This obsession with traffic

The world does adjust and in the last decade, more people are already using the word “mobility.” Apparently because it has become a byword for progressive pro-people sentiments akin to social “green-ism” and the growing realization of the subconscious car-centric mindset of people. But it’s clear that many people still think of traffic when uttering “mobility” in a statement. Their subsequent words usually give that away.

It was Fred Kent who famously coined the now-popular adage: “If you plan cities for cars and traffic, you get cars and traffic. If you plan for people and places, you get people and places.” He stressed the primordial importance of planning for public spaces instead of agonizing about traffic. A corollary statement is also the phrase “to plan for people, not for cars.” Both have become so popular a lot of people are parroting them in describing what they are doing, without an iota of truth that they are.

Traditionally, the first common mistake has always been looking at “traffic,” (short for traffic congestion), as the problem instead of what it really is --a symptom of the problem. The real problem is wrong and/or inadequate transportation caused primarily by undesirable mode share, or the percentage of people’s “trips” in the different modes of transport --mainly private cars (including motorcycles), public transportation, and active transportation (walking and biking). The different modes all usually use a common road space, and it is the efficient utilization of this road space which defines which is better. For example, a typical one-lane road may carry 2,000 passengers per hour per direction (PPHPD) if it carries only cars, carrying 1.4 passengers each on the average. It may carry 5,000 PPHPD by jeepney or 8,000 by bus. An ordinary Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system can carry 12,000, while an advanced one like that of Bogota, Colombia can carry 40,000. Surprisingly, even walking and biking can carry much more than cars!

It won’t be surprising, therefore, to conclude that the main cause of traffic are private cars. In fact, the simple truth is that if all people are suddenly provided public transportation today, all “traffic” will suddenly disappear in all cities of the country. Or in the world, for that matter! So as what we penned out last week, it’s all about public transportation. Urban mobility is the ability of people to move from one place to another primarily and most especially, from one’s home to the places of work.

Unfortunately, cities cannot address mobility issues but still think about traffic. It’s very evident when people pretend to talk about mobility without really understanding or addressing it --the details they talk about will always be about traffic-- how to address traffic, how to plan for traffic, and how to solve it. And the solutions that will be discussed will concentrate on traffic and how to relieve it --how to expand roads and make new ones, build overpasses and expressways, install better traffic management systems --all towards making vehicle speed better for the car. Very few, or even none, will be about public transportation, beefing up capacities and installing new ones. This obsession about traffic remains.