Phase Out the Obsolete Jeepney (an excerpt)
By: Neal H. Cruz
If the jeepney strike pushes through today, the government should use it to phase
out the jeepneys. This World War II relic should have been phased out a long time ago
but successive administrations had no balls to go through with the phase out. They were
afraid of the jeepney drivers who always threatened a strike when they were told to obey
the law. And there were not enough buses to replace the jeepneys to service commuters.
But the jeepney, although a tourist attraction and a romantic example of folk art, is
the principal source of the daily traffic jams. Its drivers are undisciplined, reckless and
probably don’t know half of the traffic rules. Because of the huge number of vehicles in
Metro Manila, there is only one way to improve traffic: make each and every driver, private
and public, obey each and every traffic rule.
Jeepney drivers have gotten away for so long with murder by bribing corrupt
policemen that it is a shock to them to be made to obey traffic rules and be fined if they
violate them. Anarchy reigns in the streets because of them.
Although they are not in the driver’s seat, jeepney operators are also to blame for
the anarchy. They make the drivers pay a flat rental (the boundary) for the jeepney.
Whatever the driver earns in excess of the boundary, plus the cost of fuel and oil-and
bribes- is his take home pay. So the driver is forced to break traffic rules so that he can
earn as much as he can. But that is no excuse.
Perhaps if the operator pays his driver a regular salary, plus social security and
mediocre premiums, and fixed times for trips, the driver would be less reckless and we
would have more orderly traffic.
As for the jeepney terminals, they really are a source of traffic congestion. Try this:
whenever you come to a traffic jam, trace the source and in may cases it would be a
jeepney terminal. Jeepneys lined up along narrow street take up space intended for
moving vehicles. Some jeepney routes are too short, which means more terminal- and
bigger fares for passengers.
Another reason why the jeepney should be phased out is that it takes up too much
road space and consumes more fuel for the number of passengers it can accommodate.
One bus can take in passengers of ten jeepneys but take up only a fourth of the space
occupied by the 10 jeepneys. In short, the jeepney is all right in the provinces where there
is ample road space but not in a crowded metropolis like Metro Manila. It was a great as
emergency civilian transportation during the Liberation days, but not anymore. Alas, it has
become obsolete in the city.
The phase out doesn’t mean throwing the jeepneys into the junk heap and their
drivers into the ranks of the jobless. There is a great need for the jeepney in many areas
of the Philippines where there is a shortage of transportation. Send them there.
Where will the commuters ride without the jeepneys? Send in more buses with
salaried drivers and conductors and fixed trip schedules so they don’t have to clog
loading//unloading zones waiting for passengers. Organize the bus companies in Metro
Manila into one super-consortium so that the bus ticket of one company can be used to
transfer to another bus of a different company. This is to prevent passengers and buses
clogging bus stops because they are waiting for the bus going exactly to where they are
going. If transfers are allowed, they can board any bus going in the same direction (and
the bus doesn’t have to wait long for passengers) and then transfer to another bus at their
convenience.
Encourage commuters to use the Merocrine by improving the coaches and having
more trips.
Use the Pasig River. The Metro Ferry failed because there were not enough
passengers mainly because the boats are small. Hong Kong type shallow-drift ferries will
certainly attract more passengers. Use the smaller boats during high tide to be able to
pass under the bridges. Have another ferry service to Cavite City to relieve traffic on
Coastal Road. (There used to be one; why was it discontinued?)
And hurry up with the C-5 and the C-6…
