Category Archives: Private Initiatives on Commuting

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Palafox: Creating Green Urbanism

February 5, 2013 – 9:00 am

By Catherine Dominguez, http://www.ecoseed.org

Green urbanism, the idea of creating a community that is beneficial to both its human population and the environment, is a school of thought that’s rising in popularity in tandem with the idea that the future lies in sustainable development.

According to Dr. Timothy Beatley, in his book “Green Urbanism: Learning from the European Cities,” green urbanism is an attempt to shape more sustainable places, communities and lifestyles and consume 75 percent of the world’s resources.

Dr. Beatley, one of the first to espouse the idea of green urbanism, described a city living along the lines of green urbanism as striving to live within its ecological limits, function in ways parallel to nature, striving to achieve a circular rather than a linear metabolism, striving toward self-sufficiency, facilitating more sustainable lifestyles and emphasizing a high quality neighborhood and community life.

In the Philippines, one man envisions green urbanism not just for the country but for the world as well. He is the renowned green architect and urban planner, Felino “Jun” Palafox Jr.

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10 ideas for change in the Transport System in the Philippines

February 1, 2013 – 9:00 am

by Carmela Zabala

I would like to join efforts with Mr Michael Tan (http://opinion.inquirer.net/45869/moving-people) in his advocacy to call for transforming the transport system in the Philippines. Perhaps, the starting point is asking ourselves how we might create a human-centred design and inclusive transport system.

Last week I sent the Chairman of MMDA, Atty. Francis Tolentino, the Part 1 of our suggestions that might create a humane and inclusive transport system and incentivise people to use the public transport, cut carbon emission, and diminish the ubiquitous congestion on the road, end the senseless queuing and other inconveniences that undermine the well-being of the Filipino people.

The onslaught of climate change, increasing population and poor health should force us to look for creative solutions that regenerate our communities and produce responsible citizens. There are practical solutions that can move quickly into practice that will ease traffic which should be made mainstream activities such as walking, biking, carpooling and using the public transport system. However, the latter is highly disorganised and is already bursting at the seams. I think we need to get out of our silos and collaborate radically, perhaps a multi-agency group composed of the government and other stakeholders such as the corporate sector, civil society, and media should develop the ecosystem and sponsor change, give people a stake in the outcome so that we can shift people to buy into these activities and consequently change behaviour.

I’m passionate about my campaign for better transport because the lack of inclusive and human-centred design in public services such as transport perpetuates deeper poverty in vulnerable communities.

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Moving people

January 30, 2013 – 9:00 am

By Michael L. Tan, Philippine Daily Inquirer

Last November I wrote about how taking the LRT and MRT has become an ordeal, nothing short of a descent into hell. Many readers responded, giving their stories, their analysis of the problems, and possible solutions.

I’ve promised to take on the improvement of LRT/MRT as a personal advocacy, including a column synthesizing the solutions proposed by readers. Meanwhile, though, I thought that I should give a social history of mass transport systems in the Philippines, to better contextualize the LRT/MRT. I will also describe the irony of Manila once being relatively advanced when it came to mass transport in Southeast Asia, before lagging far behind our neighbors.

The ability to move or transport large numbers of people is always a good indicator of both technological and social development. The technology part is the more obvious but we tend to forget that efficient, affordable and safe mass transportation speaks well of a society’s concern for the collective welfare, going beyond the individual or family.

Think of our own precolonial balangay, large boats that were estimated to be able to take as many as 90 people. It is not surprising that the term has since been adopted, as the barangay, to refer to the basic political unit in the Philippines. The balangay, and larger seafaring vessels that came during the Spanish colonial period, played vital roles as people began to explore new places, engage in trade, and, sadly, go into warfare and raiding expeditions. When the Spaniards came to the Philippines, they recognized the expertise of the indios, for building ships, as well as for seafaring. Some time back I wrote about some historians’ view that San Pedro Calungsod may actually have been a seafarer, one of many in the 17th century looking for work, and landing in a ship that ended up in Guam on an evangelizing mission.

Mass transport on land came much later, catalyzed by urbanization and the large populations needing transport, as well as by the Industrial Revolution and the need to transport raw materials to and finished products from factories. In the 19th century western European countries pioneered in the development of mass transport systems: buses and trams and subways within cities, and railways to connect cities.

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ADB unveils ‘Tutubi’ bicycle project

November 7, 2012 – 9:00 am

By Kristine Felisse Mangunay, Philippine Daily Inquirer

This “dragonfly” is not an insect.

Instead of wings, it has a handlebar. Instead of legs, it has two wheels.

“Tutubi,” the name of the bug kids love to catch at playtime, is the moniker of a green transport project involving a fleet of bicycles concocted in the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and unveiled in its headquarters in Mandaluyong City on Tuesday.

Bradley Schroeder, an ADB transport consultant, said the project would promote one very important trait—sharing. In the process, it could help reduce carbon emissions in heavily polluted and traffic-clogged urban centers, he said.

“Bicycle-sharing is a network of bicycles that are available to the public,” Schroeder told reporters.

The idea was broached during the opening day of the biannual three-day Transport Forum 2012 discussing key issues in the public and private vehicular system in Asia and the Pacific—air pollution, climate change and road safety, among others.

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Inclusive Mobility Challenge winners

October 28, 2012 – 9:00 am

By Dean Tony La Viña, http://manilastandardtoday.com

In my last column, I introduced candidates and winners of the Inclusive Mobility Challenge whose advocacy centered around bicycles. Here, I tackle the three remaining notable candidates, one of whom bagged the Challenge’s Grand Prize, each of which offers a different service that’s wholly lacking in the greater picture of Metro Manila urban mobility.

Throughout this column’s discussion of inclusive mobility, I have described cars as an inefficient mode of mobility, compared to a well-thought out system of buses and trains, pedestrian and bike lanes, and even jeeps and trikes (where and when they can be efficiently used and integrated into the inclusive mobility network). But until government and society can build up alternative, public-use mobility as a competitive alternative to private vehicle use, and I argue even when we have such alternatives, we must also take steps to reform the use of the car – make it a more efficient use of fuel and space by maximizing its passenger carriage: the carpool.

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