WHENEVER SOMEONE tells me that Commonwealth Avenue is a killer highway, I used to think that they were joking. However, when I started commuting, my perspective changed. Commonwealth is such a congested area that the road truly becomes a battleground for all commuters. Most days, I would join fellow commuters in taking up three lanes of the highway, waiting more than 30 minutes to hitch a ride from one of the jeepneys as countless other vehicles zoom by.

Some drivers blame traffic on undisciplined commuters, but in a country that gives no priority to its pedestrians and commuters, we are left with no other choice. At first glance, it seems like a daily annoyance, but it reveals deeper implications of a systematic problem that has been discredited by the government for the longest time. 

It’s no secret that Metro Manila has a transportation crisis. When we talk about transportation, we often think of private cars, buses, trains, and jeepneys—vehicles in short. While traffic is a prevalent problem in the cities, most of us forget that walking also falls under mobility, even if travelling on foot makes up 31 percent of trips made. The same case can be said for bikers as bike lanes on major roads are scarce in major cities. Due to car-centric urban planning, this leads to intense physical and emotional exhaustion for pedestrians, commuters, and bikers since they are given low priority.

Despite the outcry for the lack of priority on mobility, there is still a long way to go before the safety of commuters and pedestrians alike is ensured. While projects such as the coding scheme or the Build, Build, Build initiative were made to ease traffic, they place little emphasis on walkways and public spaces. Likewise, the Commuter Rights Bill was proposed to lobby for a better public transport system, but the government has not given it priority since its proposal.

While these measures were made with the intention to ease the transport crisis, they aren’t properly enforced as the transport crisis continues to worsen. Instead of unification, the population is driven into divisions that frustrate each other and become blind to the reality that transport affects everyone.

At its root, this transport crisis is a systematic problem that won’t disappear overnight. It is prevalent and has already become the norm to us⁠—we mustn’t let it continue to be the normal standard of our commute. To be complacent and passive about the situation is to fall into the broken system of the country. To act responsibly and be critically informed is a big task, but at the very least we can exercise compassion and understanding that we’re all making do with the poor resources allocated by the government.

Pinning the blame on a specific group of people won’t solve a systemic problem. By understanding the plight of commuters, we can then see the broader problem and open our eyes to the system that does injustice to its constituents and persistently demand for change.