some of their roads as alternative paths for motorists in highly congested areas. In exchange subdivisions will be allowed to collect a “toll” of no more than P5 from every motorist who passes and an annual collection of around P300 from each motorist to help maintain the roads and hire additional security personnel for the public roads.

While in theory it sounds like a plausible idea that could work, in reality it will only open an entirely new can of worms. First of all, homeowners will not take kindly to strangers being allowed to pass through their villages. The problem is really security. Just because subdivisions will be hiring more security for these certain areas, there are no guarantees that there will be enough security to man the entire stretch of road and no way to fully assure them that these public motorists won’t just remain in the village or find areas to park in their villages. The security ramifications alone are enough of a reason for anyone to give pause when considering this bill.

Additionally, with the influx of cars in the village, you are also adding to the noise pollution and actual pollution of the area. If you have saved your salary and worked hard to buy a home for peace and quiet you’ll definitely be in for a rude awakening if hundreds of cars are allowed to pass through — honking and producing exhaust in your front lawn on a daily basis. It’s like taking a main thoroughfare and putting it right in front of you.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I do see where this proposal is coming from. Looking at it from just the perspective of someone who needs to get to work on time and stuck on bumper-to-bumper traffic on Edsa, while looking on at the many subdivisions nearby. However, it should also be looked at from the point of view of the homeowners. The security issues and inconveniences to them don’t seem fair to them. A lot of motorists will argue because they are the ones who stand to benefit, but the only way to really make it fair is to open all the subdivision roads to everyone, something that I am sure will cause far more problems than it solves.

Personally, I feel that this is not a solution that solves the problem at its root. In the long run, opening these roads and giving motorists more options may only serve to inspire even more motorists to buy even more cars to take to the roads. What will happen eventually is that these private subdivision roads that were meant to ease traffic will end being traffic themselves. I believe a more permanent and more lasting solution should be sought when it comes to the unbearable traffic in the city.

The color coding scheme was one solution that the government tried, and while in theory it has helped a little, it has also inspired those who can afford it to buy an additional car so that they have one to take on days their original vehicle was under coding. In a way, that is only exacerbating the problem. I believe that in order to solve this problem we have to start at the root of it — and that is infrastructure and public transportation.

If you look at big cities with less traffic than us, what you see is good city planning, with excellent roads and reliable public transportation. What you see here is a maze of roads all leading nowhere with random one-way portions and streets changing names as they enter into different cities and cars parked all along the road. The city planning in major cities in Metro Manila is terrible and the roads are so narrow and small that it is no wonder it is always traffic.

An additional problem is public transportation. It has gotten a little better over the years, but in many ways the public transportation — like crazy buses with no regard for road laws ­— are the very reason it is traffic, swerving recklessly and taking up large portions of the road while stopping and picking up and depositing passengers wherever they like. They also contribute greatly to pollution, and lets not even begin with all the accidents they cause. I feel that if our public officials could fix the problem with public transportation, then motorists would really have more viable options when it comes to going to and from work instead of just hopping in and out of their cars.

Something else we can look into is carpooling. This is something they apply in many countries abroad. A car pool lane is provided for cars carrying more than 2 to 3 passengers. Not only does this encourage people to share and to ride together, it can also help lessen the number of vehicles on the road with just one passenger.

In the end, I believe there are many things we can do about traffic, but this solution by Rep. Rodriguez is not one of them. Perhaps he should focus instead on our over-population problem (also contributing to the traffic menace) and on ways he can preserve the rural provinces and farm towns. Industrialization is another problem we are all facing and we are losing our natural resources fast. It’s about time we try to improve our agriculture and look for ways to preserve the environment.