Almost every day it is a long arduous journey through
dirty, congested and polluted roads throughout Metro Manila. That is what
common commuters of my age had to endure for as long as we can remember. Every
summer there is the heat of the sun and the congestion of traffic that heats up
every part of your body including your head (and so your temper goes…). Come
rainy season and you had to pass through ‘water worlds’ and I did have an
experience where I had to jump from stone to stone and keep myself balanced a
la Indiana Jones while a ‘white-water torrent’ flows beneath me (excuse the
exaggeration). There is also the dirt and the stink, especially in the older
and more crowded sections of the Metro. And last but certainly not the least,
the lack of discipline of the pedestrians and the people controlling the
vehicles crowding the already congested avenues.
It is becoming a hassle to commute not only in Metro
Manila but in the other urbanized parts of the country as well. But it wasn’t
always thus… Forms of media had already portrayed pictures, paintings and
engravings and the like of what our Metro looked like merely a few decades ago.
And from what they show, and comparing them to present pictures you would ask…
what happened?
Clearly, it was the result of mismanagement, seeing
how our closest neighbour countries had fared with regards to transportation
among a lot of other things. However, I would not be discussing those problems
here (in another article maybe). Instead I would speak about what had been and
can be done.
For decades now, remedies had been made to ease the
burden of travellers and commuters in our Metro, the most recent of those being
the construction of the Metro Manila Skyway which began in 1995. This is still
ongoing, as the third stage of its construction began just this February 17,
2014. The venture strived to ease the flow of traffic in our metropolitan area,
but this alone would not be enough to really improve the state of our
transportation systems.
Even with the improvements of the past decades, like
the Skyway and the rail transits (LRT I, II and MRT), there are still changes
needed for us to measure up to our neighbours when it comes to transportation
and urban organization and beautification. And the answer doesn’t entirely lie
in projects and renovations (that are sometimes making things worse… more on
that later…) but we, the people ourselves.
I transferred to a government agency almost a year ago
and my office is now located in the heart of Manila proper. Before that I
worked in a private BPO company in Makati’s Ayala business district for six
years and the comparison between the old and new workplace couldn’t be more
profound. Now, especially in the rush hours I had to elbow my way amongst the
multitude of people who are lost and confused as to when and where they really
should cross the street and where to go. To add to this, sometimes the traffic
lights are not functioning and when they are, they are not being followed by
motorists but instead, the traffic aides who don’t seem to know how to
calculate the right intervals on when which side should stop or go. And, as a
personal experience, some drivers would stop at a corner even when the light
says ‘go’ to pick up passengers and since others would follow, a traffic jam
would surely ensue.
So picture this… on a typical crossroads in downtown
Manila (near where I now work), people would see the ‘go’ sign for pedestrians
light up so they will cross the street. Then, a traffic aide would make one
side go but would be stopped by the throng of pedestrians crossing. Once the
pedestrians are gone, the vehicles would rush to beat the red light. The
traffic aide would let all of them pass, not knowing that the light had turned
red and it’s the other side’s turn to go. Those who saw the green light would
now be met by the vehicles that rushed to beat the red light. And so on and so
forth, resulting in a domino effect that leads to loud honking and cursing and
running (in the case of the pedestrians) and the pollution just makes it worse.
And then traffic would be worsened by the many untimely road renovations. Chaos.
I was able to picture this because I had experienced these personally.
Like I’ve said, I used to work in the Ayala business
district and have compared my past and present work environs. And so I ask… why
can’t most of Metro Manila do what was done in Ayala and BGC (Bonifacio Global
City in Taguig)? The buses have assigned loading and unloading areas and in
Ayala, there are clean subterranean walkways to ease the flow of people traffic
in the avenues and everything is clean and organized. This is the same as our
Southeast Asian neighbours. I had personally been in Hong Kong and had heard
enough about Singapore. We could see how organized and clean everything is. And
enough media had been broadcasted to see that this is the same with our other
Southeast and East Asian neighbours.
So what do we need? Of course, there’s discipline. We really need to develop
that in order to not let the costly projects made to relieve our discomforts go
to waste. Once the Stage 3 of the Manila Skyway is completed on 2016 (if the
schedule was followed), there would be a noticeable change in the volume of
vehicles passing through the main thoroughfares, especially EDSA. If there is
no discipline and proper planning though, eventually, everything would go back
to disorganization. So, as soon as the Stage 3 was opened, the same plans
that made Ayala and BGC so organized should be implemented throughout Metro
Manila at once, before everything reverts back to square one. This means
that since its only two years from now, said planning must begin as soon as
possible this year. And then, all forms of media should be properly
utilized to communicate these said
plans and programs to the people.
Then, after a certain period of time and all is
well and organized when it comes to traffic and pedestrian flow, that’s
when the restoration of the city to its former beauty can begin. It would be
now easier, since the people are more organized, to clean and beautify,
especially the old districts of Manila which old pictures make us reminisce and
want to change everything. Of course, not only the land but also the waters
should be restored to cleanliness… like the Pasig, Marikina and San Juan
rivers and all the creeks. And then… the air… There had been bills and
proposals before that had advocated the use of biofuels for our transportation
means. And recently, there had been ‘test drives’ of electronic vehicles. Why
not REALLY use them in the near future? It may be true that I would, in the
very near future, be owning an automobile, but if there is a way to modify it
to contribute to the decrease of pollution, then I would avail it.
If I only have the power to do all of what I just
wrote, I would ‘walk the talk’, but I don’t have the power. However, there are
people who DO have. And like I said, the action must really come from us, the people,
ourselves. We may be presented with these new plans and projects, but without
the proper state of mind that would tell us to innovate and contribute to the improvement of our country, it would
all go to waste.
Of course, the steps I envisioned would take years or
decades even, but like a lot of things in this world, we all need patience. And in the course of things,
our country would finally reclaim its position as one of Asia’s foremost
countries. And yet, obviously, these
aren’t the only things we need to change.
So obviously there’s more to come…
April 11, 2014
