Metro Manila (CNN Philippines) — Quezon City to Makati in less than 30 minutes, even at 8 a.m. or 5 p.m.
Roads with enough space for cars, buses, motorcycles and even bicycles to share.
Side streets you could play on, with sidewalks you could actually walk on.
If you were born after the 1990s, such things seem impossible to imagine.
But clear roads were what made every journey exciting and every destination seem like a stone’s throw away.
In a 2017 survey of 1,043 drivers in Manila, ride-sharing company Uber found that around four in five Filipino drivers found traffic the worst part of owning a car.
On average, the respondents said they spent at least 66 minutes a day sitting in traffic.
On one hand, that usually results in missed appointments and being late to where you have to be.
But on the other hand, all that wasted time can actually cost a lot of money.
In a 2014 report, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) — the branch of the Japanese government that gives financial aid to developing countries — said road congestion costs the Philippines ₱2.4 billion a day in terms of time lost, fuel spent, wear and tear on vehicles and, worst of all, harm to people’s health and to the environment.
In other words, traffic can make you and your children sick in the long run.
And yes, young people, there was a time when there was enough parking for everyone. No driving round and round, praying to your parking gods for a slot.
Uber’s survey also found that three in five Filipinos said finding a parking space was the second-worst part of owning a car.
The survey also found that car owners spent an average of 24 minutes a day looking for parking.
But we can do something about these problems.
We don’t have to deprive ourselves and the next generation of the right to travel freely, safely and quickly.
All we need to do is to be innovative with the way we move, so that everyone can go where they want to go.
In its latest video, Uber shows you what we can do to keep our “transportation boxes” from taking over our streets, and our lives.-
