Former architect and Dubai-based urban planner Jun Palafox believes Filipinos waste 9-15 years of their lives due to traffic.
“If you have 40 years of economic life with the five to six hours a day on the road you would have wasted 28,000 to 40,000 hours, that’s at least nine to fifteen years taken from your life,” Palafox said in an interview with ABS-CBN News.
Records from World Health Organization (WHO) showed that the average life span for Filipino men and women is around 69.3 years.
The Japan International Cooperation Agency or JICA has previously reported that the Philippines loses Php3.5 billion daily due to traffic.
Palafox said infrastructure projects do not necessarily solve the current traffic problem.
“I think all of these recommendations will alleviate the situation but it will not solve the problem,” Palafox explained.
The architect said that the current transport problem was foreseen as far back as 43 years ago but was not properly addressed due to politics and lack of urban planning.
