Kubonismo©

The current roster of transportation modes in the Philippines

1. Kalesas: The perfect way of getting around the old city
of
Manila, quiet,
romantic, breezy and elevated two-passenger horse driven carriage, takes you
back to the 1800s.

 

.

2. Jeepneys: An evolved form of the WWII US Army willies,
the symbol of Philippine culture, ingenuity and resourcefulness. It seats ten
to 14 passengers.

.

3. Tricycles are very colorful motorcycles with sidecars
attached, for the adventurous. It seats two to four passengers.

 

.
4. Both air-conditioned and open window buses, will take you
anywhere.

5. Pedicabs are smaller pedal-powered Tricycles, quiet and
relaxing. Seats two.

 

.

6. Bankas are pumpboats native to the Philippines;
they take you from one beach to another. Smaller bancas are paddle powered or
sailboats. Five to 20 passengers.

.

7. Taxis, just like any other taxi in the world.

8. Light Rail Transit/Metro Rail Transit, probably the most
convenient and busiest mode of getting around the metro area, unfortunately
there are only two lines that exist as of this time.

9. FXs: Recent additions to the transportation problem/solution;
SUV looking owner type vehicles that generally seat 7 people, air-conditioned
and are not quite colorful like the jeepneys.

.

                    My recommendations/commandments

1. Place jeepney/bus stops every 2 miles, with stop signs clearly indicating what your location is and what the previous and next locations was/will be. Jeepneys and buses cannot stop anywhere to drop-off/pick-up passengers unless they are at a PUJ/PUB stop(public utility jeepney/bus) Anyone else that want to be picked up/dropped off from/to anywhere else can take the taxi. This means setting up fixed routes with set times and schedules.

2. Buses must not run the same routes as jeepneys. They are designed for longer routes. There will not be any long distance jeepney routes. The jeepneys and buses can interconnect but must not run the same route.

3. Taxis will be hailed by hand signal or preferably cellular phone text messages
     and will have meters and set fares.

4. Tricycles will be banned from the Philippines until the time that a quiet and non-polluting engine is made available to replace the current inefficient motor.

5. Pedicabs will run like taxis but will be restricted to their specific barrios. Each
     one will be registered and the drivers will have ID’s on them at all times.

6. Motor powered bancas will be banned with the same restrictions much like the
     tricycle, sailboats and paddle powered bancas are not restricted but will be registered and sailors/operators will have IDs available at all times. Each banca will have a wireless transmitter/receiver for communications (cellphones with text message capability is acceptable) There will be fixed routes for each banca and each boat will have an emergency action plan (with detailed alternate embarkation points listed) located in each vehicle

7. The LRTs/MRTs will be expanded from the biggest cities way up north Luzon to the little provinces as far south as land exists. The same will be constructed in the big islands of Visayas and Mindanao, ultimately the 3 main regions will be connected by a series of LRT/MRT, a MagLev (magnetically levitated) train will run from Babuyan Island to Sultan Kudarat.

1. There will be a unified pass system instead of separate cards for travelers.
2. The downward escalators will be removed. Elevators will be provided for the elderly and handicapped.
3. Stairs will be made wider (four abreast)
4. All escalators will only be going up, and placed side by side with stairs. The stairs will be color coded, green for going up and red for going down. There will not be any red escalator.
5. There will be diagrams posted above each door showing routes and the next station will be announced 20 seconds before the train comes to a stop.
6. Two rows of seats per car will be provided to the elderly and handicapped and anyone can occupy the seats until it is needed by the elederly or handicapped.

8. The FXs will either be running like taxis or jeepneys but will have a specific
     route either way, personally I don’t see a reason to have these things around unless a national auto manufacturing company is established. FX’s will be restricted to Philippine designed/made vehicles with Philippine designed/built engines.

9. All routes will be marked and known, each route will be assigned a number
     starting from within the metro Manila area with single digits, spreading to the provinces for dual digits and farther out with 3 digit assignments. (i.e., 1-9 for Metro Area, 10-20 for provinces, and 100-500 for outlying regions) A website will be created that uses the latest web based technologies to show routes and estimate
     travel times for passenger.

10. All vehicles (official, public and private vehicles, running on land, sea, air and space) running in all forms of petroleum fuel will be smog checked and must pass a pollution inspection. Smog violators will pay a fine and must initiate repairs, submit to and pass a smog check. If the vehicle cannot pass after all proper repairs have been made then the vehicle will be banned from using public roads. Law enforcement officers will issue tickets that will be paid at a centralized department of motor vehicles. A toll free hotline will be available to report smoking, leaking vehicles
     and smog violators. A reward system will be in place.

11. The department of science and technology with the help of the department of
     motor vehicles will hold annually a jeepney standardization/modernization contest. There will be a big push to convert all existing jeepneys to electric.

      Anyway these are improvements I would like to see now, I
believe it would save the Philippines from pollution and traffic congestion and greatly enhance the beauty and health
of the Philippines and its citizens. Just a dream for now, maybe next time you visit the Islands you will see these improvements.

 

I’m still reading :
The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu 

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 28th, 2007 at 7:23 pm and is filed under Current Affairs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.