HAVE you observed that the traffic and mobility situation these days is worse than before the pandemic? The car-centric approaches that we have applied to alleviate our transportation problems have not worked. Building more roads and bridges for private motor vehicles provides only temporary relief. Because of the phenomenon of induced demand, more roads for cars only attracts further motor vehicle use. Before long, the influx of more vehicles results in worse traffic and pollution. Instead, the focus should be on making public transport, walking and cycling the preferred options for our daily travel (even if it means taking some of the road space away from cars).
We should see through the false promises. For decades, we have heard officials talk about how new urban roads and bridges for motor vehicles would solve traffic — promises of Cubao to Makati in five minutes or Bonifactio Global City (BGC) to Ortigas Center in 12 minutes. Or how the Skyway and building several new bridges across the Pasig River would somehow reduce the level of congestion on EDSA (Remember the "EDSA Decongestion Program"?). Today, we know those promises were empty. Worse, they have set us backwards and disadvantaged millions of Filipinos.
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