Worst on Earth

Having visited the Indonesian capital Jakarta a couple of times, most recently last August, I am disputing Metro Manila’s dubious distinction of having the “worst traffic on Earth.”

But I’ve previously written that being stuck in traffic in the Philippines’ National Capital Region can give you a sense of what hell in a very small place means. Maybe author Dan Brown of “The Da Vinci Code” likened Manila to “the gates of Hell” in his novel “Inferno” because he got stuck in traffic in Manila’s Port Area.

My daily drive from home to office is about an hour – longer than the average 45.5 minutes for Metro Manila, the longest in the world according to the GPS-based navigation app Waze. The 45.5-minute drive beats the average 42.1 minutes in Jakarta. My drive could take much longer, considering the distance of about 30 kilometers through short cuts. But because of the nature of my work, I miss the morning and evening rush hours.

So the results of the first-ever Global Driver Satisfaction Index, based on a Waze survey, are not entirely off the mark.

Apart from Jakarta, I can think of Old Delhi in the Indian capital with worse traffic. There’s also Karachi in Pakistan. But perhaps being rated the world’s worst may elicit some improvement in traffic management in Metro Manila.

Things aren’t looking good in this area at this point, however; the traffic mess has become toxic for the political establishment. Sen. Grace Poe and her political mentor and running mate Sen. Chiz Escudero learned this the hard way when they defended the Iglesia ni Cristo’s blocking of EDSA traffic.

Manila’s Vice Mayor Isko Moreno, who is expected to seek a congressional seat, has dropped his title as the city’s traffic czar like a hot potato.

Beleaguered Chairman Francis Tolentino of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority seemed relieved to be relieved of some of his duties as traffic manager along EDSA.

The ruling Liberal Party, meanwhile, also looks poised to drop Tolentino like a hot potato from the LP Senate slate, although not for failure as a traffic manager but for being a purveyor of dirty dancing.

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Waze reportedly based its evaluation on the responses of 50 million users of the app in 32 countries and 167 major cities. By country, the Philippines was rated the ninth worst for driving.

The best places for driving, according to the survey, are the Netherlands, Latvia, Sweden, the United States and the Czech Republic. But let’s be fair: these countries also have low population densities compared to the Philippines, Indonesia, and several of the Latin American nations that also fared badly in the Waze index.

Last month I took a shuttle from the Czech capital Prague to the picturesque Southern Bohemian city of Cesky Krumlov, 170.3 kilometers away through the shortest route along smoothly paved roads. The drive took less than two hours and a half. But the route is mostly sparsely inhabited countryside.

Within Prague itself, I also encountered rush hour traffic, but it would be considered light by anyone from Manila.

In the US, there can be heavy traffic in New York, but the city subway system is so efficient even well-known politicians and billionaires commute, and only celebrities fleeing fans and paparazzi need private cars to move around Manhattan.

That’s the ultimate mark of an efficient mass transportation system: when even VIPs readily join the masses in the daily commute, when riding the light railway train is more efficient for getting around than using wang-wang or sirens, blinkers and hawi boys – the security escorts who part traffic for VIPs without using sirens, for minimal compliance with the wish of President Aquino.

Unfortunately, I may no longer be around to see an efficient LRT/MRT, much less a subway running in Metro Manila.

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I’m not sure about our country being ranked second best in terms of drivers’ services, such as the widespread availability of gas stations, parking lots and garages. If this is accurate, it’s probably the result of anything-goes development and lack of zoning.

And I’m not the only one questioning our ranking as the fourth best country in terms of driving safety, based on the number of accidents, road hazards and weather. My former colleague Chit Estella, who was killed in a vehicular accident along Commonwealth Avenue, Quezon City would have disputed this. So would relatives of the scores of people who have died in buses that plummeted off cliffs, in vans that fell from the Skyway, and in the numerous road collisions that occur all over the country with alarming regularity.

There are discussions on whether the traffic mess will become an election issue in 2016. Because the problem is intrinsically linked to the inadequacy of mass transportation and infrastructure, which has worsened under daang matuwid, the issue becomes one of incompetent governance. And if you throw in the sorry state of the light rail services, the unresolved corruption scandal in the Metro Rail Transit involving Mar Roxas’ long-time aide Al Vitangcol taints the LP campaign spiel about the straight path.

So it’s the administration that will be hit if the “worst traffic on Earth” persists till election day. When it comes to traffic gridlocks, a battle cry for continuity is the last thing we need.

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NO VALUE FOR MONEY: All government services should be an issue in 2016, including the regulatory environment.

Telecommunications regulators should see to it that the public is getting value for money. As things stand, it takes half an hour by phone to report a busted landline in the Philippine capital and four days to repair it. Mobile phone signals are spotty, and I’m not even talking about the boondocks – the signals are intermittent even in Las Piñas, right here in Metro Manila.

In Taiwan and South Korea, high-speed Internet is universally available for free. In our country, Internet payment collection is high-speed; the services suck.