THE RESUMPTION of on-site classes brought back my perceived normalcy. This meant rebuilding relationships lost by the pandemic, walking along Katipunan Avenue to eat, and even waking up early to prepare for a class. However, this normalcy reminded me of how frustrating it is to get from Point A to Point B—especially when I am coming from Cavite.
Before the pandemic started, I couldn’t count how many times I needed to apologize in advance whenever I said that I was coming from Cavite. Unexpected traffic congestions were so common then that even if I tried to leave a few hours before my scheduled appointment, I would still arrive a few minutes late. Come the return of classes, this frustration remained the same.
I firmly believe that public transportation is the key for efficiency and productivity. If the system can transport high volumes of people, access to jobs would become much easier. However, the trend of roads and infrastructures remains focused on private cars. Even though skyways and bridges can bring convenience, to whom are these benefits actually directed to? We’ve since learned that convenience is inaccessible if you do not have the privilege of owning a car.
Funnily enough, only 30% of Filipinos in Metro Manila are private car owners. We still somehow witness immense traffic along major roads in the region even after improving connecting expressways. Sure, travel times may have decreased, but the points of congestion remain the same. Moreover, this highlights that those who do not have the budget to travel through skyways suffer more.
Even worse, many commuters—such as myself—are left in the shadows and are still waiting for the next bus to arrive because of the intense traffic.
I realized that waking up early to avoid traffic is the most concerning habit that we have. It should not have been like this if the government prioritized creating efficient mass transportation instead of resorting to band-aid solutions. They widened roads, built more skyways, conducted rerouting schemes, and implemented a new number coding scheme, but all of these still led to Metro Manila having the 18th out of 404 worst traffic congested cities in 2021.
If you have the budget, you can just opt to book a taxi and have the comfort of travelling. But for most Filipinos, they are forced to sacrifice more time in exchange for a more budget-friendly option.
So much time is lost because we already anticipate traffic and long lines when waiting for the next train. We often blame ourselves because we could have arrived earlier, but we forget that it is not even our fault that the transportation system has been like this.
Right now, efficiently moving from Point A to Point B is for the privileged. As the national elections get nearer, we should elect a leader that understands an inclusive transportation system. While the establishment of bike lanes is a good start, it must go beyond that.
Knowing how public transportation networks move should be the start of contextualizing how these can be connected efficiently. It can be a challenge because the transportation system has become way more complex because the chaos of inefficiency finds its way out of the band aid solutions, but we have to start somewhere. Should the next leaders find a way to bridge the gaps between one mode to another, the movement of commuters from A to B is much easier.
Commuters like me still had to wait in long lines in bus terminals and force myself in jam-packed trains just to get home. I continue to endure five hours of walking along inefficiently bridged terminals, waiting in long lines, and standing in buses and trains just to get home to Cavite from Katipunan. I am not the only one.
Until the transport system is more humane, I think I still need to bombard my phone with alarms three hours before my scheduled appointment.
