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Yearly Archives: 2025
On parking for typhoons
The Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) recently issued a memo to shopping mall operators in Metro Manila in relation to the anticipated arrival and onslaught of a super typhoon. I reproduce the memo below:
As of this morning, most if not all mall operators (at least all of the major ones – SM, Robinsons, Ayala and Megaworld) have responded positively. Some observations this morning though shows a lot of people already lining up their vehicles at the malls to take advantage of the free parking. It seems a lot of people have misunderstood the memo and responses (from the malls) to mean there’s free parking from today til Monday. Let’s assume that most of these people live in flood prone areas and that many of them probably don’t have garages in their homes. This somewhat shows us another angle of vehicle ownership and the lack of parking for many. It also somehow tells us something about our dependency on cars and how we really need to have a better transportation system.
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Is there a future for the Philippine made AGT?
I am writing this after reading posts on social media about how they are hopeful about the Philippine-made Automated Guideway Transit (AGT) being finally operational. For one, both AGT models (60 passenger capacity train and 120-passenger capacity train) have not been technically certified. And then there are really no plans for lines to be constructed anywhere.
The closest to plans that we have are the feasibility studies conducted many years ago that did not materialize into an operating line. One of those were supposed to be along Gen. Santos Avenue in Taguig, which could have extended to C6. Another is a line that could have run along C.P. Garcia Avenue and Katipunan Avenue, connecting Line 7 at Commonwealth Ave. with Line 2 at Aurora Blvd.
There’s still something worth studying and refining here as the AGT is a product of local R&D. However, there must be a commitment among researchers and the DOST on the way forward. There should also be some kind of buy-in from government agencies especially DOTr to support this development.
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More electric vehicle taxis
I wrote about the new player in town, Green GSM Taxi, which has an all EV fleet. But while this is a relatively big company, there are smaller players who are also operating EV taxis. Here are a couple of them.
The last one, EV Taxi, is affiliated with Grab. The former doesn’t have sticker or anything identifying it with any of the app-based services. I haven’t seen many of both Xpress EV and EV Taxi so I assume there are fewer vehicles under the operator. This is much the same as previous conventional taxi operators and a consolidation of sorts is via one of the app-based companies like Grab. Is this (small operator) a sustainable venture? Is there anything new about these taxis aside from the vehicles being electric? Maybe the drivers are the same as before (for better or worse)?
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The need to be alert while walking, jogging or running in campus
With the recent bad weather, I noticed a big decrease in the number of visitors to the UP Diliman campus. Most of these walk, jog or run for health or recreation. Many of these are often lost in their conversations or too focused on their activity that they become unaware of the dangers of moving under large trees whose branches might fall on them anytime. It is especially true during the wet season and when there are typhoons or storms. The water and wind often bring down the older branches and one can get serious injuries perhaps even die should a large branch fall upon them.
Walkers, joggers and runners (let’s also include cyclists/bikers) need to be aware of these dangers. I myself had a few near misses in the past while walking around the Academic Oval. I know people who have been injured by falling branches while they went around.
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The need to be alert while walking, jogging or running in campus
With the recent bad weather, I noticed a big decrease in the number of visitors to the UP Diliman campus. Most of these walk, jog or run for health or recreation. Many of these are often lost in their conversations or too focused on their activity that they become unaware of the dangers of moving under large trees whose branches might fall on them anytime. It is especially true during the wet season and when there are typhoons or storms. The water and wind often bring down the older branches and one can get serious injuries perhaps even die should a large branch fall upon them.
Walkers, joggers and runners (let’s also include cyclists/bikers) need to be aware of these dangers. I myself had a few near misses in the past while walking around the Academic Oval. I know people who have been injured by falling branches while they went around.
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Complicated intersections in Rizal – Tikling Junction
There are several major intersections in Rizal Province. Among them are 3 junctions in Cainta, Taytay and Antipolo – Cainta Junction (Ortigas Ave Ext.-Felix Ave), Masinag Junction (Marcos Highway-Sumulong Highway), and Tikling or Kaytikling Junction. The first two are signalized intersections. The last one is supposed to be a roundabout. All three are problematic in various ways and have been associated with congestion along the major roads intersecting at these junctions.
Tikling is quite interesting as traffic seems to have worsened after it was set up as a roundabout. Taytay enforcers have been deployed here but they seem to contribute more to worsening congestion rather than easing it. Motorists familiar with the area will tell you that traffic is better when there are no enforcers. Unfortunately, not all motorists here are from the area or are familiar with the rules for navigating or positioning at a roundabout. And so the intersection is often constricted with vehicles whose drivers and riders don’t practice courtesy.
Perhaps a combination of geometric improvements and more clever enforcement/management can improve intersection performance?
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Senseless road crashes
My staff shared the following cctv footage of a recent road crash along C.P. Garcia Avenue just across the College of Science Complex in UP Diliman. The videos show two vehicles colliding along the road at nighttime. This is usually a busy road with traffic to and from Katipunan, mostly comprised of travelers associated with the schools I the area.
https://www.facebook.com/share/v/17MPeJnrCk/
The black SUV appears to be speeding and suddenly veered towards the opposing lane where it collided with another vehicle. It is unclear if the driver lost control of the vehicle or was aware of what he was doing. That cost 2 lives as both drivers reportedly died from the crash.
This is among those crashes that can be regarded as senseless incidents. This could have been avoided if the driver was not speeding in the first place or perhaps was not influenced by any factor like alcohol or drugs. Perhaps it’s really about the behavior of certain motorists who shouldn’t have licenses to drive in the first place? We commonly refer to them as kamote drivers or riders. The LTO should do their part in ridding the roads of these menaces.
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A cityscape revisited
I was posting photos of a familiar sight along one of my walking routes in our neighborhood. Somehow, that route became less frequented as houses were constructed in what old timers here referred to as the second floor. What offered a 360 view of areas surrounding our place was now mostly inaccessible, depriving people of spectacular views.
Last Sunday, we chanced upon the sight below along another of my routes that we now seldom passed.
The place where I took the photo will probably also be inaccessible soon as we saw the lots being cleared for construction. We missed the views and soon they’ll be just memories or photos stored in our gadgets.
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Grab carpool?
I saw this sign at Ayala30 earlier today.
Is Grab going into carpooling? This certainly is not new as at I recall at least one company, Wunder, that tried to make a foothold in Metro Manila back in 2017. It folded after an unsuccessful run that a friend described as dating app masquerading as a TNVS. Seriously though, facilitating carpooling is not an easy task as there are security, safety and trust concerns here that need to be overcome. Perhaps it can be successful with office mates or schoolmates?
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On roundabouts and how they can improve safety at intersections
Roundabouts are perhaps something that should be considered for Philippine roads. The concern, however, is that Philippine drivers don’t know how to navigate or position themselves in roundabouts. And the results as we have seen in several cases are congested roundabouts or rotundas.
AASHTO (September 26, 2025) “State DOTs Highlight How Roundabouts Improve Safety,” AASHTO Journal, https://aashtojournal.transportation.org/state-dots-highlight-how-roundabouts-improve-safety/%5BLast accessed: 10/19/2025]
To quote from the article:
“To highlight the safety benefits of roundabouts, the Ohio Department of Transportation recently released an analysis of crash data from 76 intersections statewide that had been converted to roundabouts. That analysis indicated single lane roundabouts decreased injury crashes by 69 percent while multi-lane roundabouts resulted in a 25 percent decline.”
And here another quotable from the same article:
“For us, it’s simple. Roundabouts remove cross-traffic turns and eliminate T-bone crashes, while improving traffic flow,” said PennDOT Secretary Mike Carroll …”“Any design that dramatically reduces the most serious crashes we see on the road is worthy of consideration in our projects.”
The article also includes a YouTube video on traffic circles.
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Caught (up) in traffic 