Mercado: No bamboo reeds

Sunday, October 2, 2011

DO NOT look at the heavens through a bamboo reed,” a Japanese proverb counsels.

That fits the storm kicked up by the experimental “Road Revolution” in Cebu City.

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Here’s a summary of Magsaysay awardee Antonio Oposa’s take on the issue.

All agree that traffic congestion is reaching crisis levels in Cebu. A magnet for an ever-growing population, the city finds its narrow roads choked. Only 5 percent have motor vehicles. The other 95 percent cannot even walk on decent sidewalks.

Those who’d bicycle, weave in and out, since there are no bike lanes. Subic and Dumaguete have such lanes. Bacoor just opened one along the Daang Hari road that traverses Muntinlupa and Las Piñas.

Our formal leaders are at their wits end. They have not proposed a viable solution.

We, the people, are trying to propose a solution: road sharing. “Those who have less in wheels must have more in roads.”

The “Road Revolution” movement seeks to alter mindsets, attitudes and practices of people. It’d also recast the road system to make it more fair by giving everyone fair share of public space. Sa Binisaya pa, dili ta magtagsa-tagsa og lihok kay samok.

Thus, the Movement proposed in June that the City Council consider an ordinance for road space sharing. The formula suggested includes, among others: sidewalks—30 percent; collective transport—30 percent; bike lanes—30 percent; green space for vegetables---10 percent.

“This is not a simple wish, nor a figment of my imagination,” Oposa writes. “This is
the law.”

The Local Government Code (Sections 120-127) “gives power to the people to propose an ordinance directly to their City Council.” Other citizens can petition the Commission on Elections and submit the question to voters in a referendum.

Executive Order 774 of 2008 also directs the Departments of Transportation and Public
works and Highways to address today’s congestion under a “new paradigm.”

The new approach “must favor non-motorized locomotion and collective (or mass) transportation system (walking, bicycling, etc.)…Transport roads shall use the same principle.”

Credit the Cebu City Council and Mayor Mike Rama for agreeing last July that “we pilot the idea in the Heritage District…” We had hoped that for 12 hours, out of the 8,760 hours of the year, people would experience, however briefly, the joys of walking or cycling in a very small stretch of roads in the old City.

However, it swirled into a “perfect storm.” Other roads were sealed off. T. Padilla St. had a barangay fiesta. Part of Osmeña Blvd. was closed for a religious function.

An Alay Lakad activity closed SRP for part of the day.

The “Road Revolution” was more visible. “So, we received the brunt of the complaints.

“That is the way the ball bounces,” Oposa apologized to those inconvenienced.

Geographically, Cebu is the country’s “solar plexus.” He added. It has some of the liveliest, fun-loving and hard-headed people…If Cebu can do it, a wave of change will radiate from the center, much like the ripples in a pond.

Oposa succeeded in getting the Supreme Court to set landmark decisions on the Manila Bay clean­-up and right of future generations to ecological stability.

“In the past, I used the law to tell a story in the courtroom.” It took ten years to litigate the Manila Bay case. This time, I tried a new approach--–to tell a story to many people starting with Cebu. If the people understood it, maybe we’ll go a little farther.

“If you want to walk fast, walk alone,” an African proverb says. “If you want to walk far, walk with many.”

(juanlmercado@gmail.com)