Metro Manila (CNN Philippines) –– For many drivers, the joys of going on a trip are generally ruined by the agony of looking for a parking space.
The scenario is familiar to those who have been behind the wheel for the past five or so years: you arrive at the mall or restaurant, looking forward to a great time, only to find a sea of wheeled, metal boxes and no space for you.
This often means sitting in your car, with your hazard lights on, until someone finally leaves. Or if you find waiting too tedious, you drive around and around until you find a slot.
In a poll by CNN Philippines, some netizens said they went even further to find parking.
In Nel Uehara Uy’s case, he literally went further by parking at a flat-rate slot 4 kilometers from his office and taking the bus to cover the remaining distance.
Rikka Garcia said she flaunted her curves by using her “big belly” to pretend that she was pregnant, thus getting her a slot.
Pol Gonzales paved his own way by finding a big enough space and parking his car in it (although we should mention that this could be a traffic offense if done on public roads).
Though their stories may sound ridiculous, these underscore a growing problem for many car owners and for our cities as a whole.
In a 2017 survey of 1,043 drivers in Manila, ride-sharing company Uber found that three in five Filipinos said looking for parking 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.
These certainly add to the reasons why traffic and navigation app Waze named the Philippines, for the second year in a row, “the worst place to drive” among 39 countries.
Read: Waze: PH the worst place to drive
Although the government is heavily revamping public transport through the Public Utility Vehicle Modernization Program, ride-sharing apps like Uber have been taking the lead in helping car owners by offering them the comfort, convenience and safety of their personal cars, but without the stress of finding a place to park them.
Indeed, Uber’s latest video gives a funny take on what happens when there are too many private cars in our cities and too few places to put them.
The solution is really at our fingertips.
