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Just keep on walking
After an eventful end to 2025 and start of 2026, I finally was able to get back to walking. I passed on January 1 as there was a haze that blanketed our area. That was due to the fireworks. With more residents in our village and surrounding areas, there has been an increase in fireworks users the past few years. Last weekend, it was nice to have better air quality for my morning walks.
My average step count decreased last year due to a variety of factors including weather. I intend to start strong again this January and hopefully be able to sustain this for the year. It’s really a good thing for my health and wellbeing. And it’s something I would strongly recommend for others- be more active. Set some time for walking whether it’s in the morning, noon or evening.
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“Nobody Walks Here. It’s Too Hot or Cold or Wet or Dry.”
I’m sharing this article as it provides a clear response to the question about walking under different circumstances. Those circumstances include weather conditions. How many times have we heard people saying “people won’t walk because it’s too hot or rainy” ? Maulan (rainy)! Mainit (too hot)! And yet we find a lot of people walking, even when its extremely hot or the rains are pouring.
Source: “Nobody Walks Here. It’s Too Hot or Cold or Wet or Dry.”
Quoting from the article:
“The human ability to adapt is the key to our spectacular success on this planet. Our problem is that the people who lead our public conversations, our elites of wealth and opinion, are often some of the least adaptable people on earth. And when societies assume that we should listen to those people, we all end up internalizing the message that there’s something wrong with us if we even try to walk…
…Sometimes walking a few blocks is the key to liberty and prosperity in someone’s life. Most people do what makes sense in the place where they live. Only if we recognize that will we make the investments in urban design to make walking more bearable in extreme weather. And only then will our cities include everyone.”
Here’s another quote and a take on what certain people say that often influences our choice for walking:
“The functionality of a city, and of its transport system, arises from the sum of everyone’s choices about how to travel, not just the preferences of elites. When elites make pronouncements about what “people” will tolerate, while really speaking only of themselves, they mislead us about how cities actually succeed. They also demean the contributions of the vast majority of people who are in fact tolerating extreme weather to do whatever will give their lives meaning and value.”
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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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Still towards a car-oriented future?
Saw this photo being circulated on social media.
Again, there are many versions of this including the original from a town in Germany that compared 50 people on cars, a bus and on bicycles. The bottom line in the latest images (do these qualify as memes?) is that all these efforts in developing the car, whether regarding the engine or fuel, or perhaps autonomy or connectivity related, ends up being still car-oriented or car-centric. I
t doesn’t really solve our transport problems despite what is being packaged as environmentally friendly. The discussions about this is timely and relevant as electric and hybrid cars are now quickly replacing conventional ones. And there’s a kicker for those driving in Metro Manila, hybrid and electric vehicles are exempted from the travel demand management scheme that is number coding.
How do we veer away from this temptation from technology? How do we keep mode shares in favor of active and public transportation? How do we influence mode choice for the latter options?
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Early morning walks
I’ve been waking up earlier so I can do my morning walks before leaving to drop off our daughter to school. These days, what were bright mornings at 5:30 AM are now dark. The nights are longer as we approach December. Here is the view along my walking route.
Unlike previous mornings when I can do at least 3 rounds along my usual route, I now can only do at most 2 rounds. I guess I have to wake up earlier to add 1 or 2 rounds. Afternoons to evenings are usually rainy and prevents me from walking. I treat this as a bonus if ever we are able to take afternoon or evening walks.
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The mobile stores of my childhood days
I took a photo of this animal (cow) drawn cart as we passed it in Taytay en route to Makati via C-6. These used to be larger and wagons drawn by one or even two animals (usually cows or bulls). Families lived in those wagons and were somewhat nomadic in a sense that they traveled while selling products like walis tambo (brooms for indoor use like those in the photo), walis tingting (brooms made of coconut stems also in the photo to the rear of the cart), baskets, and other handicrafts. I have memories of their regular if not frequent visits to our village in Cainta in the 1970s and early 1980s. Eventually, they vanished. I see some from time to time but only like the one in the photo below. I have not seen the larger wagons.
The cart was pulled by a bull that looked emaciated to me. I hope they’re able to feed this animal and care for it considering this is probably their most valuable asset.
While this seems like a spectacle these days, they were the mobile stores of the past; often traveling in groups. I wonder how long there will be animal-drawn carts like this.
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On the need to rethink traffic metrics
While Level of Service (LOS) criteria is a concept that can be applied to many other transportation facilities and aspects, among the LOS criteria that have been the subject of much criticism (and perhaps rightfully so especially in the context of safety) are the ones used for intersections. These are associated with delay reduction, which always favors vehicular throughput. The latter means basically, high LOS corresponds to prioritizing car (or motor vehicle) movement while not particularly taking into consideration the safety and movement needs of other road users (not using motor vehicles). Here is an interesting article on this matter:
Boenau, A. (July 9, 2025) “The old traffic math that keeps destroying neighborhoods,” Fast Company, https://www.fastcompany.com/91362348/road-design-traffic-math-destroying-neighborhoods-los [Last accessed: 7/15/2025]
Quoting from the article:
Here are three important questions for experts to ponder:
- Is slow-moving car traffic ever safer than fast-moving traffic?
- Do we have any obligation to provide safe and convenient access for people when they aren’t inside cars?
- What are the economic downsides of wider, faster streets in the central business district?
When planners and engineers truly wrestle with those questions, they can choose to remain a conformist who ignores the damage of traffic metrics, or become an outlier in the industry and make a positive impact that might be felt for generations to come. Things can get better in the end.
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Again, I must say that rethinking roads and streets should be context sensitive. Still, safety should be the top concern especially for areas that is predominantly residential and/or school. Safety, after all, comes first in the definitions of transportation and traffic engineering.
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Quick comments on the NCAP
The No Contact Apprehension Policy (NCAP) is finally being implemented in Metro Manila. The results so far has been dramatic in terms of the number of violations recorded and the images being shared so far about how motorists are behaving. Below is one of those photos being shared on social media to which I added some annotations. I will use this later to comment on the NCAP and how we can use the outcomes to assess the transportation situation and determine what interventions can be done. Some are already obvious from the photo – the lack of public transport options lead to people depending on private motor vehicles like cars and motorcycles for their commutes. MRT7 is yet to be operational and road public transport has not been rationalized.
More on this topic soon!
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Caught (up) in traffic 