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Article share: On bike buses
Here’s a quick share of an article on bike buses. It’s a good idea that can probably be adopted by schools where most or many students live or reside within a ‘bikeable’ distance of the school.
Chudwin, E. (August 28, 2025) “Bike Bus Pedals in New Era of School Transportation,” Planning Magazine. American Planning Association.
I recall that there was an attempt to replicate this in Metro Manila (Quezon City?). However, there is no update on whether that was just a pilot or a one-timer or something that is now a regular thing for school commutes.
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Diskarte sa tag ulan – child rider safety
Sharing this photo of a child taking cover from the rain using her adult companion’s jacket. it is obviously not a safe situation or set up but perhaps it suffices for the moment.
Kids should have the necessary gear like a child- sized helmet for safe riding and a jacket or coat to protect the kid from the rains. The provision of these is the responsibility of adults particularly the parents or guardians of the child.
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On preaching on public transport
I’m sharing this interesting article about a preacher who was asked to stop by commuters in a train in Sydney, Australia:
Why an Entire Sydney Train Turned Against an American Preacher
I suddenly remember similar instances when I was in high school and then as a university student. Some of the buses I rode on my commutes were boarded by preachers. I recall that people just didn’t mind them especially when they finished preaching and started asking for donations. I don’t remember anyone shouting or calling out the preacher to stop. Everyone was just silent and not minding the talk though I’m sure there were those who felt uncomfortable with the situation. Perhaps it’s just Filipinos being kind despite what may be regarded as an intrusion or disturbance. Fast forward to the present and there was a recent incident on a train where passengers made it clear they didn’t want to be evangelized in that way. That’s a complete reversal from my college days in the early 1990s. What do you think? Is a public transport vehicle such as a bus or train an appropriate venue for preaching? Or was/is there a violation of personal space here?
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Article share – Planning for Love, Part 3: Enhancing human connection through walkability
Here is the third article that argues for walkability in order to generate human connections. To quote from the article:
“The goal isn’t to design cities for dating specifically, it’s to create places where human connection can flourish. The places we often think of as the most romantic weren’t planned with dating as their primary objective. Instead, their priority was creating vibrant public life, walkability and shared spaces. “
Planning for Love, Part 3: Enhancing human connection through walkability
Source: Planning for Love, Part 3: Enhancing human connection through walkability
Article share – Planning for Love, Part 2: What happens to dating in a car-centric world?
I shared the first part of a series relating the built environment with love (or dating). The second part is also very interesting as it focuses on the impacts of car-centricity. To quote from the article:
“Everyone across both groups said they’d ideally like to meet their partner in person, organically, putting spontaneous public interactions and friends at the top of the list while dating apps and social media fell to the bottom.
In practice, however, drivers were getting far fewer spontaneous public encounters than they wanted, turning to social media for dating far more than they’d like.
For non-drivers, their actual dating life and dating ideals were much more in sync: public encounters and social media use both happened at nearly the rate they preferred. One exception was meeting through friends and family, which happened less often than they would’ve liked.”
Planning for Love, Part 2: What happens to dating in a car-centric world?
Source: Planning for Love, Part 2: What happens to dating in a car-centric world?
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Article share – Planning for Love, Part 1: The link between urban form and dating
There’s this interesting series on the relationship between urban form and dating. To quote from Part 1:
“Even though dating is considered a lesser concern than other social issues, it’s one of the many ways humans seek love and connection. Love, in whatever form it takes, remains one of the most fundamental parts of being human.
So, if the design of cities shapes just about every form of social life, it seems worth finding out whether cities shape this one too.”
Here is the article:
A brief exploration of dating through history highlights how the spaces in which we live and move shape our social lives and relationships.
Source: Planning for Love, Part 1: The link between urban form and dating
On desire paths
I found this article on desire paths. These are paths made by people based on their preferred ways to get from one place to another. Often, the paths or ways that are constructed and paved are not the shortest or most desirable ones and appear to force people into following them. Perhaps the built pathways are planned or designed to follow a certain aesthetic in as far as infrastructure is concerned. Desire paths often are the most direct routes from one place to another. These shortcuts are defined over time by the wear along the path. In some cases, they eventually become formalized when they are paved or maintained one way or another including trimming of foliage along the paths.
https://www.boredpanda.com/desire-paths-pictures/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=top&utm_campaign=user
Here’s an example at the National Science Complex grounds of the University of the Philippines Diliman:
Desire path created by students and staff as a shortcut from the complex core to one of the outlier buildings.
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Trip purpose, Antipolo City
In the same workshop with Antipolo LGU staff, the following graph was presented showing the purposes of trips made by residents of the city. The data was gathered with the assistance of barangays, which deployed personnel to do a version of the household information surveys (HIS) usually conducted to collect data on transportation and trip making among residents.
It is important to note that most if not all trips eventually end up at home (i.e., coming home from the workplace, school, market, etc.). Thus we can interpret the graph in a way where we can derive the trip purpose other than “to home”. For example, perhaps the real % of work trips is not 21% but 41.0% of trips made other than “going home.” School trips come in second with 29.9% of trips. Third would be shopping trips at 18.8%. These three combine for 89.7% of all trips made by Antipolo City residents. Work and school trips are most likely the most regular or frequent trips. These are the purposes associated with daily commutes whether by public or private transportation. In the next post, I will share data on mode share and try to relate the latter to the trip purpose.
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On the rise of large vehicles as preference of car-owners
Here is a quick share of an article I found about the rise of large vehicles including SUVs:
These vehicles have become quite popular and the preference of many vehicle owners in the Philippines as well. Owners will probably cite safety as their primary reason for purchasing these vehicles but other reasons would likely include passenger capacity (e.g., having many members of the household), and practicality (e.g., living in or regularly traveling along flood prone areas, etc.). The concern though is that the increasing numbers of these large private vehicles that includes SUVs and AUVs have probably led to a rise in the number of fatal road crashes involving them and pedestrians. I say probably here because there are no formal studies locally like the one in the article above.
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New wide roads lead to more crashes?
I was in Tagaytay several times the past year and recently and couldn’t help but notice all the wide and widened roads in Cavite Province. Driving our vehicle, I also noticed how many were speeding along these roads and that many refuse to give way at intersections unless it’s signalized. We caught the terrifying images of a fresh crash this morning as we traveled home from Tagaytay. There were three wrecks at the intersection of the Crisanto Delos Reyes Road and the East West Road. It took quite some time for the rescue people to get there based on how long we got stuck in traffic just a few hundred meters from the crash site.
Wide roads and aggressive driving are just two major factors or contributors towards road crashes. I wonder what are the crash rates along these roads in Cavite Province. I also wonder how fast first responders, especially medical staff, could arrive on site for these crashes. The police were there first but looked helpless and couldn’t attend to those involved in the wrecked cars. Are they even trained for first aid? Or was this part of their training to just wait for competent medical staff to arrive?
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