The Fat Man Today

Two Saturdays ago - December 3, if memory serves - I was caught in the carmageddon that gripped the north-eastern part of Metro Manila. I consider myself one of the luckier ones since I didn't have a long way to travel, but it was still pretty bad considering that normally, it wouldn't have taken me that much time to make my trip. It was incredibly frustrating and inconvenient, and it was a good indicator of how much needs to be fixed in the metro's traffic infrastructure.

It's a busy morning, so I'm writing this from my mobile phone. Bear with me, folks. Just some talking points on the so-called "trafficgeddon" that's poised to sweep over the metropolis starting today: 1. Why are they undertaking projects of this magnitude all at the same time? Why couldn't they have started on some of them - perhaps the ones that have been in the drawing board for some time now - a few years back? What's so special about 2014? 2. To that point, just how efficient is their implementation plan, for both the execution of all the projects, and the contingency plans? I don't think I speak for myself when I say that I have plenty of doubts for the local governments to efficiently deal with the amount of traffic that will be rerouted. I mean, that's what all the highways they're improving are for, right? 3. They're improving both the LRT and the MRT, but what of the PNR? I've been taking the old at-grade railroads a bi...