‘… in many areas of daily life things work if there is trust – in the system, in the process, even in the people in charge of making things work…’
THE city of Seattle, in the Pacific Northwest state of Washing-ton, appeals to me as a junior version of California/ San Fran-cisco. It faces the Pacific, enjoys a wide range of weather con-ditions (it’s cold at this time of the year, of course), and is built on rolling terrain that has made parts of downtown a treat for hikers or a test for the physically unfit.
Seattle has a monorail instead of a cable car, but its version of the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit), the Link Light Rail system is what I found interesting. It has three lines with the longest (1 Line) running for 50+ kilometers from north of Seattle down-town to one station beyond the SEATAC airport. As a tourist, this line which serves the airport is such a convenience that is not uncommon in many other major cities of the United States and of the world – but unfortunately not in our Manila.
It’s more than the convenience that struck me.
Tickets for the system are dispensed by machines. Or at least that’s how it struck me because I didn’t see any manned kiosks in any of the stations I used.
Like any ticket machine, a commuter touches the touch screen and is given options: single use or round trip. Now, after you choose from that option the screen changes and the commuter is given a second choice: do you pay full fare ($3.00 if I re-member right?) or the discounted fare ($1.00) meant for seniors, PWD and others.
Once you choose the fare you are shown what you need to do: press the Pay button and you’re asked to either insert a card or pay in cash. Paying in cash leads the machine to dispense changes, if necessary.
The first time I used the system I didn’t move the discounted rate. So I pressed the regular rate and paid $3.00. Then my un-cle-in-law told me about the seniors’ fare, and from then on I was paying $1.00 and traveling at 66% off.
Just like that.
Now think about having such a system used by our MRT-LRT lines. Machines dispensing tickets. Commuters themselves de-termine whether they pay the full fare or are entitled to the dis-counted fare. Will it work?
My gut reaction says no. My imagination tells me that the sys-tem will be abused by commuters who choose the discounted fare even if they aren’t entitled. And, of course, when that hap-pens the transport system will incur losses and suffer serious fi-nancial issues. All because it chose to trust the commuters and the commuters did not live up to the trust.
Or am I being too negative?
The trust angle is also the reason why the American electoral system has features we don’t find in ours. Because Americans don’t mark Election Day as a holiday, it means many cannot or do not find time on Election Day itself to head to a polling place to vote. So they vote in other ways. They ask for an ab-sentee ballot if they’re somewhere else other than the place where they are registered. Or they ask for a ballot that is sent through the mail and which they return via mail as well.
Now, again, think about having such a system in the Philippines – absentee ballots and mailed-in votes. Will that work? Or will ballots disappear in the process?
Or am I again being too negative?
The point is, in many areas of daily life things work if there is trust – in the system, in the process, even in the people in charge of making things work – whether elected or appointed to the job. But when there is a trust problem in one or more parts of that system (or infrastructure) then things won’t work as they are supposed to work. And the moment the system begins to fail, the distrust grows.
It’s a downward negative cycle from then on from which it is so difficult if not impossible to break out.
So difficult that not even an EDSA, it seemed, has set us free.
In this matter of trust, we continue to fall short.
