Public Transpo: Convenience or Comfort?

I am a commuter. We may have a car but I commute to work, to the mall, and to other places I need to go.

For each day of the week that I must be at the office, I ride at least two kinds of public transportation: a tricycle, and a jeepney. Sure, there may be days when I choose to take a cab or hire a motorcycle for a quick trip to the office but for ordinary mornings, I take a tricycle and two jeepney rides to work. Although that may sound bland and uninteresting, it's a reality that most Filipinos deal with for each day of their life--and some may not even have the chance to own a car and thus be forever stuck with public transportation forever.

More often than not, the quickest solution to a commuter's transportation woes is the jeepney. Flamboyant and fast, the jeepney had been the king of Philippine roads for decades since World War II. It has seen very little changes (evolution?) over the years and the design cannot be in more need of improvement than ever. Seats are often made using two long planks of wood, wrapped and stuffed with a holding fabric or tarpaulin and makeshift rags, foam, or other materials to serve as cushion. 

 

What most Filipinos fail to consider when commuting (or completely choose to disregard) are the words 'convenience' and 'comfort.' Two words both starting with the letter C but with meanings different from the other. 

C is for Convenience

To quote Wikipedia.com, "Convenience is anything that is intended to save resources (time, energy) or frustration." True enough, things that we consider as providing convenience are those that shorten suffering, frustration, anxiety, etc. A typical commuter would usually have to deal with emotional and physical discomfort due to the chore of traveling from several points on the map to get to his/her destination via the services of Philippine public transportation. 

The abundance of jeepneys at present often make it easier for commuters to find a ride and the cost of riding one is far cheaper than when riding a cab. In fact, jeepneys are plenty enough to be spotted just about anywhere in the Metro. Be it on main roads or side streets, there will surely be a jeepney or two trying to beat the other to a commuter standing on a sidewalk. 

The convenience that jeepneys provide to passengers start and end only in their numbers. Though a passenger may simply opt to ride a more spacious and longer jeepney after seeing an already packed one, it's only a matter of time before the one s/he rode gets just as crowded if not more.

C is for Comfort

Lifting again from Wikipedia, "Comfort is a sense of physical or psychological ease, often characterized as a lack of hardship." While the sense of comfort sounds somewhat related to convenience, it should be noted that, as mentioned, comfort requires physical and/or psychological ease while convenience saves effort and resources. To look at comfort from a commuter's perspective, there are very few existing modes of transportation that provide us with either physical or psychological ease. 

For comfort to be afforded in the Metro, deeper pockets are necessary. Even with the Metro Rail Transit (MRT), Ligh Rail Transit (LRT), air conditioned jeepneys, air conditioned buses, FX, and cabs, there is still no telling to what extent can our good Peso give us comfort.

The MRT, LRT, air conditioned jeepneys and buses, and FX vans all have design issues. The layout of the seats DOES have an impact on overall passenger experience and total capacity. Second hand buses that were imported overseas for use here in the Philippines are big failures in the sense that their layout are all the same, with small seats and an even smaller leg room to move. Understandably, the design of these buses was made to be so in order to accommodate more passengers but although there may be some good logic behind this, advancements in design and vehicle manufacturing should translate even to buses that seek to accommodate so much. The LRT and MRT are no different, with exception to the LRT 2 (by far the most spacious train line in the country). During morning and afternoon-evening rush hours, these train lines are heavily congested with passengers. Platforms get full by the second and trains arrive late and leave too soon, already packed with passengers and with almost no room for one more. Yet, people squeeze in, making the impossible, well, possible. 

Moneyed commuters take cabs or taxis instead to avoid being crowded-in like canned sardines inside other forms of public transportation. However, while taxis allow passengers to have more space to themselves, the flag down rate and increments by distance have significantly been augmented. If the high cost of riding a taxi isn't enough, certain cab units have tampered meters, so be careful!

However people look at commuting, the problems behind it are becoming more and more serious by the day. Convenience and comfort may not be the main concern of people who ride public transportation but that doesn't mean they don't deserve them. Profiting has been the main objective of line operators since time immemorial, often disregarding what is due their patrons. 

When acquiring buses, maybe ones with better seat layouts should be considered. The number of LRT and MRT trains should also be increased, partnered with a better segregation scheme which assigns specific trains to specific stops, lessening the volume of passengers per train. Jeepney drivers and barkers should realize that while the average capacity of their vehicle is 20 pax, not every passenger is as fit or small-framed as the others; a bit of adjustment in mentality and common sense should be made.

With the rising price of gasoline, I don't see myself driving my own car anytime soon. Chances are, I'd still be commuting for a good five to ten years. Is it too much to ask for better a better public transportation system?