The country is in the grip of a real transportation crisis and the government does not even know it. Or if it knows, it does not know how to deal with it. And even if it knows how, it does not know when or where to begin. The problem has simply become too humongous and unwieldy from years of apathy and inefficiency, not to mention corruption. The crisis is manifold, contrary to the common perception that it only involves traffic.
But let us consider traffic first. The infrastructure in many areas is not only constricted, it is also crumbling. The growth of road networks is fired by plans that do not look far ahead enough. They simply cannot keep up with the rapid rise in the number of motor vehicles, the sale of which can go as low as P5,000 down in the case of cars, and P2,000 down for motorcycles. It is no longer a matter of if but of when we will get swamped by a sea of polluting contraptions.
With so many machines fighting over so little space, in a fight driven by a desire to stay ahead, earn more, go faster, and get further, safety becomes a real concern. But concern can only turn to frustration as laws and regulations get observed more in the breach. If one standing on a roadside on any given day can only sell every traffic and safety rule violation he observes, one can be a millionaire in a day.
But the fight for space is not limited to the road network, although it is most palpable there. It is also being waged in airports, or the lack of them. Right now the country's major airports are making do with rapidly increasing flight frequencies without the airport space to match. Most of the airport and runway expansion programs are pretty much still in the planning or early implementation stage, clearly way behind a need that is palpable now.
Maritime transportation is struggling with its own woes as well. Pretty much of the country's existing fleets are rusting and leaking, if not of old age, then of profligate neglect in upkeep and maintenance. Only very few fleets are young and run professionally and responsibly. Many are simply in a race on whose luck runs out first.
The problem with the problem is that no one seems to be in charge, or is in charge only in name. Nothing has changed with each new administration except the change one notices when problems keep piling up. And when problems that are transportation in nature pile up, they usually mean more inconvenience, greater discomfort, higher costs, deeper anxiety, less safety.