Traffic everywhere

The title of this column might be overstating the obvious, but I’m not just referring to the perennial gridlock of our beloved metro.

Much has been written and said about the sorry state of affairs that afflict both our major thoroughfares and inner streets. Colorum buses, too many buses, too many cars, undisciplined drivers, ineffective traffic enforcers, corrupt systems, inadequate and poorly maintained mass transportation systems, easily flooded streets, inadequate and poorly maintained roads—we all know by heart what the causes are.

Then there are the solutions. The UVVRP or number coding scheme, the Manila bus ban late last year and this year, the Manila truck ban this year, the truck lane, the bus stickering system, the reverse coding scheme, etc., etc.

I can almost hear the collective and resounding, “Tell us something we don’t know!” from the legions of exasperated motorists and commuters.

Well, let’s do a little math. This one comes from math professor (and luxury car purveyor) Marc Soong, who posted the following equations on his Facebook page:   

•             2 hours a day in traffic (at least) x 30 days a month = 60 hours a month

•             60 hours a month x 12 months = 720 hours

•             720 hours ÷ 24hours per day = 30 days

•             Many of us lose at least 30 days in a year to traffic.

•             (1/12) x 60 years...

•             If we were lucky enough to live for 60 years, that would be losing five years of our lives. In traffic.

It’s a chilling fact. Just thinking that we’re losing one month every year sitting in traffic and burning copious amounts of fossil fuels (there goes our pollution and oil consumption levels) is enough to make one’s stomach turn. Let alone five years if you’re 60 years old—which also means that most 30-year-olds have already wasted 2 ½ years of their lives in traffic.

Last week, Professor Soong spent one and a half hours traveling from Bonifacio Global City to Rockwell. Another colleague based in Quezon City took three hours to travel eight kilometers from her office to her home. On a normal, traffic-free (there’s an oxymoron) day, those commutes should have taken no more than 15 minutes.

Unfortunately, normal, traffic-free days are often found only in the wee hours of the morning. Make that Sunday morning, say between 2am and 4am. If you’re lucky and the MMDA does not close two lanes of EDSA and the trucks aren’t out in force. Because those two factors can create gridlock in the most unexpected moments.   

But then you probably also know this already.

Which brings me to the crux of this week’s column title: Traffic everywhere.

It’s not just in Metro Manila. It’s not just in Metro Cebu. Or in Davao.

Last week, I was stuck in traffic in Paris on my way to Charles de Gaulle airport. Four days prior to that, it took me 45 minutes to get to my hotel from the airport. The reverse trip was a different matter altogether. It was a Friday and Fridays—just like Manila—is traffic hell in Paris. It took me almost double the time to drive from the hotel to the airport. At one point, I dozed off—20 minutes later, I woke up and the car hadn’t moved an inch!

Bangkok. My colleagues and I were booked into two hotels. I could almost see their hotel from the high-rise window of my hotel along Sukhumvit Road. I could also see block after block of stalled traffic. Most of the programs were held at my hotel and my unfortunate colleagues would have to spend one to two hours to get to my hotel from theirs. After each night’s event—when traffic had thinned out—they would ride back to their hotel and reach it in 15 minutes. This happens in Bangkok every night.  

Ditto Jakarta when I stayed there last year and the year before. Indonesia and Thailand are both 1-million-cars-a-year markets. The Philippines sells “just” 200,000 cars a year. So you can imagine how much worse their traffic is. Vietnam sells about the same number of cars as we do, and their traffic is just as bad. (But their motorcycle situation is even worse, as is France whose motorcyclists zip in between cars even worse than our local riders—and they’re mostly on big bikes!)

I was also in LA recently. We got stuck in downtown traffic which moved just as slowly as EDSA on a bad day. The only difference is that there weren’t buses or other PUVs swerving from one lane to another and unloading passengers anywhere they pleased. But traffic was just as bad. And you’d see people honking their horns. A lot. LA is probably the road rage capital of America. 

The same applies—but without the horn-blowing—in “disciplined” countries like Japan, Korea, and Singapore. Oh, I almost forgot—the crazy drivers in Italy! The Italians seem to think they’re all driving for Scuderia Ferrari. Bottomline: There really is traffic (and bad or crazy drivers) everywhere.

I’ve been on many trips the past few years, and the most common thing I hear—regardless of whether I’m in Asia, Europe, North America, or Australia—is our host or tour guide telling us to check out of the hotel early to make up for the inevitable traffic jams. 

So what’s the point of all this? Call it a dose of open-mindedness. Call it a dose of misery loves company. My point is, and I hope the powers that be who are actually in a position to do something about this, can talk to their counterparts in other countries or better yet, learn from those who have actually been effective in combating the scourge of traffic gridlock. It has been done. With so many new cars rolling off showrooms all over the world, critical mass is inevitable. Still, it doesn’t mean we should just grin and bear it. No giving up! And shame to the government official who will point to other countries and say they’re just as bad as us.

Because after all is said and done, traffic in Metro Manila really is still the worst—in terms of slowness, lack of discipline, and sheer consistency (Fridays and Saturdays used to be the worst days; but now any day is really bad).

But if we can effectively address all the obvious problem areas, we have a fighting chance. In the immortal words of Nike, just do it!

Email the author at [email protected].