OPINION: “REAR BUMPER GAUGE” by Juan Mercado

“You burn 14 days a year staring at the rear bumper of the car ahead,” a friend grouses. One can quibble with his traffic gridlock estimates. But glazed eyes of passengers, trapped in stop-go traffic, tell of stiff costs in fuel burnt, lost hours, raw nerves and gutted lungs.

People use this “gauge” in bumper-to-bumper lanes from Delhi's Ring Road, Bangkok’s Ploenchit road to Manila’s Edsa. And the problem explains those new transport indicators for even medium-size Asian cities, released by the World Research Institute Sunday.

Like Davaoenos and Cebuanos, people in Xi'an in China, Pune in India, and Hanoi, Vietnam, find their commutes longer and costlier. As population sprawls into the suburbs, roads clog up. Jakarta’s population “imploded” to 8 million in 15 years – one tenth the time it took New York City to reach the same number. Traffic congestion is spreading, WRI notes in: “Sustainable Transport Development.”

In Asia, "the rate of vehicle ownership, by individuals, is growing more rapidly than what public or private infrastructure can accommodate,” WRI points out. “More than half of all trips …are made on foot or by two-or three-wheeled vehicles”. Respiratory and other ailments climb as smoke belchers gas passengers.

Motorcycle ownership in Vietnam stands at 94% compared to 37% for the Philippines. The numbers of cycles doubled in less than a decade. In Cebu City vigilantes use motorcycles, stripped of license plates, for assassination. India produced over 10 million vehicles last year, the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) reports. But in Asia, distribution remains skewed: 667 Japanese, out of every 1000, drove a car; 42 Filipinos did.

Thailand spends 5% to 6% percent of its GDP for infrastructure. The Bangkok-Chonburi motorway is the newest addition to its over 335 kilometer toll way. Our stunted toll ways barely cover 150 kilometers. "The emphasis throughout Asia has been on adding roads or building high-cost systems such as rail-based metros,” WRI notes.

WRI indicators cover: access, safety, environment, economic and social sustainability and governance. They’re designed to help cities unsnarl gridlocks. The need is for “more environmentally sustainable modes, such as non-motorized transport and lower-cost bus systems."

“But ever increasing cars fill the ever increasing space,” Sunita Narain snaps in the “Economics of Congestion”. In the West, the car replaced the bus or bicycle. “But in our world, it only marginalized space…”

In Asian cities, cars and two-wheelers carry less than 20% of commuters. Buses, bicycles, etc. transport the rest. But cars and motorcycles occupy over 90% city's road space. Beneficiaries of the road, flyover or elevated highway are those in cars or astride motorcycles.

Aside from ill health stemming from pollution and congestion’s cost in time, fuel etc, and there are glossed over bills, Narain claims. These are for include : ( a ) cost of the road; ( b ) maintaining and policing it; ( c ) and ( e ) expense for space.

You need 23 square meters to park a car but only 15 to install a desk in your office. “The one million-odd cars in Delhi take up 11 per cent of the city's urban area”. Cities should charge for to reflect the real cost of roads. Narain adds: “Ultimately, the issue is not even what it costs…but is why we are not estimating the losses”.

There are estimates and estimates. And their conclusions vary from the perspectives. Thai economists figure congestion lops 6% off Bangkok’s economic production. A National Center for Transportation Studies tally for Philippine traffic congestion losses came to iP100 billion. But that’s skewed whenever price of oil bolts from $48 a barrel to $65.

Asean lost $11 billion, in 2000, due to the 73,000 road deaths and 1.8 million injuries, says Asian Development Bank Police in the Philippines and Indonesia under-report fatalities in these “mean streets.” And traffic agencies are notably lax. Possession of a driver’s license here does not guarantee the holder knows how to drive.

Air pollution in Asia's worst-affected cities is five to six times the levels considered safe by the World Health Organization. Outdoor air pollution causes 530,000 premature deaths in Asia “TSP” or total suspended particulates, breach World Health Organizations safety benchmarks five fold in places like Metro Manila. The microscopic dust embeds itself in the lung and causes respiratory disease, cancer and other ailments.

“Lead emissions result in a significant loss of cognitive capacity among children”. That’s scientific jargon for dumbing down kids. Mental capacity of children constantly gassed by smoke belchers is crimped. “Your elevators don’t go to the top floor” is a taunt that’ll be tossed at them as they grow up.

There are success stories too. Bangkok cut pollution levels in half, over a decade, by clamping higher taxes on “tuk-tuks”-- two-stroke tricycles .that were among the heaviest polluters. Singaporeans must bid for the right to buy cars. Traffic in the central district is restricted during peak hours and public transport is extensive.

“Partial calculations have limitations,” notes the book: “Emerging Asia – Changes and Challenges.” “But they place the real costs of congestion in perspective (for) many policymakers who remain unaware of the full extent of the problem.”

The election season has started. This guarantees our policymakers won’t look at those “rear-bumper gauges” anytime soon.