It is called the king of the road, not because of a royal pedigree, which it does not have, but because its driver behaves like an absolute monarch, who has no regard for the law and for other motorists.
The jeepney has come a long way since it was created out of surplus and scrap left by the United States military in the Philippines in the aftermath of World War II, to address the post-war shortage of land transportation.
Today, instead of being a solution to the land transportation problem, the jeepney has become the land transportation problem in the country.
For starters, there is no truth to the claim that the jeepney is an original creation, one made right after the war. It is merely a remake of the pre-war era Austin cab, better known by elderly Filipinos and historians as the auto-calesa.
The jeepney is also an impractical means of land transportation. It occupies road space approximately half of that of a regular passenger bus, but it accommodates only about 20 percent of what half of an entire passenger bus can accommodate. That means more road space is used up for less people—impractical by any road engineering standard.
It is a very unsafe means of transportation as well. Many jeepney drivers today move their vehicles at reckless, breakneck speed, unmindful of the possibility of messing up in a road collisions.
Many jeepneys have worn-out tires which can easily make the vehicle skid on wet roads. Those tires are also likely candidates for blowing out, which can make the driver lose control over the vehicle. In those instances, the safety of the riding public is threatened.
There is pronounced threat, too, to pedestrians who may be struck by a jeepney the tires of which have blown out, or which skated on the wet road, thanks to its worn-out tires.
Many jeepneys are a collective threat to public health. Because they are often improperly maintained, they belch smoke, often thick enough to impair road visibility for other motorists. Their diesel engines also produce an invisible, noxious gas that, if inhaled over long intervals, causes lung cancer.
Metropolitan motorists will readily attest that almost all jeepney drivers do not use their headlights when traversing the roads at night. Whether this practice is prompted by a miserly attempt to save up on battery power, or because the headlights no longer function in the first place, is anybody’s guess.
One thing is for certain. Like the proverbial ostrich that buries its head in the sand, the jeepney driver assumes that if he can see another vehicle at nighttime, the driver of that vehicle can see his jeepney. Good grief!
Another thing is certain. The jeepneys that do not use their headlights at night make nighttime motoring a dangerous activity.
It will be readily observed by anybody in the metropolis that jeepneys stop whenever and wherever they please, even at non-loading zones, oblivious to the inconvenience they cause to other motorists. This practice also contributes to the traffic mess in the metropolis.
A jeepney driver will comply with traffic rules only when there is a policeman or traffic enforcer within his visual range. In areas where police visibility does not exist, the jeepney driver will readily violate traffic rules with impunity.
When a jeepney driver is accosted by cops for breaching traffic rules, he behaves like a docile lamb and sports a hypocritical smile in the hope that he can talk or bribe his way out of the mess.
In those instances when a jeepney driver is involved in a collision and it is evident that he was in violation of traffic rules, his typical, impertinent remark is “naghahanap-buhay lang naman ako” (I am just trying to earn a living). Huh? Since when was poverty a license to disregard the law?
The jeepney driver may be a docile lamb in the presence of a policeman or a traffic enforcer, but he is bold as a lion in their absence.
Check out the area where the jeepney driver sits. He keeps a hidden arsenal of sharp stones, ready to throw at private motorists who shout invectives at him for his disregard for traffic rules. When he is asked what the stones are for, he feigns ignorance.
The new law prohibiting distracted driving has overlooked the jeepney driver who receives fares with one hand, while the other hand is on the steering wheel. That act is clearly an instance of distracted driving. If a driver of a vehicle is prohibited from using a mobile phone while he is driving, a jeepney driver should be prohibited from making financial transactions while driving. Obviously, driving and collecting fares do not mix. That is why buses have conductors who collect passenger fare. That way, the driver of the bus is not needlessly distracted.
Bus drivers in America cannot be cited as an excuse. These drivers collect fares from each boarding passenger the moment the passenger steps inside the bus. Moreover, the bus driver collects fares when the bus is motionless, and is at a bus stop.
Many jeepney drivers do not carry driver’s licenses, and yet they are on the public roads. That’s lawlessness.
In past administrations, attempts to phase-out jeepneys were met with threats from organized jeepney groups. They conduct crippling transport strikes and hold traffic-causing rallies at major roadways. That kind of behavior is unacceptable in a country where the rule of law is purported to prevail.
President Rodrigo Duterte should go ahead with the phase out of this anachronistic vehicle which has become a public nuisance. The sooner they are gone from the roads, the better it will be for the public interest.