Metro Manila – in as much as I want to keep my love for the capital region since I have been spending more than half of my life here, it’s hard not to wish to have a better option, especially every time I sit behind a steering wheel.
I live in Parañaque City. In case you didn’t know, it’s among the three cities at the southern tip of Metro Manila, clustered with Las Piñas and Muntinlupa. Given the state of our roads and the lot of undisciplined drivers plying every day, I keep my trips relatively short and within the south. But, in instances that I had to go north (like when doing shoots, testing a car, or even visiting my folks in Bulacan), there is one road that I try to avoid like coronavirus: the infamous Epifanio Delos Santos Avenue, otherwise known EDSA.
You see, despite having four to five lanes on each side of the road, and despite the fact that there isn’t a traffic light to hinder the flow of traffic, EDSA has always been a stressful drive for me.
EDSA is a major artery that stretches for almost 24 kilometers, connecting Pasay City to Caloocan City and vice versa. The number of cars that use the road daily is around 250,000 last year. Motorcycles, on the other, average around 110,000 each day. The sheer volume of vehicles that pass through EDSA should already spell congestion, but that isn’t the only problem here.
Undisciplined drivers (public and private) versus motorcycles dangerously lane-splitting in between cars – we can mud-sling through and through but that doesn’t change the fact that the problem equally lies in ourselves as much as we’re to blame the system.
That said, MMDA had to install concrete barriers to separate the busway from private cars. While the placement of the busway at the innermost lane is questionable in itself, we can’t hide from the fact that we drivers need to have a physical barrier in order to follow a simple rule. As one of my colleagues has pointed out before, we’re like toddlers that needed to be told and guided by the obvious – no matter how dumb it sounds.
How’s the current drive?
The result? In a recent errand run to Quezon City, I had no choice but to take EDSA since it’s the shortest route coming from Skyway. Driving in EDSA has become more stressful than ever, much to my surprise and chagrin. The concrete barriers were a pain to have on the left, not to mention that the already narrow lanes became even narrower with the slab of concrete taking up a fifth of the space. Worse, some of the concrete was even out of alignment.
I was driving a relatively narrow MPV, but it already felt unsafe and risky. Each time a bus passed by, it felt like I was in a scene in Final Destination where I was waiting for something bad to happen. What more if I were to drive an SUV or a full-size van? It was a dreadful feeling.
To be fair, there was a section in between Shaw and Ortigas where steel bollards were used instead of concrete slabs, and frankly, they’re a lot better. My latest EDSA encounter was amid the pandemic when the quarantine restriction should have lessened the cars on EDSA. Imagine the agony when everything goes back to normal.
Truth be told, the previous stop-and-go traffic on EDSA could trigger my migraine, the concrete barriers were much worse. I literally don’t feel like driving through EDSA anymore. Ever.
It’s a deep-seated failure
While it’s easy to point our fingers to the MMDA for employing such a horrid design for the busway separators, we need to step back and reflect what pushed the agency to do so anyway.
Had we proven that we can follow simple rules and regulations, that we can drive straight without the need for barriers, that we can honor bus lanes without adding a physical object to remind us, you won’t be reading this from us. There won’t be a discussion.
Now, don’t tell me that it isn’t doable. In Singapore, busways are also a thing. But drivers of private vehicles there are disciplined enough to not use the lane whenever nobody’s looking. In the Philippines, even government vehicles use the busway for “emergency” purposes – and yes, that’s even with the concrete slabs installed.
And then there’s the dispute that undisciplined driving was a child of erroneous rules and systems on the road. There’s merit to that but really, it’s a chicken and egg argument – something that we don’t need right now. We all need to change our driving habits. We all need to act like we’re not toddlers anymore. And then maybe, just maybe, it will have a ripple effect on the system as a whole.
It’s hopeful thinking, I know, but remember that the gears will continue grinding unless we do something about it – no matter how small.
