We complain against the monstrous traffic jams delaying our travel. There is discomfiture when we are in bumper-to-bumper situations. Unlike before when few cars roamed our streets, driving now is no longer pleasurable, and has become stressful. Tempers rise and “road rage” happens, whenever we are stalled in the road with cars to the left, trucks to the right, and motorcycles everywhere.
Like others, I now prefer cabs going to any destination in the city. Taking cabs is good for my health, as it do not risks high blood attack due to tension of snarled traffic. But there is a countervailing economic effect: In a taxicab, I pay more because the fares had increased almost double than the previous rates, and a minute of travel time costs me P2 more. Since I now spend 45 minutes travel from home to office, it’s P90 plus or minus. From the larger angle of economics, traffic jams cause billions of pesos in losses.
This problem must be addressed with all implementable ideas. But, despite the brilliant minds in Congress, we do not hear from legislators of concerted measures to smoothen our road trips. Hoping that the wisest lawmakers move their asses, let me again raise few points.
Most of us have seen a major cause of our traffic problem, or we profess to have observed or understood why we have gridlocks: The volume of vehicles using our roads is the main culprit — too many running on our highways, which have not been widened all these years. If this is the source of our woes, then it is easy to admit that one solution is legislation. Congress has to pass a law reducing the number of vehicles on our roads.
What are these vehicles that need to be reduced? First in my list are cars owned in excess of what owners really need. Due to financial abundance, wealthy families buy cars for the comfy of their members — the father is chauffeured to his office, the mother is driven to her own destination, while their children drives their respective car to school. As such, a family of five has five vehicles, and most of these people are conscious of their social responsibility. If they are asked by a statute to limit their ownership of motor vehicles to only two, certainly after a brief period of adjustment, they will be willing to help ease traffic congestion and settle with fewer cars.
Next in my list are old cars, or those 10 years old and older. Among my friend-engineers opine that these units cost high to maintain with fuel consumption higher than the newer ones; sometimes they get stalled on the roads. A law shall also give people options: Owners of 10-year-old models may be required to pay double annual registration, if they want to continue using theirs; those 15-year-olds pay thrice; and those with older cars, four times. Let there be a law banning the importation of a vehicle called multi-cab, which are banned in Japan where they were manufactured! But, in fairness to the owners, let there be a grace period, say two years, for their use. If there are laws on these recommended moves, I can bet my last peso that our traffic shall improve.