It takes a ‘hero’ to get the humps out of Metro

Comparing to what was before, it’s now a pleasure to drive along some of the thoroughfares of Metro Manila. The reason? Many of the suspension-busting and travel-delaying humps have been finally removed. Thanks to strong-willed Bayani Fernando, acting Secretary of the DPWH or the Department of Public Works and Highways and concurrent Chairman of the MMDA or the Metro Manila Development Authority.

If you have been following this column you would know how much, for years, we have been against these humps that proliferate in hundreds of roads in the metro, the existence of many of these without rhyme or reason.

Knowing that many of our drivers disregard traffic signs like those in "stop thru streets" and just wantonly drive through to the detriment of the safety of those traveling through the main roads, I would highly recommend having these humps in such streets just before the intersection. That’s to force these unsafe drivers to, at the very least, slow down in these intersections and give them time to see if there were vehicles coming from either side of the street.

However, having these humps on the main road for the purpose of giving easy egress or exit for subdivision residents and worse for individual homeowners whose houses are along busy streets is indeed quite inconsiderate for the greater number of motorists.

Some of those who put up these humps especially along long stretches, like those in White Plains in Quezon City (already flattened), justify them due to illegal drag racing. I still maintain that such is a police problem and should not require traffic engineering. There are only few places where drag racing is possible and mostly only on Friday and Saturday nights and all the police would have to do is be present in these areas on these days and times and round up those involve in the illegal act. Penalizing other motorists due to police inadequacy is not acceptable whichever way one looks at it.

There are still quite a slew of main streets in the metropolis with misplaced road humps that need flattening, Mr. Secretary and Mr. Chairman Bayani "Hero" Fernando–let’s go for them.

Another successful Isuzu Challenge

Motoring journalists again had an exhilarating outdoor experience when they flew to Cebu last weekend for continuing saga dubbed as the Isuzu Challenge.

Aside from the "economy run", which I heard came up with more than very satisfactory results confirming the fantastic fuel efficiency of Isuzu vehicles, an array of sports activities (Flag capture, Volleyball, Mountain Biking & Kayaking) literally took the breath away from most of the participating members of the "fourth estate".

Unfortunately I did not have the luxury of time to be able to join my "motoring family" and peers for this exciting Cebu outdoor adventure and based on the stories that I have gathered, I indeed missed a lot of fun.

I’ll have for you the final results of the Isuzu vehicles’ economy run fuel performance as soon as I lay my hands on them.

Congratulations to Isuzu for another highly successful event.

Letters from cyberspace

Before I find myself buried again in tons and tons of mail (I’m exaggerating of course) I might as well start early in the year acknowledging letters coming from our dear readers.

From Ferdinand G. Cruz is a suggestion that ‘timing belt replacement’ at a minimum vehicle use of 50,000 kilometers and maximum 75,000 kilometers should be indicated as a standard in owner’s manuals. This could prevent extensive damage to the engine in case of a breakdown, translated to expensive repair costs.

I see some logic in this suggestion Mr. Cruz, considering that running with a damaged timing belt can really cause extensive damage to one’s engine. Coming up with such a recommendation in the owner’s manual leave’s it to the option of the vehicle owner to replace or not, but cautions about its importance.

Reader Alex Santos bewails the slapping of excise taxes on AUVs and SUVs borne out of the new ruling of Secretary Camacho and Commissioner Parayno, which would inevitably result in higher prices for these vehicles.

He writes, "I still believe that imposing stricter tax collection measures is better than imposing taxes on anything under the sun. While they enjoy riding their very expensive cars going to work, we are left to the choice of whether to buy a car or not. I hope that car manufacturers do something about this."

He adds, "I will not be surprised if this zany duo will impose more tax collecting measures such as imposing 20% additional tax whenever you eat at a fine dinning restaurant or another 10% when you chose to watch a movie from the balcony".

I have a strong feeling that with this letter we are hearing the voice of the citizenry. Mr. Santos is one of those who would have to defer plans to buy an AUV due to this untimely ruling, or maybe may not even have the chance to buy at all.

We were shared some information by reader Jose Ma. A. Saguitan about the Lancer CVT automatic transmission, which according to him was the same technology used by DAF, a Dutch automobile manufacturer now merged with Volvo, and was then called Variomatic.

Thanks for the added info, Mr. Saguitan and I’m more than sure that Mitsubishi has tremendously improved on this technology into a state-of-the-art as it is now applied to the all-new Lancer.

Mr. Hassan Abdullah (a.k.a. Antonio Tuazon) wrote us all the way from Canada as soon as he got hold of a copy of the Philippine Star, which was brought there by a friend. He loves cars and has been selling cars starting from when he was a sales manager for Ford Bahrain. He’s interested to offer his services to train sales people involve in selling cars.

Well Mr. Hassan or Mr. Tuazon, some friends from the local automotive industry regularly read this column and should anybody be interested to take you on your offer I shall be happy to refer you to them. And you also don’t have to wait for someone to bring you a copy of the Philippine Star to get a wisp of news about your country. Get a load of the day-to-day developments in the Philippines as reported by the Star, as well as this column on the web c/o www.philstar.com.

I would also like to thank Jay-Are Calabia for calling our attention to a typo error and indeed Schumy is a five-time world champion. Thanks to Mr. J.B. Torralba for your suggestion on how the grid position in the F1 races should be determined, and that the winner of the last race should take the 2nd slot and when he wins again, the 3rd slot, without having to join qualifying. Sorry, I don’t know anyone from the FIA to submit your suggestions to.

Formula One Update

In the season just pass the car to beat in F1 was the all-conquering F2002 of the Ferrari Racing Team. This year the F2003-GA is expected by the "Prancing Horse" Team owners to follow the footsteps of its predecessor, as it was unveiled recently in Maranello, Italy. The suffix "GA" has been added to the car’s name to honor the team’s long-time owner and Fiat president Gianni Agnelli, who died of cancer last month.

The car is reportedly even neater and smaller at the rear end then the F2002 with a compact new engine and gearbox while the radiators and seedpods have been completely redesigned.

However, Ferrari technical director Ross Brawn confirmed that the new car was unlikely to see competitive racing before the start of the European leg of the season.

Meanwhile, the Sauber Team has recently launched in Zurich the C22 Challenger–billed by designer Willy Rampt as a vehicle with a completely different design offering significantly higher potential.

But the team, despite having a new competitive car has no illusions about this season by saying that "it is their goal to play a key role in chasing the top three" and not really leading them.

Happy motoring!!!

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