EDITORIAL - No one is talking about the flood of new cars

As frivolous as it may sound, there are actually promotional automotive sales pitches that say you can drive home a car with a one-peso all-in downpayment. Whatever that sales pitch truly means may not be enough to dissuade the gullible young Filipino who, basking in today's relatively high-paying job, has already been consumed by the inevitable willingness to succumb to the urge to buy a car.

More than a house, a car is the Filipino's ultimate status symbol. In the order of substantial acquisitions a young Filipino starts drawing a checklist of from his first high-paying job, a car is always very high up, if not the very first on the list. The car does not have to be grand or anything, just enough to give one the mobility that spells freedom and independence.

And the funny thing about it is that there is actually nothing wrong with it. Acquisitions are rewards, often for sacrifices and challenges successfully met. A young Filipinos who struggled through school and battled the crush for available jobs cannot be faulted if, at the first feeling of financial independence, he feels the need to reward himself with, what else but a car.

The house can wait. The Filipino is young. More than 50 percent of the country is below 35 years old, perhaps 25 even. There will be time for the more stable and serious things in life, like starting a family. For now, with borders collapsing and the world shrinking, travel and mobility is the thing. There is so much to see and experience.

And in this youthful aspiration, nothing provides a more practical companion than a car. And so it is that sales of cars have skyrocketed like they have never been before at any time in the country's history. And the immediate result of this automotive binge is the tremendous strain it places on the entire national road network, which just cannot keep up with the increase in volume of road users, especially cars.

The big urban centers are where the jobs are, and therefore where the cars are as well. Right now, the big debates in these urban centers are how to cope with the traffic gridlocks that have become their bane. In Metro Cebu, the talk is about a bus rapid system or BRT or a light rail transit system or LRT. But no one is talking about stemming the tide of new cars joining the road networks every minute of every day. Perhaps the talk should be about more practical things.