EDSA bus lane must stay

EDSA bus lane must stay | Daily Tribune

The cocky rich and powerful violating the EDSA bus lane reminds us of American author F. Scott Fitzgerald’s quip: “Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me.”

They’re different not so much because of their wealth or power, rather they’re different because checking their social privilege infuriates them.

It’s a different kind of rage. And that rage bubbles over when they have to undergo personal privations like enduring the horrendous EDSA traffic while seeing thousands of the less privileged zooming by on the exclusive EDSA bus lane.

Their anger isn’t precisely envy. Instead, it is a deep-seated fear over clear attempts to limit their undue privilege as members of a dominant group in our society.

They, of course, won’t freely admit that the above causes their rage nor do we readily see it.

Still, the point that they are seething over the fact that toiling millions are now enjoying the benefits and advantages of traffic-free travel on EDSA instead of them remains valid.

So much so that the latest incident involving a white Cadillac Escalade illegally entering the EDSA bus lane last Sunday is symptomatic of such bitter rage.

In a now viral video, the luxury SUV that came from the NAIA and was traveling towards Quezon City with two passengers and sporting a “7” protocol plate issued to senators was flagged down in Guadalupe, Makati City for the unlawful use of the bus lane.

But instead of heeding the traffic enforcers, the SUV took off and almost ran over an enforcer.

Transport officials later confirmed the SUV’s protocol plate was fake, that no official protocol plate had been issued to it.

A little later, the erring SUV driver surrendered. He said he was the driver for a private firm, which was the registered owner of the expensive SUV.

The driver, whom many saw as a “fall guy,” claimed he didn’t know why the SUV had protocol plates nor the identities of his passengers.

But a senator later said that one of the unidentified passengers was a VIP who was supposedly related to a sitting senator. The other was a security aide, allegedly an active soldier.

No one among the 23 senators owned up to owning the SUV, forcing Senate President Francis Escudero to ask the LTO to name its registered owner.

Escudero also said that special plates were not necessarily limited to the personal vehicles of senators, that it was up to the individual senators to request the LTO for protocol plates.

Nonetheless, whoever the VIP was in the Escalade it bolsters our point about the rich and powerful resenting the EDSA bus lane.

While the innovative EDSA bus lane is now generally accepted as making the daily public commute of the toiling millions easier, the temptation to violate it remains strong.

By and large, the temptation to violate can be generally attributed to the silly behavior of some wayward idiots who believe they are exempted from traffic rules but who, once apprehended, are apologetic enough to give a thousand lame excuses and even bribes, for their traffic misdemeanor.

The apologetic erring driver of the Escalade eerily showed a similar demeanor when he surrendered.

For sure, the privileged few among us aren’t immune from such silly behaviors, even if they are in the back seat.

Yet, what if we look at their deep-seated resentment towards the violation of their social privilege as being beneficial to the rest of us?

Isn’t forcing them to endure the same harsh traffic hardships helpful in making them realize that millions of the toiling less privileged deserve no less the same degree of comfort as them?

Eventually, these questions revolve around making our society less unequal and of correcting the unearned advantages of a few and the unearned disadvantages of the exploited millions.

So, if you agree with me on this, let’s make sure the EDSA bus lane stays.