Transport planning minus transport scientists

What the pandemic has taught the broader world is the need for science and scientists in these times of great crisis. The luxury of the pre-pandemic times that did not require scientific rigor and intellectual discipline from leaders crafting critical policy (and there was room to tolerate bluster-equals-leadership during those less traumatic times) was terminated with extreme prejudice by the virus.

There is no room for quacks and errors in the work of arriving at public policy in the pandemic-stricken world. We are in the Dickensian “ worst of times.” And this imperative has led to the great unraveling in our transport sector. That our transport planning and plans for mass mobility under the GCQ, or general community quarantine, is guided by whimsy, cluelessness, high-handedness — or all of the above — is very evident in the transport and mobility plans taking shape from the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) and the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB).