You clicked again! Hello and welcome to RA vs the World, where every weeknight, I post about normal things in a series I call Benign Existence. I keep the post in less than 500 words or less, so without further ado, let’s head straight to it. In this post, let’s talk about traffic.

Ten years ago, the traffic in the city where I work, Legazpi City, is not as bad as it is these days. I have to wait for an hour for me to be able to board a jeepney sometimes. I always get told by workmates and friends to buy a car, but as someone who is morally opposed to owning a car, my answer is always the same: I’m cool with the commute.

But is it always up to us commuters to adapt to the worsening traffic? I would argue that the government is not doing enough to resolve this problem, so tonight, let me list down five ways the government can do to make commute bearable at least. Starting with

1. The most obvious solution is to invest in better and more reliable transportation infrastructures. We’re seeing this now with the road-widening projects at least, but there is also the need to modernize mass transportation vehicles without sacrificing the livelihood of the jeepney drivers and operators. How? I don’t exactly know how, but surely, subsidies and innovation grants are good starting points.
2. There’s also a need to promote active transport. Again, this is something being done in Albay province. There are bike lanes in all major roads. The only thing that’s left to do is for governments to encourage, if not mandate, putting bike racks in large establishments. Also, where are the pedestrian and/or bridges and tunnels to encourage walking?
3. Allowing flexible work hours and work from home setups will also drastically cut the congestion during “rush hours.”
4. Phantom traffic jams or stop-and-go traffic can be solved by modernizing transport vehicles. If drivers of public transport buses, jeeps, or taxis are given not just given awareness about this phenomenon, but if we’re going to modernize transport, they should at least be installed with adaptive cruise control systems.
5. Last, but not the least, there should be urban green spaces. Read about phantom traffic jams that I mentioned previously (or watch this TED-ed video). One of the reasons for this is when too many drivers accelerate to try and avoid getting caught in the traffic. Having green spaces will calm drivers down, make them drive slower, and would help in maintaining the spaces between them. Green spaces also are nice alternatives for micro-transport, and would therefore encourage more sustainable transportation modes like cycling, electric scooters, or even skateboards.

There are more, but I only have 500 words. I’ll add more in a separate post someday.

I know some of these are going to be hard to fund, but if the government taps academics, researchers, and advocacy groups, maybe goals can be achieved faster.