Rotary District 7370 Group Study Exchange to the Philippines: Where the Rubber Meets the Road

While we continue to experience DisCon and formulate these experiences into a summary blog post, now seems like a good time to share a bit about Filipino transportation culture. For those of you that know me (this is Nicole speaking), you know about my husband’s passion for all things motorized. So it is no surprise that after being around him for 8+ years, I found myself almost immediately taking note of the vehicles and driving here in the Philippines. First, the vehicles: As far as cars go, the individual family/personal vehicles here are very much similar to those we see in the US. The makes are all familiar (though there are ones conspicuously absent, like Subaru– haven’t seen any of those, but that does not mean they are not here) but some of the models seem slightly different and have different names. Motorcycles are far more popular than cars and these are all over, moving about in masses like ants. It is not uncommon to see 3, 4, and even 5 people (sometimes including small children) squished onto these.

What are most visible on the streets, and have been most of interest to us, are not the personal vehicles, but the modes of public / for hire transportation. There are Jeepneys – small bus-type things that are made from the frame of an army jeep. They squeeze as many people as possible in bench seats that run parallel to the windows and you often see rides hanging off the back and sides during especially busy times. Fare on a Jeepney will run you about 8 pesos.

There are also buses, which are more similar in size and structure to ours, but are painted in vibrant colors with decorations adorning them. Again, it is not unusual for these to be so packed that people are hanging off the sides.

There are also tricycles for public transportation. These are either motorbikes, or human powered bikes with a side car of seats and an umbrella-like covering. You can fit up to 4 passengers somewhat comfortably in these, and I have even seen them used to transport livestock! These often have Bible verses or Psalms painted on the back, which made me wonder if you should be saying a prayer while riding in these…

Yes, that's a large pig in there

Then there is how all these things move together. If I haven’t mentioned it before, traffic here is “organized chaos”. In Cebu and Bohol, there were no lines on the street demarcating lanes and hardly any streetlights or signs controlling intersections (we saw more signs and lights in Davao City). People just force their way through turns, with inches between them and the oncoming vehicle. Scooters and motorcycles weave in and out, and people jaywalk with no concern (small children too). I don’t know how there are not more accidents, but people seem to stop half an inch from collision and don’t bat and eyelash. Despite all these seemingly near-collisions and total disregard for other motorists right of way, in Cebu there was hardly any honking.

This is a typical, uncrowded, intersection, note the lack of signs or lines

In Bohol, however, people honked for everything. “I’m coming up behind you.” “Get out of the way” “Hello” It was a constant barrage of honks. There were even fewer things like street signs and road lines, but somewhat less crowded organized chaos. In the rural areas the roads were some of the most winding, ripped up roads I have ever experienced. I know we complain about PA potholes, but we’ve got nothing on Bohol. It was so bad the one day, the worst bumps set off my Fit Bit pedometer as steps and by the end of the day I supposedly had 24,000 steps. Many people walked in the road with their animals in tow. And rice was being raked out on the edge of the roadway to dry. I asked if they were worried it would be run over, but this is the only place they can dry it. We also passed some “road construction” which usually consisted of men with shovels, digging up the road and repairing it with a mixture of rocks and cement.

So far we have ridden in the following: a true Jeepney, a wanna-be Jeepney (same idea, just not a Jeep body), a human powered tricycle, and in the bed of a pickup. They were all that we hoped they would be (packed, sweaty, smelly, uncomfortable and fun)! Stay tuned to see if we get up the courage to ride 4 deep on a motorcycle.