Traffic Congestion Is Here To Stay

In a full day, we spend 8-9hours at work, sleep around 6-8 hours a day, 1-2 hours for lunch and coffee breaks, and around 6-7 hours left for everything else. A relatively big chunk of our day aside from sleep and work is the time to get from one place to another. Usually, the travel time consumed from our homes to our workplace. On the average, we spend 1-2 hours of travel time in a day to and from work. Children who are ferried to and from their schools also experience the same. For those who live in the suburbs, it may be up to 4 hours a day. At 4 hours, we are spending 16.7% of our time on the road every day. If you live to a 100 years and went to regular school at age 7 then you would have spent 15 ½ years of your life on roads!

These figures may be a bit exaggerated but if you live in a city, especially here in Manila, you would have a good idea of what I’m talking about. Yes, you may blame everything from less-disciplined drivers, pedestrians, ineffective traffic control personnel; lack of road signs and facilities, poor quality of roads, etc. and the list goes on. But I won’t be talking about those.

"If you live to a 100 years and went to regular school at age 7 then you would have spent 15 ½ years of your life on roads!"

The real culprit is not the way we do things to contribute to the congestion of traffic or the lack of an effective implementation of government ordinances for traffic violations. These are mere measures to lessen the impact of congestion, but never a solution. Any attempt to hasten it would eventually fail if the problem is expected to get worse. So far, getting worse is the only consistent thing observed.

Traffic congestion is a direct consequence of our tendency to huddle in groups, a known trait of Filipinos. Since the formation of the “Baranggay”, our early ancestors found it necessary to live in groups for mutual cooperation and protection. This scenario is also the same everywhere else in the world. For some, it was a catalyst for the early civilization.

But why didn’t our early “Baranggays” get specialized to develop its own civilization? The answer is simple; they need not get civilized as early as the Sumerians from the Middle East did. A tropical rainforest is far different from a desert environment where everything is scarce.

Our ancestors lived at a time when our land could very well provide without the need for specialization. All they had to do is to control a small area, and it would be enough to sustain a small group. Through time, these groups evolved with their own dialects. Early Filipinos have a minimal need to raze each other’s villages just to survive.

"Traffic congestion is a direct consequence of our tendency to huddle in groups"

We are comfortable in groups and we thrive on congested places, which is reminiscent of how we value blood relations. Of course, if we were left on our own for a long time, we would have developed our own civilization. Unfortunately, there wasn't enough time to evolve before other peoples would shape our land as it is. So what has it got to do with traffic congestion?

If you will observe, our country has a lot of unused space. This is because we cram ourselves in a place called Metro Manila because it’s near where the businesses are. The ports deliver materials; the manufacturing sector saves delivery costs by putting up factories near the ports. Factories on the other hand employ people. Most of these personnel were recruited from outside the city because they work for less pay. These employees have families who also decided to settle near these factories. Over time, they have relatives who also decided to give up their traditional rural way of life to find a “better” opportunity in the city, since they already have a relative who works there. The cycle repeats itself until such time that the income from these factories could not support the growing extended family of the employee. A slum area is born afterwards.

"We are comfortable in groups and we thrive on congested places"

All over Metro Manila, and even on some cities from other regions, all are experiencing this people congestion concern. Traffic congestion is and will always be a direct consequence. Old trade posts like Manila are not really something you could plan because it shapes itself accordingly. But this patch of land is too much for the activity associated with it. The early benefits of business sectors being near each other are nullified with the costs entailed by congestion.

We should focus more on the distribution of economic development outside of these usual business districts. Let’s take for example the suburbs. The real estate industry, after taking a hit from the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997, is currently recovering at a fast pace. True, low cost housing are available at the suburbs, but job opportunities near them are yet to be available. Workers still have to travel to cities every day for work. The transport demand would mean more vehicles on the road especially on rush hours. If workers need not go that far, congestion would be confined locally from where they’re at. This would create the need for local governments to propose projects that are relevant to the situation which presented itself through economic progress.

More funds may be reallocated to road infrastructure outside cities instead of hiring more traffic personnel or city road widening. In theory, this is about the same as driving away investments from a crowded place to an open and wider space where last minute changes in planning are easier to implement.

"We should focus more on the distribution of economic development outside of these usual business districts."

On a personal level, traffic congestion is indirectly linked to productivity. What benefits would an extra hour or two of sleep may provide to a daily worker? If not sleep, how could two more hours with the family improve relationships? How much can we save in a week if less gasoline is required to travel to and from work? These savings may be used for other needs as well. How many people miss out on appointments due to traffic congestion? How many employees are disqualified for promotion due to the same thing?

I don’t have the specific facts and details to answer these questions but I can assure you one thing, the answers would definitely show that traffic congestion is denying us a lot of things we would have enjoyed. Unless we spread out and utilize our rich land, we would still be confined to the usual cramped space which we also complain about.