AFTER a week of unsettling tremors, we were greeted by welcome news last Monday: ten new buses are now ferrying commuters to their destinations. For the majority who battle getting a ride, especially on a rainy afternoon, this development brings a collective sigh of relief.
For those of us with an 8-to-5 job, the worst part of the workday isn’t the pile of paperwork, deadlines, or the endless meetings. It’s the headache of getting to the office on time and making it home before dark to tend to our families.
My colleagues and I, with our office on C. Bangoy Street (still Ponciano to most of us), have long called our commute a “daily extreme sport.” It begins with the “Waiting Hurdle,” where we stand by the roadside, practicing our best “please, stop for me” look. We see a jeepney in the distance and flail our hands desperately, only to watch it pass, already packed with no room to breathe. We wait for the next one, praying for a seat before we slump to the ground from sheer exhaustion.
When we do get lucky, we enter the next phase: “The Sardine Can.” We find ourselves perched precariously on the edge of a seat or risking an elbow to the face as passengers pass their fares to the driver. By the time we arrive home, we feel as if we’ve already worked a double shift.
For decades, this has been the frustrating reality for most Dabawenyos during peak hours. But that reality is poised to change. Soon, when we wait for a ride, we will see bigger, sleeker vehicles rolling down the street. We have waited a long time for this, and we look forward to this significant transformation in our city’s public transport.
This new bus system is designed to remedy the exact struggles we know so well. For years, we have relied on a jeepney system that, while woven into our city’s cultural fabric, is defined by erratic schedules and congested routes.
The project promises a future of efficiency and order by establishing a well-defined network of routes with designated stops and predictable schedules—a world away from the daily chaos.
This is a great leap forward for Davao City, complementing other modernization projects like the effort to rid our skyline of those unsightly “pansit” wires. We are not blind to the hurdles of this transition, however. Its success will depend on how the city navigates the complex challenges of implementation and social change.
While there’s a long way to go to ease all our transportation woes, we are finally on the road to becoming a city where the commute is no longer the hardest part of the day.
May our waits become shorter and our rides more spacious. In the end, that’s a change we can all celebrate.
