Moving People

I NEVER REALIZED HOW CONVENIENT PUBLIC transportation could be until I had to make my way alone across a completely new city late at night, with barely any grasp of the language and with no internet connection.

- Patricia Mariano

Coming from Metro Manila, where loading points are a suggestion and schedules a game of patience and luck, I found it shockingly straightforward: there was a bus stop, it had a map showing the routes around the city, there was a timetable, the bus arrived when expected. Simple.

That commute in Lyon, France, lasted half an hour, possibly less, but it left a huge impact. I had to transfer from a bus to a tram that night. Somewhere during that transfer, my anxiety about getting lost or somehow taken advantage of shifted into an ease. I wasn’t being careless, but I was also not on edge. And this made me angry.

Why could we not have this back home? Why is it that we view public transportation as something to be borne with until we have our own car? Why does commuting have to be difficult, inconvenient, unsafe?

Formerly idle frustrations, these questions are now part of my daily life. I went into government straight from college, spent four years with the Department of Transportation, and am now taking further studies in, well, transport. These have led to some key realizations:

One: our public transport system is terrible. (Really.) It doesn’t make intuitive sense, the supply does not match the demand, the vehicles aren’t well-maintained, and using the system puts both your safety and your security at risk.