Traffic and Driving (if you call it that) in ManilaYou need a great sense of adventure to drive or even look while in a taxi in Manila. Not only because of the huge traffic jams even with “color coding” but the fact that Filipinos resent orderly lines and cues. It can best be described as a bumper car game at the fair experience, except that by some magic they usually not collide. Honking is definitely the national pastime. Color-coding is a law that requires all Manila vehicles to be off the streets one weekday each week between 7am and 7pm. It has nothing to do with colors, but is based on the last digit of your license plate number. The Jeepney The “Expressway” Parking Lot to Angeles
City The two lane expressway is actually 5 lanes when you count both shoulders and how drivers not believing in cues or orderly lines, make 3 lanes out of the two marked lanes. To use the shoulder lane you have to have a large truck or Jeep or you may fall into the huge potholes. Eventually traffic did open up and the drive was about 2 hours from Manila to Angeles City. Driving thru Manila to the Expressway certainly impresses me how lucky we are in the U.S. Many family enterprises along the road with their food stands and shacks where they live. Huge communities live under a bridge with clothes hanging out. |