EDSAsperating

IKNOW, I know, EDSA isn’t news. What we’ve done to EDSA and what EDSA has done to us is nobody’s fault but everybody’s, especially those persons in power and authority that we mislabeled as leaders and experts.

Still, we can hope that there’s hope. Maybe it’s time for MMDA to stop experimenting with our fears and anxieties. The way things are stumbling along, it seems it’s state policy to nurture a bias against four wheels. We pay hefty taxes to own a car, to buy fuel, to keep the roads from turning into ruts, and what do we get? Already disallowed from driving one day of the week, we now face a provincial bus ban, a ban on driving without a passenger (what happens to working mothers who take their kids to school?), a ban on using the fast lane unless your car is heavily tinted. We also face the prospect of narrower lanes, as if the squeeze from arrogant wide-bodied SUVs and bullying jumbo buses weren’t already tight enough.

All these punishments hanging over our heads while buses refuse to stay within their lane and motorcycle

riders gleefully weave in and out any which way but on their designated lane. Is it so hard for the bus companies to design a matrix of their schedules so they don’t leave all at the same time on the same route? Such a matrix won’t cost a cent but it could drain some brains.

And why do city buses have to be as large as provincial buses, which may be 5 percent of vehicles on EDSA, but their driving etiquette sucks, 95 percent! What do city buses need all that cargo space for? Professional drivers whose opinion I sought agree with me, traffic could be easier with smaller, lighter city buses.

What happened on EDSA last Tuesday is one for the books. Six accidents between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m., plus enforcers barring buses from the flyovers – if on a whim, whose? They got what they wanted, 2 hours to cover 7 km.

Why am I complaining? It won’t help. That’s why it’s so EDSAsperating. Be kind to EDSA, it’s been a great part of our lives, why we keep taking it for granted. On a whim, let MMDA and the mayors close the whole stretch to all vehicles except those with low-number plates.