Public Transit

Public transit, also known as living dangerously, is very accessible in the Philippines.

We decided against renting our own vehicle after watching the traffic patterns in this country. Rules here are supposed to be the same as what we know, but observation disputes that fact.  Traffic lights are few and far between, even in the big cities. Stop signs are non-existent. Major intersections are bumper to bumper all the time, with vehicles from all sides barely slowing down before joining the mass of machinery. Right of way appears to be given to the one in the front, so of course everyone tries to be the one in the front. Politeness literally gets you nowhere. Every inch is taken up, and there is not much air between vehicles.  We are amazed that we haven’t seen many cars with dents or scratches; they come so close to each other. Horns are high-pitched and used frequently, usually to let you know they are coming, and fast. Road signs and other methods of speed reduction are ignored. In order to get traffic to slow down for school areas, locals put up barriers in the road.  This appears to just compress the two lanes of traffic into one.

Walking is not an option. We hired a ride just to cross the street in one city. There are cross walks, but drivers do not stop for them, or for the humans using them. Or maybe they just assume humans should get the same personal space as other vehicles do, which is very little. Either way, we didn’t take the chance.

Buses are very affordable. They can be flagged down at any spot on the road and will drop you anywhere along the route you want to stop. Some are air-conditioned, and most have TVs in the front for entertainment. This is not frivolous. It takes many hours to travel just a couple of hundred kilometers. The better buses even have WiFi access, but none have  bathrooms. Often vendors will jump on to the bus to sell food, as the very short rest stops are only every 3 hours or so.

Smaller than the buses, Jeepneys are used between closer towns and cities. They cost slightly more than buses, but will run more frequently. Each jeepney is decorated lavishly, sometimes painted or polished, and always named.  The dashboards are covered in bobble head toys, fake flowers, and usually a religious memento or cross. There are two benches in the back where they can fit up to 20 Filipino customers, and a bar along the ceiling to hold on to. A North American customer takes up a lot more space.

For short and local rides, entrepreneurs have developed the tricycle. This is a motorcycle with a one-wheeled cart attached to the side of it. Please note that they can drive these things while wearing flip-flops.  Hubby and I can barely squeeze into the seating area, but we have seen up to 6 riders on one. They hang off the back and even sit behind the driver. These are very vulnerable machines, but the drivers challenge the trucks and buses on the roads and intersections as if they are in tanks. We even took a ride in one before sunrise one morning, and were shocked to find that the vehicle had no front or back lights!

We survived, but recognized that we were living dangerously.

W