DURING MY second year in the University, my Philippine Design professor recommended that my class read an article on why Metro Manila was designed the way it is today.
To my surprise, one of the first examples featured in the reading was a back street parallel to Katipunan Avenue, a road familiar to anyone studying near here. It briefly described how the street is an example of ordinary streets mirroring broader urban design patterns of a city, with the posh entrances of residence buildings and commercial establishments contrasting with the nearly non-existent sidewalks outside.
Seeing such a familiar place framed this way felt unsettling. It revealed a reality that most students in the Katipunan area experience daily—navigating crowded streets and uneven sidewalks while constantly dodging moving vehicles.
Cities have prioritized car-centric development, forcing pedestrians to navigate through fragmented sidewalks, obstructing electric posts, and unsafe streets—sometimes even climb steep, inaccessible footbridges just to cross the road.
This leads me to reflecting how our roads were never truly designed with pedestrians in mind. Underpasses and footbridges supposedly “created for pedestrians” were built to remove any disruptions that may be inconvenient to motorists, placing the needs of vehicles above Filipinos who simply wish to walk safely.
Such design choices highlight how deeply ingrained car-centrism is in our urban planning, neglecting the realities of those who walk as their primary mode of mobility.
This neglect becomes more evident when we consider those who are overlooked: daily commuters and students navigating potholes and broken sidewalks, the elderly and children needing safe pathways, and persons with disabilities who cannot access the narrow pathways. Ultimately, every pedestrian is forced to share space with vehicles when infrastructures should have been designed for them.
Urban design is never neutral. Every sidewalk, footbridge, or road reflects the choices made by people of power, prioritizing car efficiency through highways and expressways at the cost of pedestrian safety and comfort. The everyday struggles of pedestrians are dismissed in favor of car-centric visions seen as “progress,” emphasizing why urban design is not just technical but ethical.
To build with empathy is to see cities as living spaces that shape human experience. It is to view sidewalks not as mere road extensions, but as vital infrastructures that enable protection and access. It is to see crosswalks not as traffic disruptions, but as pathways affirming pedestrians’ rights to move safely. A city designed with empathy places its most vulnerable residents at the center, the very people it should serve.
While efforts to improve current infrastructures exist, change cannot happen slowly. If unsafe urban spaces become the unquestioned norm, it only magnifies how vital it is for cities to be shaped with empathy, and to advocate for the people who move through them.
Aliya is a third-year Information Design major, with a minor in Information Technology Management, at the Ateneo de Manila University. She aspires to become a catalyst for meaningful change through the power of compelling and purpose-driven design. She is committed to using design as a tool to elevate important narratives that should matter.
Editor’s Note: The views and opinions expressed by the opinion writer do not necessarily state or reflect those of the publication.
