Who Missed the Bus?

I never thought I will ever, and I mean ever, come to the buses' defense considering our long-standing battle for EDSA-space. I told myself I will try to remain apathetic towards government policies as I'm in the brink of getting an epileptic seizure from incessantly rolling my eyes. But like an itch that needs to be scratched, I just have to blog about buses being included in the unified color coding scheme, which I've mathematically proven as ineffective in the first place.

Yes, they're big, they're nasty, they honk like mad, and they consider the MMDA a figment of their imagination (traffic rules? what traffic rules?). And as much as we'd like to get rid of them for good, buses are part of this delicate ecosystem called public transport. A bus can transport 30-50 people at any given time, making them the most efficient transport system next to the MRT. Take the buses away and you'll have hundreds of passengers stranded on the road (that's them waving at the news camera right now).

The problem is, we're not getting to the root of the problem. Too many people, too many cars, too little space. There is no control over the volume of private vehicles. There's Mr. Politician who has 10 cars - one for each child, one for the wife, and one for each mistress. Potentially, that's 10 cars on the road carrying one passenger each, or maximum two. Inefficiency, anyone?

What's worse, because of the color coding scheme, people are being 'forced' to buy two cars, which aggravates the whole volume problem to begin with.  Good for the car manufacturers, bad for you and me.

We don't need any more stupid traffic schemes like "U-turns" which is the root of all bottlenecks and dangerous swerving. We don't need more flyovers or road extensions...what we need is an efficient public transport system. We need more interconnected railway systems (how come nobody has thought of building an MRT line along Espana/Quezon Avenue, connecting to EDSA?) We need stricter law enforcement. Slap bus operators with tickets and fine them for their drivers' misdemeanors. If they refuse to play nice, teach them a lesson and suspend a few of them, and let them take a financial hit for refusing to obey traffic laws.

We need to control the volume of cars. Impose higher taxes on the purchase of third vehicles, fourth (to the infinity) vehicles. If they can afford to buy a third car, they might as well contribute to the public fund, so we can give our traffic enforcers a pay raise so they would stop taking bribes.

Also, why not incentivize private corporations to provide shuttles for their employees? They don't need to shoulder the entire operational costs; I'm sure employees wouldn't mind coughing up a few pesos for bus fare in lieu of paying for gasoline.

If these don't work, just air a Pacquiao fight - zero traffic jam guaranteed.