EDITORIAL - Why not road sharing forever?

This article was purposely scheduled to come out on this particular day for two reasons. One, so that it will come after and not interfere with and dampen the enthusiasm of yet another road sharing experiment that was held the day before. And two, so that it will come a day before some jeepney drivers are set to keep away from their routes and stage a protest against certain transport-related issues.

Now that the road-sharing experiment is over, allow us to say this -- the experiment cannot hope to achieve its stated purpose because the stated purpose is a terrible joke in the first place. Roads are built for vehicles. If roads are congested now, it is not the fault of vehicle owners, including many of the road-sharing organizers themselves who have multiple vehicles. It is the fault of government planners who keep politicking without looking farther up, well, the road.

To say that the road is for everybody is wrong. It is not. The joggers, leisure bikers and skateboarders have a universe of choices to jog, leisure bike and skateboard in. They cannot just usurp busy city streets just because the term road-sharing has a nice ring to it. Those who need to work to earn a living do not jog, leisure bike and skateboard. Not even on Sundays. They have to work. But usurping the road in their name without their consent makes it hard for them to do so.

Besides, the roads that were used for road-sharing -- Osmeña Boulevard, Gen. Maxilom Avenue, Gorordo Avenue, and Escario Street -- merely formed a circular route, thus betraying the real purpose of the activity, which was so these joggers, leisure bikers and skateboarders can have these roads to themselves for their own use and pleasure. A circular route is useless to those who need public transport to go somewhere because a circle does not take them anywhere.

Tomorrow, on the other hand, if some 300 jeepney drivers make good their threat not to ply their routes, and especially if they gain some sympathizers from the other drivers not belonging to their group, then we will have some very real emptiness in certain routes. Let us see if the joggers, leisure bikers and skateboarders will not jump back into their cars and leave those without jeepneys to ride gasping for breath in their wake.

Or better yet, it would be nice to see these joggers, leisure bikers and skateboarders go out again, now that they have even more empty roads to themselves, and exhort the stranded carless people who need to go to work or school to just grin and bear it, share the road, and walk, now that they are jeepneyless as well. It would be interesting to find out if having the roads all to themselves can compensate for lost wages, lost opportunities, and class absences.

And because some government officials are such suckers for anything spoken by the glib of tongue, maybe they should not limit road sharing to just a few hours of a single day. Maybe it is time the strange principle of a road being for everybody be put to a more credible test. Maybe an ordinance should be passed mandating the complete takeover of all city streets by everybody forever. Maybe we've been civilized for too long. Maybe it's time to try a little anarchy.