Manilla mayor sorting the traffic out, lets get him here :)

maybe another street demonstration heading Manila's way?

 

I think Building skyway is better option instead of restricting buses in the city. It will reduce traffic

 

The idea of removing pedicabs/tricycles here in Dumaguete has been floated since the mid 60s. Perhaps, they have to wait another 40 years... or so.

 

It shouldn't take that long. Other cities in the Philippines and on Negros have reduced tricycles both in number and the routes they are allowed to take. It just takes a city government that has some balls and some forward thinking.

 

Any city needs public transport. So realictically the alternative to tricycles in Dumaguete are a lot more jeepneys plowing set routes. And if the city is large enough to justify such a change in transport system might be up for debate. Dumaguete is about the same size as Dipolog on the nothern cost of Mindanao. And in Dipolog its also still trycycles only.

What surprice me most is not, that Dumaguete still has trycycles rather than jeepneys for transport around town. But rather that we still don`t have metered taxis.

I heard, that Ken´s Trading, which is basically a cebu owned company, tried to establish it but failed. But that is more than 10 years ago already, and Dumaguete has grown a lot in the meantime. So maybe its time for someone else to give it a go.

 

I'm told that there are some 4000 trikes in Dumaguete. If that figure is correct then that is 3000 too many. They are the main cause of congestion and frustration for other road users, and a major contributor to air pollution and noise pollution in the city. At any given time, less than half of the trikes out working have passengers, the remainder are dithering around trawling for passengers. A trike with passengers in is relatively ok, as it has a purpose to get from A to B, but an empty trike is an accident waiting to happen, as they are likely to suddenly pull in, or stop half pulled in, or pull away, or do a sudden U-turn without even looking. The vast majority are not roadworthy, and some are downright death traps. I'd make a rough guesstimate that 10% are legal. None can turn from a main road into a side road at 90 degrees, instead they start drifting across the road 50 metres before the turn and then enter the side road on the wrong side of the road. They can't travel one behind the other on the near side so that others can pass, invariably they are staggered so that the whole road is blocked. If the road was 50 metres wide, they would still travel up the centre, as close as possible to the white line if there was one. I doubt that many have any form of licence or insurance, and passenger liability cover is non-existent. There is a sign on a shop doorway near the airport which says, "Wanted, for local deliveries. Trike driver with own tricycle. Must have a driving licence". That kind of speaks volumes. They park up anywhere and everywhere causing all sorts of hold ups. At the entrance to Silliman University, there are usually 5 or 6 parked on the road, alongside a sign which says "no waiting at any time" !!! Dealing with the trikes is a political hot potato, but until and unless someone grasps the nettle, Dumaguete will continue its' downward spiral of congestion, noise and fume filled air.

 

Thats definitly not true. During rush hour the vast majority of tricycles in Dumaguete are, if anything, overloaded with passengers. But of course if you travel outside the rush hour, you can find empty ones. Thats only natural and would also be the case with taxis.

Maybe there could be a few less tricycles in Dumaguete. But you have to understand, that the majority of filipinos still rely completely on public transport, because they don`t have their own car or motorcycle. So basically there are many tricycles, because there are many people, who need them. Its just demand and supply :-)

Its not like I don´t understand your irritation. I am a car driver myself, and surely all the tricycles are annoying, when you drive around Dumaguete in a car. But if you want to be in Dumaguete, you need to accept, that this is how it is. You need to calm down and adjust to the slow pace of the trafic flow.

One good way to compat it is to use a motorcycle for trips around town, as many locals also do. On a motorcycle its way easier to pass the tricycles, and your fuel consumption drops by about 80%.