Private sector must help solve traffic

We received a lot of reaction to our Sunday column, “Metro Manila traffic already ‘fatal’,” where we wrote that Metro Manila is like the “walking dead” with all its major arteries blocked by cars, buses, construction work and other conditions that add to the blockage. In the same column, we gave several suggestions to ease the congestion, among them to start moving work outside of the metropolis as well as develop a good, clean and reliable commuter system that would encourage even the wealthy to use it just like in major cities around the world.

A lot of our readers pointed out the toll that traffic is taking on the commuting public, with some developing urinary tract infection because of the lengthy commute. One very sad email we received was from a young mother of three who commutes an average of four hours a day to go to work. She hardly has time to see her young children because she has to leave by 5:30 in the morning to go to work and by the time she gets back home, her children are already asleep. Out of frustration, the poor young mother simply cries herself to sleep.

Our readers are urging the private sector to propose solutions or regulations that would help ease the congestion, like limiting the number of cars that could pass certain roads at certain times of the day, or perhaps prioritize private vehicles with four or more passengers. Physical blocks on lanes for pedestrians and Segways (two-wheeled motorized personal vehicles) may also be installed to prevent cars from squeezing through, suggested Papat Escaler. “If this traffic situation happened in a first world country, we would have had riots in the streets long ago,” she added.

Another suggestion comes from Dr. Sonny Habacon who says the main problem with traffic in the metropolis particularly in EDSA is the lack of additional road networks – an observation that many agree with. Since a big number of vehicles plying EDSA are private cars, Dr. Habacon is proposing that a study by MMDA or an appropriate government agency be conducted to get information about the travel details of private cars to their place of work and back, and perhaps come up with a scheme where a particular group would be able to take a special air con bus to work and then back home or in a pre-designated, secured area where the private vehicles are parked – something similar to a carpool. Supposing that one air con bus can accommodate 30 to 35 passengers, this will greatly reduce the number of cars on the road. For instance, if there are 300 cars with at least two passengers per vehicle and all of them will ride in 20 air con buses, that would be 260 cars off the road, Dr. Habacon explained.

Who knows, maybe even executives working in Makati (and who all live in a certain area) may try this carpool scheme which could drastically lessen the number of vehicles plying major roads like EDSA and Ayala – anything is worth a try since the number coding has proven ineffective in reducing the number of cars on the streets of Metro Manila.

Flying car concept could solve traffic woes

This sounds like it’s straight out of a sci-fi movie or novel but Massachusetts-based private company Terrafugia is determined to continue with the production of battery-powered vehicles that can transform from street car to a flying machine in less than a minute. At an initial public demonstration in 2013, Terrafugia  unveiled The Transition, a vehicle with wings that can be unfolded from both sides and just after minutes on the street, can hover up and start flying with the aid of small helicopter blades. Upon landing, The Transition will simply fold back its wings and convert into a vehicle that can be driven on the streets.

This year, Terrafugia unveiled the TF-X (shown in photo), a hybrid vehicle with a more sleek design, touted as the “flying car for all of us.” It can fit in a garage and do vertical lift-offs and landing (similar to a chopper). According to company executives, learning how to operate the car will only take five hours. It has the capability to drive on autopilot (although it is equipped with manual override controls). What’s also promising about the TF-X is that if the weather becomes uncooperative, you can choose to land and drive the vehicle the rest of the way to reach your destination.

Aside from Terrafugia, another company – the Slovakian AeroMobil – is also developing a flying car and announced plans to publicly release its first flying car by 2017. As usual, there are some who think the idea of a flying car is impractical, not to mention too expensive since The Transition and the TF-X are estimated to cost from $279,000 to $299,000. But just imagine – you can soar above the traffic and fly away from all the chaos on the street with angry drivers and commuters cursing all the way to the moon and back.

Anti-JPE lawyer defends SC bail decision

A prominent lawyer who has no love lost for Senator Juan Ponce Enrile surprised us when he defended the Supreme Court decision allowing the senator to post bail. He says the granting of bail was not purely based on humanitarian reasons and the fact that there is no flight risk, but mainly because “the evidence showing (Enrile’s) guilt is weak.”

The 91-year-old Senator’s petition for a bill of particulars – demanding the identification of the person who delivered the money, who received it, how much and where and when – was granted earlier, exposing the weakness of the plunder case, opined the lawyer, adding that there has not been any proof showing that Enrile received money from businesswoman Janet Lim Napoles, since it was his chief of staff Gigi Reyes who transacted with Napoles.  

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