From here to there

Since time immemorial, the basic necessities of life has been food, clothing and shelter.
They still are and will be until we decide to blow ourselves up to smithereens especially with madmen like Putin, Xi and company equipped with nuclear weapons.
Anyway, allow this near-sighted Ibaloy writer to add two more necessities that in these times most, if not all, “need” and not just “want”: transportation and entertainment. In this column, we will stick to transportation and tackle entertainment later.
We all need to be somewhere for school, work, vacation, hospital, and the cemetery to visit departed loved ones or when our time comes. Getting there, we need transportation like planes, trains, automobiles, motorcycles, bicycles, and whatever contraption that can take us from here to there. Of course, we can always walk to our destination but what if we are physically not able to do so? What if it is too far? Or the weather is not conducive for walking?
Of course, the necessity for transportation has caused several problems, the most obvious is traffic.
In most cities of our beautiful archipelago of delicious coconuts and smiling carabaos, solving traffic woes is usually among the top challenges faced by officials. There are just too many vehicles (public and private) in our limited thoroughfares.
In Baguio, original home of my Ibaloy ancestors, traffic gets so bad especially on weekends that many local folks would rather stay home. In fairness, our local government continues to look for solutions to this nagging problem.
One solution could be making our public transportation more reliable and efficient so that we would not need to buy a car or several cars.
Look at Singapore and even New York, where public transportation is so reliable and topnotch that many residents don’t need to have their own vehicles.
Another is walking or using a bike to your destination if it is close and you are physically able to do so and not be too dependent on your car.
These are just suggestions, of course, from a public servant and taxpayer. An advance Merry Christmas to one and all!
May our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ continue to bless and keep us all safe.