Transport Wishes

A few days back, Puerto Princesa City Mayor Edward Hagedorn was seen on national TV testing a prototype of the "Tricycle ng Bayan." The tricycles run on an electric motor using a rechargeable battery. He plans to deploy at least 100 Trikebayans in his City in the next few months.

It caught my attention as the electric tricycle offers a solution to the persistent noise and air pollution that is caused by the multitudes of gas powered ones plying the streets of the Philippines. There are more than two million tricycles running in the towns and cities of our beloved country. All of these are gas powered and noisy. If the operators would be convinced to convert to electric powered tricycles, we could just imagine the reduction of emissions and decibel levels we would be encountering everyday.

Compare this initiative with the Israeli government's move to encourage its citizens to shift to electric cars. Government policy planners and project implementors are focusing their eyes into making this a viable undertaking. Time Magazine quoted Israel President Shimon Peres as saying that this is "an experimental lab, a pilot project, before it's applied to other, bigger industrialized nations." (http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1705518,00.html).

What struck me in the plan is that the Israelis are going to build the necessary support infrastructure to ensure that the project will be a success. Battery charging stations are going to be constructed all over Israel so that the problem of running out on charge would be minimized.

Another item that caught my attention was the news bite that quoted the University of the Philippines National Center for Transportation Studies as having said that there is a glut of public utility vehicles in Metro Manila streets.

I think that this is a no brainer.Just take a trip on EDSA and one can easily see the half empty buses chugging along, clogging the roadways. A more efficient system of dispatching these vehicles should be done so that at the very least, the number of vehicles could be minimized.

If only a fairy godmother would appear and give me three wishes, these would be the wishes that I would make: I am wishing that the LRT/MRT link could be started and finished. I am wishing that a subway could be built in Metro Manila. I am wishing that the national railway system could be revived. If my wishes would be granted, maybe the Philippines may still make it.