safe ride

This picture provides a good understanding how traffic works in the Philippines. Very limited oversight.

Manila, January 2016.

That Manila has the worst traffic on Earth has a name: MMDA

That Manila has the worst traffic on Earth has a name: MMDA = Metropolitan Manila Development Authority.

 

In Manila owners of cars rarely drive, they are being driven and usually sit or sleep in the back of the car. Decision makers in the MMDA can't be drivers as they fashion barricades that do not make sense and only lead to further congestion. BTW, the lane on the right is a bus lane. Most times the barricades are not in line as busses and cars often run into them.

 

Manila, Philippines, December 2015.

  

The driver, the car owner, and a polluting engine

This morning I had to bring our suit cases and other stuff down to my car as it was time to leave our AirB&B apartment in One Rockwell, Manila. What I saw was just one of these normal daily procedures…

A noisy motor bike entered the basement parking and stopped in front of a van. The bike driver opened the car, started the car’s engine and left with his bike to get it parked nearby. This is normal procedure as a driver never knows when the car owner, here called the boss, wants to be picked up. If it is too hot inside a car the boss will not be happy. Therefore, this procedure.

After 20 minutes, as I came back to bring more stuff to our car, the driver was at least close to the car but the engine still running.

Like in all more up-scale buildings there is an armada of guards but nobody cares about regulations. Leaving a car engine running without anybody in side is prohibited and leaving an engine running while waiting in a basement parking is also prohibited. More important is personal comfort and what the boss wants as the later pays the salary. That a car pollutes and disturbs others is way beyond imagination.

Manila, December 2015.

Insane and dangerous roads

Can you imagine you drive at night here?

Manila, December 2015.

How to make a road smaller?

Manila, December 2015.

How rich peoples 'taste' destroys a beautiful place

Sedona, Arizona, U.S.A., June 2015.

Only in the U.S.A.

The result of retreated tires: Blown tires are a serious highway hazard.

Somewhere in North Carolina, U.S.A., June 2015.

so much to learn...

Mendoza, Argentina, January 2014.

how to ensure that no cars park there?

Leave an old bike and an office chair at the given space, lock them up and place chairs and tables next to them and the restaurant is open for customers.

Beijing, July 2014.

How to devalue a $3.2 million property?

It all happened in two days 

while the property from where the pictures were taken 

was built in one year.

Building the slum house took only a few hours. 

Spot the nice window below.

 Negotiations started: the window got closed.

 More beautification, negotiations ongoing.

Negotiations failed: Phase 2 begins.

It is still not clear what phase 2 means: 

Space for water tanks, flat-plate solar collector, 

or simply 2 new rooms to be rented out? 

Negotiations resumed: 

The 2nd floor construction is getting some paint.

The view since more than one month: 

Negotiations ongoing but ...

Now ask about building standards, hutong policies, and the rule of law.

In sum, time to leave.

Beijing, May 2013.

Sealing the connection to the slum

Beijing, May 2014.

Beijing's slum spills over

 It started on May 6 and was finished on the same day.

Finally the slum house got its large window closed 

indicating that the second phase of the negotiation process has begun.

BTW, Chinese usually refer to foreign countries when using 贫民窟 (holes for the poor).

Beijing, May 2014.

Chicken transport

Konzo region, Ethiopia, January 2012.

Dangerous jobs

Just imagine an early morning drive (half asleep) and a truck in front of your car and then you see these guys cleaning the tunnel...

Manila, any year, any day.

Fixing New Delhi

New Delhi, India, August 2011.

Insane buses

Manila, March 2011.