Tag Archives: traffic

My Manila File

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Manila, the capital of the Philippines, is overflowing with people. To grasp how dense it is, consider that the biggest city in my home state — Charlotte, North Carolina — has around 2,500 people per square mile. Manila is 45 times denser.

It has more people per square mile than New York, Paris, New Delhi or Hong Kong. In fact, depending on how you draw the lines, it’s the most densely populated city in the world.

We just went there for several days and were awed by the traffic. Manila is one of the world’s few megacities without a subway system, although it’s building one now. The average Manila driver loses more than five full days a year sitting in gridlock.

We experienced this ourselves while exploring the city with Grab, the local version of Uber. We stayed in Makati, one of the 16 neighboring cities that comprise “Metro Manila,” and had to allow bountiful extra time to drive anywhere else. These 17 separate city governments have no unified authority, which is a big reason why the infrastructure is so difficult to fix. 

We spent only four nights there, just long enough to get a quick look and break up our trip home. Metro Manila occupies less than one percent of the Philippines land area and, despite its density, accounts for less than 15 percent of its total population. We were very aware it doesn’t represent the entire country. We wish we’d had the time to visit more of its 7,641 islands, which stretch a distance the same as Miami to New York City. 

Still, we were able to visit Intramuros, the historic center of Manila. We explored Fort Santiago — the photo shows Champa descending into its dungeon — the beautiful Manila Cathedral and the old San Agustin Church, below.

We took a guided tour through the Chinese-Filipino Museum and wandered around Binondo, the world’s oldest Chinatown. We also visited the Ayala Museum, where we especially enjoyed its 60 intricate dioramas and other exhibits depicting Philippine history.

We kept hearing about the city’s giant malls so, even though we usually avoid malls, we went to two of the biggest. Both were modern and filled with shops offering every brand imaginable, plus diverse food options.

Needing a break from the tourist sites and commercial bustle, we took a (slow) Grab ride to the Arroceros Forest Park, a small urban riverside forest that serves as a green oasis for the city. It was lovely, even with the sign warning of snakes.

We spent our last day at Bonifacio High Street, a long boulevard lined with dining and shopping options.

Manila was the final stop of our trip that also included Taipei, Malaysia and Indonesia, so we celebrated our last night at an outdoor restaurant, watching the sun set over this immense, crowded, fascinating city. We would never want to live in Manila but we were glad to have visited it.

We would have been dense to miss the opportunity.


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How Indonesia Moves

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How would you react if you saw the family in the photo below riding down the street? They’re all on a single motorcycle. Neither kid has a helmet. The daughter is reading a smartphone while her dad drives. 

Would you be amused? Worried? Outraged? 

Since arriving in Indonesia several days ago, I’ve developed a different reaction: unsurprised. It’s something I’ve seen repeatedly here, as with this family:

In America, we have more than 30 cars for every motorcycle. In Indonesia, there are about five motorcycles for every car. In Nepal, where we also saw families routinely riding on motorcycles together, the ratio is similar. In Vietnam, whose motorcycle traffic awed us, there are ten or more scooters and motorcycles for every car. 

Motorcycles in these countries are much cheaper to buy and maintain than cars. They use less fuel. They’re better at navigating traffic jams and are easier to park. 

In all three of these countries, and in much of the world, scooters and motorcycles are the backbone of the transportation system.

These photos show just some of the many ways people use them in Indonesia — not only for their families, but to transport everything from building supplies to crops.

Indonesians who order a ride on Grab — like Uber back home — are more likely to choose a motorcycle instead of a car. It’s cheaper and faster for navigating the dense traffic in Jakarta and other cities.

Another option for short trips is walking, but many sidewalks here are uneven or nonexistent, so pedestrians end up walking alongside fast-moving traffic, breathing vehicle exhaust along with the smog. Buses are often packed and slow. 

The predominance of motorcycles here is a big contrast with our own country, where we have a car for nearly every person. Motorcycles are mostly recreational, not primary transport, although situations obviously vary. 

Road speeds are generally lower in Asia but motorcycle accidents can still be devastating and the sheer numbers and limited emergency care response amplify the toll. Head injuries are one of the leading causes of death in road accidents across Southeast Asia. 

Helmets dramatically reduce that risk. Yet in many countries, enforcement of helmet laws is inconsistent. 

I wish these kids were all wearing helmets but helmets cost money, especially if they need to be replaced regularly for growing children. I also recognize that some Americans who ride motorcycles would prefer to forego helmets. More to the point, visitors to our country might be just as critical of our gun violence, our giant SUVs, our obesity and other things we consider normal.

Champa and I own a single car, an aging Prius that’s equipped with airbags and other safety features. All of our neighbors own cars and most have two or more. We’re all privileged to take our cars for granted. 

If we’d been born in this part of the world, we might be crowding together on motorcycles, too. Not that four of us would ever fit on one.