Of tricycles and highways

December is a special season for all – with the holidays and the splendid weather kicking the feel good spirit up by a few notches. It’s doubly special for my family, as we all (parents and siblings) celebrate our wedding anniversaries only a couple of weeks apart from each other – right before Christmas at that. As such, the Magsajo clan goes on holiday each year – near or far, it doesn’t matter so long as we’re all together.

This year, instead of flying off to some far-flung destination, we thought we’d go on a road trip. Our friends from Toyota Motor Philippines – ever the thoughtful people that they are – learned of our plans and offered to lend us a Grandia. The hulking vehicle was perfect. Big and comfortable, it saved us the trouble of trekking off on separate vehicles. One clan in a vehicle so huge it could take us to our destination together…what a picture perfect plan!

I, of course, became the designated driver. After all, I’d have hit two birds with one stone, getting to review the van while able to fulfill the primary purpose of transporting a family of 10. So on a particularly bright and sunny Friday in December, we took off from our Pasig abode and headed off to Poro Point, La Union, where the oddly named but quite popular Thunderbird resort is located.

The Grandia, cavernous as it is, swallowed most of us as well as our belongings, but several golf bags and lots of peripheral stuff for our two toddlers required us to take along our trusty Fortuner as well. The Grandia proved to be a very comfortable vehicle. Despite its size, it could accelerate fairly well and was neither too wallow-y nor too harsh. It takes a little getting used to when parking, but it does its job admirably.

Getting on to the North Luzon Expressway (NLEX) wasn’t too difficult as traffic was generally bearable. Once we hit the NLEX, it was smooth sailing as the enforced speed limit was just about the speed where the Grandia would redline. From there we took the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway, which was also pleasant. The moment we got out onto Tarlac, however, our pleasant drive began to turn into a sluggish crawl, with only the occasional free flow coming our way. The main culprit of this sudden slow down? You guessed it – tricycles along the national highways!

Now, don’t get me wrong. I totally support our fellow Filipinos in their efforts to indulge in good, honest livelihoods, but let’s be realistic here. National highways are meant to be used by vehicles running at a reasonably high yet still responsible speed. There’s a reason they’re called highways, after all. Public utility vehicles that run at a snail’s pace, though, I’d like to think there ought to be sidestreets reserved for them. By my estimate, given the average speed we could have been running at were we not impeded but the slow moving vehicles, we could have shaved off at least an hour – perhaps even two – from our travel time. It just isn’t right. After all, six hours of maneuvering in and out of slow moving vehicles – plus an hour-long lunch break – is enough to make one cranky. And that’s exactly how I could be described after my ordeal behind the wheel.

And I haven’t even begun to touch on the safety concerns that mixing slow moving tricycles and fast moving cars, trucks and buses presents! Really, our countryside road network would be much safer if we disallowed the use of tricycles on our highways. That’s common sense. Realistically, however, I know we’re years if not decades away from implementing such a sound measure.

This of course doesn’t mean that we can’t complain about it here and now. The problem isn’t impossible to address, that much I know. I have, just as an example, driven the highways that cut through Pagudpud. With a good number of sidestreets designated for tricycle use in that province, driving along the highways is a pleasant breeze. If it can be done there, surely it can be done in the provinces closer to Metro Manila, right?

The ordeal with the tricycles notwithstanding, I’d still drive all the way to the far-flung areas in the outskirts of Luzon – or to any other province, for that matter (I once drove all the way to Bacolod). Traffic or no, fantastic cars or relatively spartan ones, far up north or far down south – the exhilaration of driving has kept me going through all these years. For the love of the drive, I don’t think that’ll change any time soon.

As a parting note (and far off-topic), I’d like to thank all of our readers – especially those who put in their two centavos worth every so often via the Backseat Driver reaction space over at philstar.com. Our jobs are made more fulfilling by the fact that we know our opinions and views matter to you. We promise to give you more insightful, better-researched and more hard-hitting news and views in these pages in the coming year. Cheers to us all and to quote our veteran motoring columnist and acknowledged godfather of the motoring journalism world, Ray Butch Gamboa, happy motoring!

Here’s your parting shot for 2009 as well, Backseat Drivers... I must say, they are truly insightful and witty comments as well…

Traffic enforcers have been acting like vultures waiting for motorists to commit violations and pounce on them rather than guiding and preventing them to commit those violations. Heck, they are even hiding and would suddenly appear once they saw a violation.

I was driving one time in Makati and I forgot something so I wanted to go back. In finding a way back, I turned into Pasong Tamo and I was not familiar with the place. It was a little bit dark then and I didn’t know the next intersection was a NO LEFT TURN. When I turned, a MAPSA personnel suddenly appeared out of nowhere to apprehend me. But a motorcycle driver who also turned left got surprised and didn’t see him. BLAG! – amir

Is it not possible for traffic enforcers to post themselves at point of road intersections rather than after? These will prevent traffic violations and they can even assist in de-clogging traffic. Likewise this will minimize suspicion that they are just there to mulct motorists. – jrivera999