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Off to Baguio
I’m off to Baguio City after more than 8 years. Though it’s not the first time to use all three expressways (NLEX, SCTEX and TPLEX) going there, I am curious about the developments along the way. TPLEX now extends all the way to Rosario, La Union. Also, there should be a lot of changes already in Baguio city especially after the pandemic and the projects of the current mayor. The latter includes a more people-friendly Session Road that I have yet to see for myself.
I will try to share photos and updates on this trip in future posts even while in Baguio. The city is a sentimental place for me as my first major project after graduating from university was there. And I had experienced walking around the city on many occasions.
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Planning for True Transportation Affordability: Beyond Common Misconceptions
How much do we spend on transportation as part of our budgets? Is it 5% of your monthly budget? Is it 10%? Or is it eating up a substantial part of what you’re earning?
Source: Planning for True Transportation Affordability: Beyond Common Misconceptions
To quote from the article:
“This research indicates that many common policies favor expensive transportation and housing over lower-cost alternatives, which drives the cost of living beyond what is affordable, leaving too little money to purchase other necessities. The result is immiseration: growing stress, unhappiness, and discontent.
The solution is simple: planning should favor affordable over expensive modes and compact development over sprawl. This is not to suggest that automobile travel is bad and should be eliminated. Many people are justifiably proud of being able to afford a nice car, and automobiles are the most efficient option for some trips. However, automobile travel requires far more resources and is far more expensive than other modes, typically by an order of magnitude, so true affordability requires an efficient, multimodal transportation system that allows travelers to choose the options that truly reflect their needs and preferences.
Affordability requires a new economic paradigm; rather than trying to increase incomes or subsidies we need to increase affordability and efficiency so households can satisfy their basic needs consuming fewer resources and spending less money. Our planning should be guided by a new goal: how can we help families be poor but happy.”
I share this article because it provides a more complete narrative and assessment than those just focusing on transport. Home choice locations and affordable housing are part of the equation. Looking at transport alone can be myopic and leads us to think it is the only problem to solve.
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Neutrality for public utility vehicles
I had written recently about how politicians are now using public utility vehicles for their premature campaigns. Promoting themselves illegally and ahead of the official campaign period. Today, I saw many modern jeepneys bearing posters of various politicians and party lists. Many of these PUVs are either private companies or cooperatives (i.e., in the case of modern jeepneys). I will not post their photos here as I don’t want to be inadvertently promoting these people and party lists. Instead here is an example of public transportation that does not promote any particular person or personality but instead speaks for a program that’s contributing to improve the commutes of people:
Quezon City’s buses don’t have any campaign materials posted on them.
Quezon City’s Bus Service Program is a good example of how a local government unit that has resources and the capability can help provide public transportation services to its constituents. It is a good example of what LGUs can do if they have the will, the capability, the capacity and the guidance for such initiatives. Of course, they should have good leaders who will support these endeavors and who do not have to put their faces and names on these programs.
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Are transportation issues election issues in the Philippines?
Are transportation issues in the Philippines? Or are these issues at the local level? Here is an article about how transportation issues were brought to light and were actual topics in the ballot in Los Angele, California in the US:
Tu, M. (November 25, 2024 ) “Bike, Bus and Pedestrian Improvements Won the Vote in L.A. How Did Advocates Pull It Off? “ Next City, https://nextcity.org/urbanist-news/bike-bus-pedestrian-improvements-healthy-streets-los-angeles-ballot?utm_source=Next+City+Newsletter&utm_campaign=532838ef65-DailyNL_2024_11_18_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_fcee5bf7a0-532838ef65-44383929 [Last accessed: 11/26/2024]
The three lessons in the article are:
- Build a coalition – “In the lead-up to the election in March, Streets For All successfully secured endorsements from unions, climate organizations and business groups that saw the vision for safer streets.”
- Safety wins – “We could make climate arguments, we could make equity arguments, but the thing that felt the most bulletproof to us and the most empathetic to the general Angeleno was just road safety,”
- Keep it simple – “…simple messages were the most effective. Vredevoogd fought for one billboard on Vermont Avenue that read “In 2022, more pedestrians died on Vermont Avenue than in the state of Vermont.”
Los Angeles or LA as many people fondly call the city is well known for being car-centric (as opposed to San Francisco to the north, which is more transit-oriented). Perhaps we can learn from this experience though I know there are already groups and coalitions lobbying for better transportation in the Philippines. Are they successful and to what extent are they succeeding? Granted there are different situations and conditions, even modalities, to engage politicians, there are also so-called party list groups claiming to represent the transport sector but none appear to be really standing up for issues like improving public transport or road safety. And so the challenge is still there for people to make transportation issues election issues in the country.
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Campaign garbage
Politicians have used various media to further their personal interests and aspirations. Foremost perhaps of these interests and aspirations is getting elected. More effort it seems goes to promoting themselves however they can. While its months away from the campaign period, there are already a lot of campaigning going on with what I perceive as hard sells already having a head start when they shouldn’t be doing so at this time. You see the likes of Abalos, Marcoleta and Lee whose faces are scattered among buses, bills, billboards and tarps. And then there are the familiar names including re-electionists and relatives of incumbent or outgoing officials also ‘reminding’ people of their candidacies as if we owe them our votes.
Here is the case of this former mayor of Metro Manila City who is also a former cabinet secretary who is aspiring to become a senator. His campaign materials are on buses, billboards and posters around the country. Samahan daw nation sa Senado. Why? If he’s already doing something blatantly anomalous at this stage, I would not expect anything except more anomalies from him.
It is very frustrating that the Comelec is not doing anything vs. these premature campaigning, even stating that these are not illegal. Well, these definitely cost a lot of money. And how do you think these politicians will recover their ‘investments’?
I will post about these garbage in future posts. I just need to compile more examples to share here.
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On bike lanes contributing to safer roads
Do bike lanes make roads safer? There are obviously mixed reaction to this question especially if you look as social media. If we are level headed about this topic and look at the evidence out there, the answer is yes. But there can be caveats as we try to contextualize in the local setting. The formal studies so far are in countries where the drivers arguably more disciplined than ours here in the Philippines. Driver behavior, after all, is a major factor for road traffic safety. Here is a good article for reference in the discussions and arguments for bike lanes:
Tu, Maylin (November 5, 2024) “How Bike Lanes Slow Drivers and Save Lives,” Next City, https://nextcity.org/urbanist-news/how-bike-lanes-slow-drivers-and-save-lives [Last accessed: 11/10/2024]
To quote from the article:
“Bike lanes with physical delineators (cones or bollards) were more effective than paint-only lanes at calming traffic, echoing a popular mantra for bike activists: “Paint is not protection.” (The lanes were not protected, however, because drivers could drive over the delineators.) For vehicles turning right, top speeds were reduced by 28% and average speeds by 21%. Paint-only bike lanes slowed driver speeds by up to 14% and drivers going straight slowed down by up to 8%…
The study adds that pop-up bike lanes are a cost-effective solution for studying the effects of more permanent solutions — after all, you could just borrow the traffic cones. A city could quickly implement pop-up or temporary infrastructure. Then, armed with data and community feedback, they could invest in making the changes permanent.”
The article also points to a technical paper or scientific article on the traffic calming effect of bike lanes. Here is the link to the article published in the Journal of Urban Mobility: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.urbmob.2024.100071
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On whether bike lanes cause more traffic congestion
I previously share articles on whether bike lanes cause more traffic. This question has been asked so often as we have returned to the “old normal” levels of traffic and bike lanes that were put up during the pandemic have been neglected or removed in favor of motor vehicle traffic. The perception for those in-charge of traffic and transportation in local government units is that the space occupied by bike lanes take up the space demanded by motor vehicle use. Thus, the view that bike lanes cause congestion. Here is another article share in support of bike lanes:
Mortillaro, N. (October, 2024) “Do bike lanes really cause more traffic congestion? Here’s what the research says,” cbc.ca, https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/bike-lanes-impacts-1.7358319 [Last accessed: 01/11/2024]
To quote from the article:
“One would think that building more roads with more lanes for cars would reduce congestion, but research shows that’s not the case, thanks to something called induced demand. The more traffic lanes that are put in, the more it appeals to people who may not otherwise have chosen to drive, thereby putting more cars on the roads and increasing congestion.
“So for a short period of time, there might be a slightly improved [reduction], but within a year or two, or perhaps three, traffic is as bad or worse than it was before the lanes were added in the first place,” said David Beitel, data services lead at Eco-Counter, a Montreal company that collects and analyzes pedestrian and bicycle traffic data.
Conversely, if you put in more dedicated bike lanes, people tend to feel safer and demand for use increases, said Shoshanna Saxe, an associate professor at the University of Toronto’s department of civil and mineral engineering and Canada Research Chair in sustainable infrastructure.
“As soon as you build a bike lane, within a year, two years, the latent demand shows up,” she said.
Bike Share Toronto statistics show that ridership on its network of shared bikes has increased dramatically since 2015, when 665,000 bike trips were made annually. In 2023, that shot up to 5.7 million trips.”
I think many people here are already aware of the concept of induced demand. However, this is usually shrugged aside as realities in their situations (e.g., commuting options, locations of residences and workplaces, etc.) lead them to choosing private vehicles (i.e., cars and motorcycles) over public or active transport. The last paragraph there is significant though as there never was and so far a decent estimate of bike trips in any city in the Philippines. Granted that there are attempts to measure bike trips but the volumes published so far are not as reliable as we want them to be in order to be convincing decision-makers to put up more bike lanes. Of course, the convincing part is always challenging if decision-makers have already made up their minds in favor of the car.
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Old maps of Rizal Province
I found these two old maps of the Province of Rizal. I was trying to trace their sources but couldn’t find them yet. These were shared from social media pages.
The second map clearly shows the Rizal towns that eventually became part of Metro Manila in the 1970s. These include Navotas, Malabon, Caloocan, Marikina, Pasig, Tagig, Mandaluyong, Makati, Pateros, Paranaque, Las Pinas and Muntinlupa. Pasig used to be the capital of the province; hence, Kapitolyo, which is still in Pasig. Note, too, that Caloocan was connected via a narrow strip between Quezon City and Bulacan. That part of Bulacan is the then town of Valenzuela that was also integrated with Metro Manila. I wrote about a ‘what if’ a while ago where politics would have been different in the province if it remained as it is before the creation of Metro Manila. History teaches us a lot of things including decisions made that led to how we are today. That certainly applies to transportation and definitely applies to politics if you come to think of it particularly for Rizal.
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More political garbage along our roads
I was telling some friends who were planning to go to Antipolo this long weekend that they should not be distracted by the images of demonyos and demonyas they’ll see along the way to the Shrine of Our Lady of Peace and Good Voyage.
These are electioneering and those who vote for these clowns have no right to complain about their economic situation. You only perpetuate these scums in government.
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Political garbage along our roads
While it is not formally campaign season, you’ve probably seen all those ads, posters, tarps and other obviously campaign materials that have sprouted around the country. Even before the filing of COCs, there were already a lot of political garbage (as I refer to them) along our roads. Many that you see on large billboards promote their purported TV or radio shows. Others pretend to be concerned about your safety while traveling (e.g., “Ingat sa biyahe!”, “Ride safe!”, etc.).
The government, particularly the COMELEC, seems to be inutile and inept about these brazen, even flamboyant displays by politicians. And so we end up with a lot of literal and figurative garbage along our streets. These are the politicians that people continue to vote while stating they want changes and reforms in government and society. You vote for these clowns and you get exactly the misery and incompetence that dooms us especially during times of difficulties and calamities.
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Caught (up) in traffic 