It is laughable how, at a time when the decades-long insanity of car-centric design of urban spaces is finally losing steam across much of the sane world, some moron chucked another quintessentially-Filipino brainwave to have the EDSA bus lane removed.
The lane on the famously clogged highway blocked for exclusive use by public buses was a godsend for millions of Metro Manila citizens who represent the majority of its daily commuters. Though the facility continues to battle invasive private vehicles piloted by chi chi drivers of Manila’s elites who insist on access to its clearway on account of the “importance” of their journey, the concept held.
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Before its implementation, the infamously for-profit private bus services along EDSA were a bane to both motorists and public commuters. Rather than serve the public, bus drivers went on continuous free-for-all scrambles to pick up passengers that resulted in massive bottlenecks wherever they piled themselves up across several lanes at every stop.
One wonders who Metro Manila really belongs to. The answer to that musing lies in how a blanket preferential treatment is given to private motorists and passengers who represent less than 20 percent of daily commuters. That statistic alone describes the institutionalised injustice baked into the Philippines’ infrastructure development priorities.
The prevailing picture of progressive cities in the advanced world is now a far cry from the look propagated in the mid 20th Century when cars were seen to be a key feature of “modern” living. Nowadays, in the cities of advanced societies, cars now cede thoroughfares they once dominated to pedestrians and trams.
The argument that the idea to dismantle the busway originally came from concerns that major rehabilitation work to be conducted on EDSA would require additional lanes to ease the resulting anticipated traffic congestion does not make sense, in any case. Public transport users should always be prioritised over private vehicles users. After all, use of public roads by private vehicles is a privilege, not a right or entitlement. The convenience of public transport patrons trump the interests of private vehicles users and, as long as public transport services provide reasonable alternatives to private car use, any outrage expressed by the latter should, at best, be taken with a grain of salt.
benign0 is the Webmaster of GetRealPhilippines.com.
Automobiles are seen as a status symbol in a culture marked by class-based discrimination. I’ve seen private car owners act so arrogant in highway incidents before, especially when getting into an argument with poor jeepney drivers, as if they’re posturing that they’re superior for having bigger incomes. Reforming the NCR’s car-centric infrastructure requires a society-wide shift towards more egalitarian attitudes (i.e. middle-class and rich people being willing to take public transport)—but then this in turn requires a huge overhaul of Filipino collective thinking itself.
If the bus lane is removed, the Tulfo family would be happy. Remember that Ralph Tulfo, the son of the fascist senator Raffy Tulfo, was apprehended for using bus lane twice in just a span of few months.