Can the fairer sex make a difference?

As anyone driving back to Manila from the NLEX can relate, EDSA is always a nasty bite of reality. Because after 80 or so kilometers of civilized highway driving, where most drivers practice good etiquette by pulling off to the right for the faster cars to overtake on the left, it is just utter CHAOS the moment you turn into Commonwealth and onto EDSA. Like a rude slap to the face yesterday, a bus from behind and to my left surged ahead and cut me off, belatedly signaling in his race to pick up passengers on the sidewalk.

Next came another bus racing to cut me off on the right so he could get ahead of everyone else in line at a u-turn. And this was a Sunday, mind you, the lightest day of the week in terms of traffic volume. After a moment mustering my “war zone” mindset, I set to work negotiating the road in a more, ah... proactive manner so as to arrive home reasonably sane and in one piece.

And then comes this news that the ranks of bus drivers will soon be joined by the fairer sex. As of press time, 13 lady bus drivers will receive National Driving Certificates from the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority, (TESDA) according to a report by this newspaper’s Mayen Jaymalin. As I understand it, the certification makes them eligible to drive a bus, one of the most unwieldy mass transportation vehicles on the road today. One of them, Ms. Rosemarie Ilagan, is 50-years old and who chose to work again after working in the United Arab Emirates a year ago.

Congratulations to her and the all the rest; I hope and pray you make a difference. As we all know, the bus driver profession ranks low in the food chain. They work long hours for low pay, and they are unloved (if not hated) by the private vehicle-driving population which has had to suffer their poor driving skills for years. If it’s true that “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks”, then all the existing male bus drivers are hopeless.

But as the first batch of a new breed, perhaps these ladies can start leading the change. It’s not every day that you see several women actually working hard to first get certified and then line up for a thankless job like driving a Public Utility Vehicle.

Many sexist drivers readily disparage the driving skills of women after observing stereotypes like the little old lady speeding at 30 km/h or the colegiala who takes 10 minutes to parallel park, but you could say the same thing about male drivers too. Good driving skills don’t favor any gender, and I know several women who could run circles around the 90% of the male population.

So I’m bullish about these incoming lady bus drivers. Perhaps, because they’re women, they will feel less of a need to play “King of the Road” every time they’re in the driver’s seat. I hope they will practice their profession with skill and pride as any honest, hardworking individual should; not just as a way to get by regardless of behavior and whipping out the line “naghahanap buhay lang po” when they get into an accident.

Come to think of it, why stop at buses? What’s stopping us from hiring women to drive taxicabs and “F/X” shuttles? We already see women in uniform at the PNP and AFP and they seem to be doing a good job. At the very least, the sight of a trim, female police officer manning her post inspires more respect from me than her typically beer bellied counterpart. Imagine what it might be like to hail a cab and have to start addressing the driver as “Ma’am” or “Miss” instead of the usual “brod”, “bossing” or “pare”. And, once you’ve negotiated your trip (if there was any negotiating in the first place), for once you’ll likely be spared the conspiracy theories and hysterical AM radio news. Maybe it will be pop music playing on the radio, and now you’ll be trading gossip with the driver on what’s up with KC and Piolo, or Kris and whoever.

But those would just be the minor, insignificant changes. More important would be the change in driving behavior that would help to influence everyone else we share the road with like staying in your lane, observing the traffic rules and regulations, giving way, and signaling your intent to turn several seconds before you have to. In civilized countries motorists follow the rules even when there are no traffic authorities present because it’s part of their culture. With these lady bus drivers I hope this is a step in that direction.

Here’s a comment of James Deakin’s column “Oil is not well”…

I agree with James’ arguments for hybrids 100%. Taxes for hybrids should be reduced to a bare minimum. This will promote eco-friendly vehicles in the country which in the long run reduce our economic dependence on oil. I’m one of the proponents of having our public vehicles use alternative fuels. I’ve seen the initiatives in Makati (which I feel they should be do more). Imagine having the short routes by tricycles, jeeps, etc. run on electric and/or LPG/CNG. I think we could only imagine or perhaps dream. Our government, with the way things are going, does not have the resolve. To think, the president loves cars. Sad. – brondial

And one on Kap Aguila’s article “To be or LPG?”…

Hmmmm... LPG-powered jeepneys? Tough! Considering the net weight alone, it will need a lot of LPG gas just to keep it moving. What more if fully loaded with goods while navigating along steep curvy roadways?

I would rather go for the small lightly-built electric-powered jeepneys being promoted by VP Binay a few years ago. It is more economical, practical and environment-friendly. Let’s just use our LPG and LNG resources to generate more electricity.

The government should draw up a “Palit your Jeepney” soft-loan program so we can finally get rid of those road and environmental hazards. Go electric-powered jeepneys and cars! – DevilsOwn