[sustran] Jeepneys a commuter dream

[Pascal Desmond]

article from The Christian Science Monitor's electronic edition.

Headline:  Jeepneys are a commuter's dream
Byline:  Jonathan Rowe 
Date: 02/21/2002
(POINT REYES STATION, CALIF.)
Freedom can mean different and even opposite things. It can mean the 
freedom to emit muck into the air, for example, or the freedom to 
breathe clean air. In regard to transportation, it can mean the freedom 
to drive a car or the freedom that comes from not needing a car.

A beacon of that latter freedom is an unlikely place - the Philippines, 
a nation known mainly in the US these days for political melodrama and 
Muslim rebels. In the Philippines you can get virtually any place you 
need to go - from downtown Manila to the most remote rural 
barangay (village) - with little waiting and for very little 
money, without a car.

Not only that. The freedom of movement in the Philippines comes with a 
freedom of expression on the public roadways rarely experienced in the 
automobile-oriented US. This remarkable transportation system requires 
no high-tech gizmos, massive investment, or grandiose public or 
corporate schemes. To the contrary, it is based upon a home-grown 
vehicle that literally is made from spare parts. It is called a 
"Jeepney"; and with adaptation, it could be part of the answer to 
America's traffic congestion and bad air.

The story began with the military jeeps that US troops left behind in 
the Philippines after World War II. Some enterprising Filipino thought 
to extend the back and put in two rows of benches, as in troop 
transport vehicles. There were open slots for windows, and an open 
doorway in the rear so people could get in and out quickly. Other 
places had jitneys. The Philippines would have Jeepneys, a kind of 
stretch jeep that is omnipresent on the Philippine roads today.

Jeepneys run regular routes, like buses. They will take you just about 
anywhere for the equivalent of less than 50 cents. So pervasive and 
convenient is the Jeepney network that the Ford Foundation determined a 
while back that its grant officers in the Philippines didn't need cars. 
Jeepneys would do just fine - with the advantage that, unlike most 
American officials there, Ford Foundation employees actually would 
experience how ordinary Filipinos live.

The system has answers for many deficiencies of mass transit in the US. 
For one thing, there's little waiting. In and around cities, the flow 
of vehicles is continuous. It's rare to wait more than a few minutes. 
If comfort is an issue, you generally can find an upscale version - an 
air conditioned van - that will carry you for a higher price. The 
system is totally flexible. Need groceries after work? No problem. 
There's a supplementary fleet of motorbikes with enclosed sidecars - 
called "tricycles" - that will pick you up at the market and take you 
right to your door.

The versatility of the system is extraordinary. In rural areas, farmers 
toss sacks of rice on top of Jeepneys - or even inside - and take them 
to market. I saw tricycles loaded with rugs, cola, a heavy farm 
implement, and even, on a rural road, a couple of pigs (which I suspect 
were having their last tricycle experiences). Since Jeepneys and 
tricycles are made locally, they provide local jobs, and can be adapted 
to local conditions. They are built simply, so they are easy to repair.

Where American automobiles sit unused most of the day, the Jeepneys are 
in constant service. They carry 20 passengers or more instead of one or 
two. On top of all this, the Jeepneys are owned by individuals, so 
there is no question of government or corporate control. The benefits 
of Jeepneys and tricycles go beyond transportation, however. They also 
provide something else - creativity and free expression on the streets.

The US is supposed to be the world capital of free expression. Yet it 
is amazing how corporate and constricted our public roadways have 
become. Most of our cars are exactly as they came from the factory. 
Advertising covers trucks, buses, and billboards. Only an occasional 
bumper sticker gets a word in edgewise.

Jeepneys, by contrast, are exemplars of home-grown design. They range 
from sleek, streamlined models to "funkmobiles" with loud paint jobs 
and riotous hood ornamentation. Some appear to have been in service 
since General MacArthur left the island in 1945. Newer van-type models 
also are creeping in. But together they constitute a kind of folk art - 
and street poetry as well.

In place of corporate logos, they sport names the way boats do. Some 
honor wives and children. Some profess religious devotion ("God Is 
Good," "Walk with Christ"), while others attest the prowess of the 
driver ("Sensitive," "Romantic").

It is strange, as an American, to have to travel halfway around the 
world, to a nation usually dismissed as "underdeveloped," to find such 
a developed capacity for free expression. Jeepneys couldn't be 
transplanted whole to the US, of course. They'd need more headroom for 
passengers and better protection from weather, for example. The 
emissions would have to be reduced. To keep traffic flowing, we'd need 
to establish regular stops, at least in urban areas. (In the 
Philippines the Jeepneys stop anywhere.) But as a concept for mass 
transit and a feeder for rail lines, the Jeepneys system would be hard 
to beat. As for mobility, I rarely have felt so free.

* Jonathan Rowe is a fellow at the Tomales Bay Institute, and a 
former Monitor staff writer.

(c) Copyright 2002 The Christian Science Monitor.  All rights reserved. 

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-- 
Slán agus Beannacht [Irish for Take care and Best wishes]
Pascal