Driving a car in Manila Traffic

Many years ago I have heard that driving in the Philippines and especially in Metro Manila can be compared with driving in hell. There is even a saying that says: If you can drive a car in Manila, you can drive everywhere in the world.

Metro Manila, or National Capital Region as it is called lately counts more than 13 million people. They all have to go to work or school or otherwise every day. Most of them are using public transport like Jeepneys and Busses. From early morning until late at night, the roads in and around Manila are full with all kinds of vehicles and therefore often congested. As a foreigner I also need to go somewhere from time to time. So I take my car and go on these busy roads.
Getting used to the Filipino style of driving a car, that is what I had to learn. Filipinos blow their horn all the time for a number of reasons, and they sign with their head lights. On crossings or changing lane they sign with their hands in stead of their (often not working) lights. Jeepneys and taxis and busses stop on every place where a passenger is waiting or wants to get of. Especially on street corners sometimes you can see double parked Jeepneys and suddenly also overtaking each other.
So one has to take care every second not to bump or being bumped. You can imagine that one needs six or eight eyes to see what is happening around you. People and vehicles come from everywhere: left, right, front and from the back. While driving you need to be prepared that even the unexpected will happen. There is even no time to look for some other radio channel; but yet people are using their mobile phone to call or compose text messages as if they are alone on the street and being parked, actually they are driving with a speed of 40 kmh or more.
Although officially there are traffic rules and traffic signs, there are only very few places where they are followed. Makati is such place. Police officers are very strict there if a driver doesn’t follow the rules. Probably because most foreign businesses have their residences there and also do the rich people.
In other places drivers do what they want: neglecting traffic lights, parking everywhere, overtaking over solid lines or on the right side etc. The so called High Ways are used for all traffic. Not only cars and busses, but also the everywhere stopping Jeepneys, motorbikes swerving from left to right and back, taxis trying to insert themselves from all directions, bicycles on the left side of the road, or just in the middle and even walking people crossing on every meter of the street usually without watching carefully. And not to mention the tricycles, inserting themselves and driving slowly on the left side of the street or just in the middle. On one way streets don’t be surprised if cars and / or bicycles are coming towards you. If you blow your horn against them they even might get angry at you and block the road completely.
On a 2 lane street you can often see 3 or 4 rows of cars, tricycles, trucks and other traffic, all close to each other. At the same time people crossing the street and you’ll see a lot of double parked cars. There are also the street vendors who walk in between the rows of cars to try to sell their goods, sometimes bringing their small hand cars with boiling stuff like peanuts, fish balls and so on. On the sidewalk you’ll find the street vendors with larger stalls, they have taken their place there, so pedestrians have to use the street as well. The result is that there is always traffic jam in the streets and sometimes you can go faster walking than driving.
Add the bad roads, with holes and cracks and on a lot of street corners large concrete blocks to stop cars from going left or right. After those closed crossings there are usually U-turn slots. A one lane option where a car or other vehicle can turn so on the earlier mentioned crossing can go to the direction he wants. On busy u-turns you see often 3 lanes blocking the rest of the street to take that u-turn. All other traffic has to wait -> more traffic jams.
The technical state of a lot of cars is dubious. Tires don’t have profile anymore, lights are not working, I even doubt if brakes are working well. Car engines are exhausting often black smoke, especially diesel engines from Jeepneys, busses and from motorbikes (tricycles). Private cars mostly seem to be in better technical condition. Even older cars are staying on the road. Sometimes they are rusting and have holes, or full of dents and other damages. Picture this in combination with smoking engines, you can imagine that there is still a lot of work for the government to better this aspect of the Filipino society.
To reduce the traffic and the air pollution in larger cities, they have implemented “color coding”. Why they call it color coding is not clear to me. The system works as follows: every license plate has three letters and three numbers. The last number is the one which says if the car is allowed to drive or not. Numbers 1 and 2 can NOT drive on Mondays, 3 and 4 not on Tuesdays, and so on. Weekends and official holidays there is no color coding. Some cities are strict with the color coding, other cities don’t care. Manila, Makati, Mandaluyong and San Juan are very strict within the Metro Manila. In other cities it depends on the mood and accuracy of the police officers.
I have been travelling through Europe and the US a lot, and always driving my own car. Even big cities like Paris, Berlin, Barcelona, Los Angeles, San Francisco and many others I didn’t have problems driving through. Manila however is different. It really is hell. With an average speed of about 15 km per hour (or lower) it actually would have been better to take public transport. But they are in the same traffic jam as me. The advantage of having your own transportation is that you can put on the air conditioner on, drive with or without music and as loud or silent as you wish, and you don’t have to carry your shopping?s all the way. And you are safe from snatchers if you don’t drive with your windows open and the doors locked. When there is a lot of rain falling, and it continues raining, some parts of Manila will be flooded. Streets are flooded for sometimes hours, and no vehicle can go through. So if there’s lots of rain expected: stay at home (if you don’t like to be stuck or get wet feet).
While waiting for a traffic light or in a traffic jam your car will often be approached by children trying to get money of you. Sometimes they just ask for it, and sometimes the wipe your windows a little. It’s up to you to give them something or not.
So think it over if you like to buy and drive your own car in the Metro Manila area.

See also my post about traffic violations HERE

Tags: - car, - hell, - manila, - Philippines