Bacolod Traffic: Thoughts of a Commuter on the Jeepney and Its Negrense Drivers

One of the things I realized in the first few months I spent since arriving in this city was that it is home to a people who have seemingly removed “rush” and “haste” in its day-to-day travel vocabulary. This is not a negative statement. If you are from Manila and you suddenly find yourself here in Bacolod, you would know why what I just said leans more on the positive than in the negative.

As a daily commuter, it beats me to see how jeepney drivers make a gentle reverse to pick up a passenger they passed by some seconds ago as they missed seeing them walk along an alley. Or as daily experience proves it in jeepney terminals, drivers seem oblivious to the time they spend waiting for passengers to fill up their vehicle. Or again, whenever a jeepney plies near you, drivers never fail to ask, “Sakay ka ‘Day?,” to which one may respond with a simple shake of the head to indicate and say a polite “No.”

Having lived and worked in Manila all of my 30 years, this almost daily scenario of commuting in Bacolod and its environs has taught me several things. Even if Bacolodnons may seemingly have eradicated “rush and haste” from their mind, doing so has some downsides to it. I have listed a number of lessons gathered over a period of six months, which I can aptly call “Daily Commuting 101.”

Number one is that, you cannot accurately calculate the time you spend traveling from your house to your workplace. This is because waiting time in terminals or pick-up points really just varies everyday. However, this is only true for those who take the jeepney as a daily public transport. For one, it depends on the temperament of your jeepney driver. If you want less waiting time in a terminal, wish for a phlegmatic driver. He will not be patient enough to wait a long time and will not be bothered whether or not he has a full load of passengers before he speeds away en route to your destination. A choleric driver on the one hand wants his vehicle properly filled up, the kind who exhibits much zeal in getting all the passengers he possibly could in just one single trip. Those drivers who gloomily speed away with one or two passengers --- this after seeing he has a lot of competitor-drivers --- may most probably be your melancholic type. Finally, your sanguine jeepney driver may show his easy-go-lucky ways by either flitting from one pick-up point to the other speeding away without a plan for the day’s trip, or by waiting in a terminal to what seems like eternity because he got entangled in an engaging conversation with his conductor (or barker)-friend. So what should you do to be on time for school or work or whatever appointment you may have? Just be patient, relax and don’t lose your cool when you are not right on schedule. You may still leave your house 30-45 minutes earlier or even make it one hour in order to be punctual for your appointments. Continue doing that. Your constancy and patience will bear fruit in time.

Number two lesson is that for you to get off to your destination without having to walk some meters back, say “Lugar lang…” with your lilting accent fairly a hundred meters ahead. Why? Bacolod City jeepney drivers have a great propensity to speed away even when not in the highway. So, chances are, if you do not give a 100-meter warning tone to your driver, you would really end up walking back or worse, you’ll have to take another jeepney back to your real stop! That’s P6.50 or P7.00 more from your wallet. “Big deal!” you may say, but no! For somebody who is conscious enough of how much one is earning and spending on a daily basis, it means something, and a lot!

Number three lesson is to bring a hanky with you when commuting. Maybe the city government has already done its share of reminding all public utility drivers to undergo a smoke-emission test, but I wonder how many have truly gone through this test. This city, unfortunately, has a lot of smoke-belchers. That’s why, a hanky is always handy to cover your nose so as not to inhale nitrogen-filled smoke which make up most of urban smog.

Number four: take care while crossing the street.
One dangerous thing with many public utility jeepney drivers is that they oftentimes are careless turning from one corner to the next since they do so without looking where they turn. And well, even when they are not turning from a corner! More than four times I have witnessed how drivers speed up when somebody is about to cross the street. This just goes to show how much road courtesy education is still needed by many of our public utility drivers. I wouldn’t be surprised why the percentage of those who die due to road accidents is on the increase since it was reported two years ago. I know that the city government and its concerned departments are doing something about this, what with all these new traffic lights recently installed in a number of intersections in the city. But the question is, is the message conveyed by these traffic lights followed by drivers?

Road Education is what we need. And a lot of discipline, too. Plus, a kind of professionalism that would speak well of our local public utility drivers who are supposed to have a good and solid background on road courtesy.

Driving a public utility vehicle is not just about getting a lot of passengers everyday in order to bring home a big amount for one’s family. I know it’s a difficult job to do, especially if you don’t own your jeepney, bus or taxi because the day’s boundary is always a concern.

However, I think the main job of public utility drivers is to bring their passengers to their respective destinations safe and sound, all in one piece, happy, and grateful that they arrived to school or to work on time, ready to face another day’s challenge.

Driving a public utility vehicle (PUV) --- jeepneys, buses or taxis --- is a noble occupation. If all PUV drivers would just think of their main job as I would like to suggest them to consider seriously, then perhaps, their job would take on the nobility it truly has: a profession worth the trip.