Our EDSA headache

THOSE OF us who live or work in Metro Manila or frequently travel there must know the headache that is EDSA, short for Epifanio de los Santos Avenue, a.k.a. C-4, or Highway 54 to our elders. (Did you know that it was originally named 19 de Junio, after the birth date of Jose Rizal?) This 23-kilometer road that runs on a semicircle around the eastern side of Metro Manila traverses six cities and is used by an estimated 2.3 million motor vehicles every day. As the main artery that connects the northern and southern parts of Metro Manila, it figures prominently in the lives of a significant part of our population, and as such, in our economy as well. It has also assumed its place in our history as the site of two peaceful “people power revolutions” that deposed two Philippine presidents.

Alas, this historic thoroughfare is also a regular tormentor to many of us. With its snail-paced traffic in certain sections on any given day (except Sunday perhaps), millions of Filipinos idle away a significant part of their productive lives waiting in exasperating EDSA traffic. Be it for private motorists or for passengers in its public transport systems, EDSA is the road we all love to hate. And this is not only because of its traffic, but also because it is where a large number of Filipinos lose their cell phones, wallets, purses, cars—and yes, their lives—to criminals daily. EDSA, it seems, has become a prime showcase of everything that is wrong with our society, our economy, our governance, and even our own human traits.

On the last, my daughter who used to ride the EDSA MRT every day to work constantly complained of how the worst in Filipino women came out at rush hours in the all-female cars of the train line. It was a daily ordeal for her to endure the violent pushing, shoving and swearing that would be routinely encountered in those cars at peak hours, where the vaunted qualities of the Filipina as sweet, caring and mahinhin (demure) all flew out the window, she said. I’ve written before of how other passengers turned a blind eye as my son was divested of his cellphone by robbers in an EDSA bus in plain view of all, amid his cries for help. EDSA finally became too much for my working children to take, and they have since moved to where they can avoid passing there altogether. Ironically, while the so-called EDSA people power revolutions were seen as having brought out the best in us Filipinos, there is a dark side to life at EDSA that seemingly brings out the worst in us as well.

Not a few would blame bad governance, which led me to interview relevant government officials on the matter. Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) Chairman Francis Tolentino sees EDSA as a testament to the lack of proper physical planning on the part of government. We should not have permitted the proliferation of traffic-drawing facilities, especially malls, all along its length, he opines. Now he worries of how the proposed new stadium for the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) soon to rise near the Shaw Boulevard/EDSA crossing threatens to turn already bad EDSA traffic there into a nightmare on PBA days.

Beyond planning, many of us see in EDSA daily proof of lack of enforcement of laws and regulations, prominent of which are (but not limited to) traffic or transport-related rules. In a 2007 article, the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism observed that it’s not only too many vehicles, but also too many government agencies, that clog up EDSA. “It’s a question of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing,” lamented a former official in the article, referring to the various agencies that have a hand in the EDSA traffic problem. Apart from the Land Transportation Office and the Land Transport Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) under the Department of Transportation and Communications, there is the MMDA and each of the local governments of the six cities traversed by EDSA. Each has been impinging on each other’s authorities, and we end up with no authority at all that one can hold accountable for the EDSA headache.

Few would disagree that a key if not the crucial factor clogging up EDSA traffic is the excessive number of buses plying the road. Any casual observer can see this from the way most buses there run half-empty even at peak hours. The economist in me sees the fact that their operators still keep fielding them nonetheless as positive proof that they make money even at such low load factors. (And they’re asking for subsidies or hiked fares?) So why did the government even allow such excess capacity to exist? George Esguerra, transportation assistant secretary for planning, informed me that the LTFRB will soon rationalize the bus routes, as many of the routes overlap along EDSA, hence the overcapacity therein. It seems that existing bus (and jeepney) routes were historically defined by the private transport operators themselves, responding, as it were, to market demands. Thus, there may be so much demand for a Baclaran-Monumento route and so much for an Alabang-Fairview route, for example, but having both effectively doubles the load capacities along EDSA to the point of excess.

Managing the mass transport system, as it turns out from my conversations with Assistant Secretary Esguerra and Chairman Tolentino, is an extremely complex proposition, even just along EDSA alone. A wide range of issues is involved, from driver education and licensing, registration and franchising, and driver compensation schemes, to bus dispatch systems, transport industry policies, local government coordination and environmental policies.

Next week we shall deal on this other headache: that of governing EDSA.

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E-mail: cielito.habito@gmail.com