“Is there a future for the tricycle as a mode of public transportation in a highly urbanized metropolitan area like the NCR?”
The government appears to be fast tracking the modernization of the country’s transportation infrastructure.
Expressways continue to be built and extended as well as airports, ports with the current focus on the traditional jeepneys which is getting a lot of news reaching the Supreme Court.
The government, however, seems to have forgotten the ubiquitous tricycle which we also see on all our roads wherever we go that the country has been dubbed as the world’s tricycle capital.
Since we are into this modernization mood and have decided to get rid of the venerable jeepney, the government should also now be thinking of what to do with the tricycle as a mode of public transportation.
As far as I know, just like the traditional jeepney, the tricycle was born out of necessity when many middle class subdivisions were being developed outside the central business districts of Greater Manila in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
There was a need to bring residents to the main jeepney and bus lines faster instead of letting them walk the distance.
Just like other things we Filipinos do, these tricycles slowly invaded the main roads until they are now all over the place even in some parts of EDSA where these vehicles are not allowed.
One reason for this was because many subdivision residents were the first people to start buying cars due to higher incomes. So the tricycles were forced to look for other customers by transferring their operations to the main roads and areas where there are many squatters or informal settlers.
A drive thru Agham Road adjacent to East Avenue in Quezon City is a good illustration of the chaos that tricycles can cause to traffic.
Tricycles have become the principal transportation that we see in squatter colonies around the NCR.
To make matters worse, many tricycle drivers think they are exempted from traffic laws.
Even the national highways like the MacArthur Highway going to Central and Northern Luzon are being used by tricycles to transport passengers from one town to another town which is also prohibited. The tricycle is now a major cause of traffic gridlock especially in the narrower roads in the National Capital Region.
Instead of their number decreasing because of increasing motorization, it is even increasing.
Part of the reason for this increase is that permits to operate tricycles can easily be obtained from the Local Government Unit and not from the DOTr which is a little more difficult.
Sooner or later, however, the government will have to grapple with the tricycle issue and should start planning early so when the government will later decide to simply do away with the tricycle, the implementation will be more efficient and not like the way the old jeepney phase-out is being handled.
I remember years ago reading the way Jakarta handled the phase-out of their version of tricycles.
The operators were simply told to stop their operations.
Those operators who insisted on continuing their operations had their tricycles confiscated by the police and simply thrown to the sea and that was the end of the story.
Obviously, we cannot do it like the way Jakarta did but the tricycles there did disappear pretty quickly. But realistically, is there a future for the tricycle as a mode of public transportation in a highly urbanized metropolitan area like the NCR?
The answer to this should depend solely on whether its continued operation will have more benefits than the problems it is causing to the prevailing traffic gridlock in the NCR.
If there are more disbenefits, then the tricycle should be phased out completely
Another thing to be considered is whether the sight of these tricycles belching tons of CO2s in a modernizing capital city is consistent with the notion of modernity.
The problem is, once this issue enters the debate, things will get complicated like what is happening to the current jeepney phase-out.
Although tricycle permits are issued by LGUs, this issue should not be handled by the DILG alone but should include DOTr inputs to cover all loopholes.