Transport Crisis During the Holiday Season

Recently, renowned reporter Atom Araullo made headlines and went viral when he tweeted about the broken transportation system in the Philippines. Araullo who had just come back from an overseas trip had experienced difficulty in finding a mode of transportation back home after arriving at Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA).

This tweet then sparked conversations regarding the worsening traffic and congestion in Metro Manila with other commuters airing out their concerns and difficulties with mobility in Metro Manila.

During the Christmas season, traffic in Metro Manila was often called “Carmageddon” causing major traffic and kilometer-long queues to get on board a jeepney, bus, or train.

Last month, the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) predicted road congestion to increase by 10% as of November 24, and approximately 417,000 vehicles go through EDSA every day. This number was set to increase as the holidays came closer.

In the Urban Mobility Readiness Index, 2022 edition by the Oliver Wyman Forum and the University of California Berkely discovered that the urban mobility and public transportation readiness in the Philippines are noted to be one of the worst in the world.

Of 60 global cities in the world, Manila was ranked 58 in terms of Urban Mobility Readiness (UMR). Aside from this, despite the Philippines having many modes of transportation with trains and jeepneys, the country still ranked 56th in the Public Transit sub-index.

According to the report, it said that “Despite these multimodal strengths, Manila’s public transit system has room for improvement in speed, wait times, station density, and affordability,”

Despite the holidays nearing their end, this has only revealed how truly broken the transportation system in the country is and how commuters suffer on a daily due to the inefficient and exhaustive system.

Sources: Inquirer, Philstar,