Traffic

[oldutot]

1 hour ago, Jake said:

Metro Manila, especially Caloocan and Intramuros area are famous for their annual floods.  You may want to steal this from the Philippine military.  Get you US Army jumpers to help you out.  And then pick me up so we could go bar hoppin', OK?  

Hey Jake,   It’s our fast boat to mango street 

[RBM]

Each to there own how ever why stay in Cebu and tolerate the traffic, squalor and pollution? 

I left there after 3 plus years and consider the best decision ever made.  Cebu has its advantages with hospitals and I guess schooling how ever if one adds up the pros an cons we considered better out of it.

Now visit Cebu once a month under protest, no more going favourite restos as sitting an hour in a taxi just looses ones appetite, stay mostly IT park and seldom leave except for Alaya and few places near by.

[bows00]

Traffic is everywhere in the Philippines.  Especially in major cities.  I am currently in Davao and it gets really bad here around 3 pm through 7 pm throughout the weekdays - almost as bad as Manila.  Along with the traffic comes the dreaded air pollution where it is common to see locals covering their nose and mouth with masks, hands and napkins.  

This is definitely my number one grip of the Philippines - coming in at a close 2nd is the garbage and litter throughout.  

[GeoffH]

Even CDO is subject to traffic jams and it’s a lot smaller than Cebu, at least here there are quieter times during the day so we try and pick those ‘non peak’ periods to go into the city.

To minimize traffic jams you really have to get down to 3rd class cities in size and then you start compromising on availability and/or accessibility of services IMHO.

[Jack Peterson]

Just now, GeoffH said:

To minimize traffic jams you really have to get down to 3rd class cities in size

 Well Dumaguete is on that scale but we suffer as well, To me the only real way to sort the Traffic out is to sort out the Driving habits of locals but we know where we are EH?

[intrepid]

1 hour ago, bows00 said:

Traffic is everywhere in the Philippines.  Especially in major cities.  I am currently in Davao and it gets really bad here around 3 pm through 7 pm throughout the weekdays - almost as bad as Manila.  Along with the traffic comes the dreaded air pollution where it is common to see locals covering their nose and mouth with masks, hands and napkins.  

This is definitely my number one grip of the Philippines - coming in at a close 2nd is the garbage and litter throughout.  

Yes you are correct on both points.  I is my thought that the traffic will only get worse, everywhere, before it gets better.  With the population growing as well as income for many, not all, you will see more and more vehicles on the road.  Added to that all the new construction almost everywhere where housing is squeezed together because land is limited and it all adds up to more traffic.  In parts of Laguna and I'm sure many other places it is no longer unusual to see a car parked at a house.  What is becoming more common is to see two and three cars at many homes.  About the only time the traffic is a little lighter in Manila is Sundays, but not always.  Now for garbage I have seen a little improvement since the early 2000's.  This could get better with more education.  Enforcement of the pollution laws would help also but good luck with that one.

[GeoffH]

There is a garbage truck here that drives through our subdivision but you have to be there when they do and take out the bags of trash, they don’t pick it up if you just leave it out.  

 

From what I’ve seen they only do a few pick ups in our street each time, not sure what the other neighbours do with their trash but our phase of the subdivision is pretty much clear of rubbish and it’s common to see neighbours gardening the outside plants along the front of their houses and generally tidying up.  Yes there are some run down looking places but even they seem to be cleaning up outside.

 

But there are areas not too far where trash is much more noticible.

[bows00]

Davao has a long way to go before it looks anything like Bonifacio Global City, but it is definitely going in the right direction as you see signs throughout the city trying to enforce the "no spitting/ no littering" law.  Even I have to catch myself from spitting at times...

[oldutot]

Is the traffic that bad in Cebu, do I need to plan for one destination of the island.  I talking about a possible 3 day trip there..funny thing about me, I never been anywhere  in the Phils. But the rock of Luzon island. I am contemplating of making advance plans or what. 

[Dave Hounddriver]

19 minutes ago, oldutot said:

Is the traffic that bad in Cebu

Yes.  The worst part of it is that there are so many times when the traffic does not move for 5 to 10 minutes and you just don't know why.  Filipinos will pass you on the left, the right, the sidewalk, the sidewalk on the wrong side of the road.  They will all get to the front of the line and bully there way into the stream which will hold up traffic even more.  But they also get in a lot of accidents so I tend to just wait in line.

I drive through Cebu between CarCar in the south and Danao in the north about half a dozen times a year and each time took about 5 hours of tedious, mindless, idling and creeping.  I hate it, I would not want to live there again.   When I visit Cebu now, I park at the hotel and take taxis.  It takes just as long but I don't get the stress.