A few days ago, I was walking along the United area in San Pedro City in the early evening rush hour when, out of nowhere, a man sitting on a motorcycle and wearing the uniform of a well-known ride-hailing app called me out.
"Boss, gusto mong pumunta ng Muntinlupa? Sakay na, grabe ang traffic doon ngayon," was his sales pitch.
Since I haven't even installed that ride-hailing app, and anyway, I was heading home, I politely waved the offer away.
But it started me thinking about how Metro Manila's persistent travel woes have spilled into its suburbs, which meant that even Lagunenses are now forced to ride motorcycle taxis just to get to their work to the National Capital Region and back home.
Our local editor, for one, noted that she had heard instances of even high-school and college students opting to take these motorcycle-riding apps, rather than enduring heavy traffic along the National Highway to Muntinlupa City.
Even though motorcycle-riding apps tend to be more pricey than public utility vehicles, many are now willing to sacrifice money for the convenience these motorcycle taxis offer.
A motorcycle taxi can get you from San Pedro to Alabang in, let's say, just over fifteen minutes, compared to up to an hour if you drive or take a jeepney.
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The rise of motorcycle taxis here in Laguna province – not to mention the now-common spillover of traffic from Muntinlupa City to the cities of San Pedro (or even Biñan) – points out to a problem commuters and even urban experts have lamented for years: the persistent “car-centric” nature of our urban and transport planning.
Consider this: most infrastructure projects here in Laguna province now underway are road-widening and road-reblocking projects.
Which, may I point out, probably won’t even catch up with the fact that car sales in the Philippines rose by 2.4 percent from September 2023 to September 2024, based on latest data from the Chamber of Automotive Manufacturers of the Philippines, Inc. (CAMPI) and Truck Manufacturers Association (TMA).
Sure, big-ticket projects such as the much-vaunted North-South Commuter Railway (NSCR) are now gearing up in the province, but the awful truth is that such projects won’t be finished in three to four years – maybe even longer, depending on the volatile economic and political scene.
And don’t get me started on the Public Utility Vehicle Modernization Program (PUVMP). Only a handful of modernized PUVs currently ply our province’s roads (on valid concerns from transport groups and jeepney drivers, may I point out), and only one local government unit so far has had its Local Public Transportation Route Plan (LPTRP) approved by the authorities.
The boom of motorcycle taxis in Laguna province, in my view, can be seen as both a solution and a symptom of the terrible commuting experience ordinary workers have to face every day just to get to office or school and back home.
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