Filipinos sit through about 9 to 15 years of their working lives sitting in traffic, according to urban planning specialist Felino “Jun” Palafox Jr.
“[I]f you have 40 years of economic life with the five to six hours a day [of commuting,] you would have wasted 28,000 to 40,000 hours, that’s at least nine to fifteen years taken from your life,” Palafox said on ANC’s “Early Edition.”
In 2018, the World Health Organization published data that stated the total life expectancy in the Philippines for both men and women is 69.3 years.
Meanwhile, the Boston Consulting Group found in 2017 that Manila’s traffic congestion cost motorists an average of over an hour lost in traffic every day. It placed the capital city at third worst in Southeast Asia.
The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) said in a 2018 study that traffic now costs the Philippines P3.5 billion in “lost opportunities” daily. The amount is expected to triple in number by the year 2030.
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