‘A DEVELOPED country is not a place where the poor have cars. It’s where the rich use public transportation.” This is one of the most popular quotes on the Internet today, and rightfully so, because there is an undeniable truth to this statement made by former Bogota Mayor Enrique Peñalosa, one of the biggest advocates of improved mass transportation and livable streets.
While the hassles of Metro Manila commute continue to worsen, we all find it even more frustrating to realize that most of us have to rely on public transportation for both work and leisure. Recent studies have shown that everyone is on the losing end of this mammoth problem, as we waste countless hours in commute time and lose over P2.4 billion per day as a nation due to traffic congestion.
Since initiating a drastic change in the entire Metro Manila within the next decade seems more of a pipe dream than a feasible goal, perhaps we can make solving this problem a little more realistic by breaking it into chunks—by not looking at Metro Manila as one big problem area, but rather as a multitude of smaller cities or “chunks” that can be fixed one at a time.
A lot of real-estate developers have started doing this by integrating transit-oriented developments into their residential portfolios. These initiatives—the likes of Megaworld’s Manhattan Garden City in Cubao, Empire East’s San Lorenzo Place in Makati, and Robinsons Communities’ One Centris Place in Quezon Avenue—all have facilities that connect them either to the Light Rail Transit (LRT 2) or Metro Rail Transit (MRT) 3 systems, making commuting by train around the metropolis easier and more accessible to their residents. But how else can this Metro-wide headache be solved in chunks? Some of the clues can be seen in various urban-planning trends that have been successfully realized around the world.
Bike around town
With rising urbanization comes the need for modern transportation alternatives that are accessible, sustainable, time-saving and cost-effective. Biking is one of the most widely advocated means of transportation in most progressive cities around the world, backed up by plenty of research confirming the social, environmental and health benefits brought about by urban cycling.
When it comes to urban design for cycling, Copenhagen has been the undisputed best in the world. The centerpiece of this Danish town is the famous Cykelslangen (“cycle snake”), an elevated ramp that makes riding bikes safe, fun and scenic. The 13-feet-wide bike skyway is only a 721-feet addition to the city’s existing 220 miles of bike paths, and alleviates congestion in the area by letting cyclists traverse over instead of through a waterfront shopping area.
While calls for transforming Metro Manila into a bike-friendly metropolis have started to gain responses, I think we still have to keep an eye out and follow Copenhagen’s examples. The town is not yet done in investing and building bike-friendly infrastructure, as reports say four new bridges are nearing completion and cross-town routes are getting upgrades. But you may be asking: what has urban cycling got to do with commuting? Simple. If more people ride bikes to and from work or school, then there will be fewer commuters to congest our mass-transport systems.
Roll in a more efficient bus system
It has been said over and over again, Metro Manila needs a more efficient bus system, particularly since a huge portion of our cities are linked by extensive bus routes.
Urban planners around the world are all eyes at the most advanced bus system in the world, and it’s in a city least likely to pop in your head: the Colombian capital of Bogota. The secret behind TransMilenio’s impressive system—created by ex-mayor Peñalosa—lies in a robust network of dedicated bus lanes and smaller buses that bring commuters from outlying areas to centralized stations.
It’s also worth noting that the buses are designed to cut waiting time: fare is collected beforehand, and the floor is low slung to allow faster boarding. Commuters are also informed real-time exactly when the next bus arrives, which urban planners say is crucial in encouraging ridership. It definitely sounds like a system we all need to make rush-hour commute faster and more bearable.
Step up with walkability
More and more cities around the world are incorporating developments with better walkability, mainly because it’s a cheap, healthy, and efficient way to travel short distances, alleviates pollution and reduces carbon footprint from driving.
Here in Metro Manila, real-estate trends have also been in favor of better walkability, with so many of us considering ditching commute altogether and just renting living spaces near our work places.
In one of my previous columns about property trends, Buds Wenceslao, CEO of D.M. Wenceslao & Associates, predicted that this year will see major developments for alleviating traffic through improved walkability. “From transit-oriented developments located near Light Rail Transit/MRT System stations to improving the walkability of residential communities, you can actually see that some developers are trying to use this as a selling point in their projects.” Likewise, Eric Manuel, vice president of Daiichi Properties, once said, “More projects will incorporate walkability and pedestrian-friendly features, as well as answers to the growing traffic-congestion problems we are seeing more and more of.”
I believe that “walkable,” pedestrian-friendly infrastructure is, now more than ever, necessary in every Metro Manila city. Not only is it a key concept in sustainable urban design, but also promotes pedestrian mobility, safer neighborhoods and even tourism. Not to mention that such a concept allows people to appreciate the landscape, connect better with the community, and interact more with the other elements that make a city a lot more vibrant, lovable and sustainable.
These are just some of the ways that I believe we can make Metro Manila more commuter-friendly. Despite the disheartening reality that there are so many factors to consider and extensive processes to go through before any of these can come into fruition, I believe having a vision in mind is already halfway to making Metro Manila a haven for commuters.
Image credits: Ed Davad, Claudio Olivares Medina via The City Fix, Sightseeing Copenhagen