One driving habit that surprises me whenever I’m in Metro Manila is how the people there are so dependent on the navigation app Waze. It doesn’t matter if they are going somewhere for the first time, or if they are simply going home from a place they frequent, they have to turn it on before they start driving.
I’m guessing that their reason for dependence on Waze is so they can be guided through the most efficient route, as the traffic situation there is ever-changing. Aside from the constantly changing volume of traffic, there are road closures and reroutings that are arbitrarily imposed for every reason under the sun. And having been stuck in a traffic jam that could’ve been avoided by clairvoyance in the olden days which has been replaced by artificial intelligence these days, it is easy to understand why that navigation app is so important to them. So when I’m there, I just have to do what the Romans do and remind myself to turn it on every time, even if I already know where I’m going and how to get there.
On the flip side, we normally don’t use Waze or Google Maps here in Negros because we’ve never really found the need for it. Getting from point A to B has always been relatively straightforward, and the compactness of our cities mean the time difference between routes is more or less inconsequential.
However, in recent weeks, I’ve been feeling the need to turn on a navigation app because of the horrendous traffic situation, especially in Bacolod City, where multiple major roads are indiscriminately and arbitrarily being torn apart for “repairs.”
If you get caught in a really bad time and place, the traffic feels can be almost as bad as Metro Manila. Going to the southern end of Bacolod is particularly bad these days, with both Lacson and Araneta streets undergoing construction works, as the Department of Public Works and Highways and its government contractors seem to have been given a free hand to do anything they please.
If before it felt like the people planning roadworks were taking traffic into consideration, this time around it seems like they just don’t care anymore. Simultaneous road closures in the 2 most major southbound roads of the city would be unimaginable in the past. Aside from that, school schedules used to be considered by repair crews, putting off work until summer breaks in order to avoid traffic and inconvenience. But now, the people coordinating the construction don’t seem to care about such considerations. It feels like they are bent on breaking up everything they can find so they can pour new concrete because it is the easiest way to make money in this country where public officials idea of governance, urban planning, and conscientious spending of government funds is engaging in their endless cycle of building and breaking roads.
My way home to the northern part of the Metro Bacolod area has been programmed to avoid these construction activities. I already consider myself fortunate that the northbound route has not been as seriously affected (yet), and commiserate with those from the south who have to deal with that traffic hell.
However, over the past few weeks, I have noticed that my established route is already being affected by new construction activities that are closing more roads and streets. The one that affects my average trip time home right now is the work at the Lopez-Jaena and Burgos area, which is causing heavy traffic on my way to the Airport Access Road, a relatively new piece of concrete that I am hoping will not yet be affected by “repairs”.
The traffic surprises that I’ve been getting has made me turn on the maps app, with the traffic enabled, just so I can see where the traffic flow is bad and avoid it. I am still in denial that it’s not yet as bad as Metro Manila, so in principle, I don’t key in “home” while on my way from “work” every afternoon, because that is a route that I shouldn’t be told to take since I do it every day. For me, needing to depend on Waze and Google Maps just to get home from work is a sign of how bad things have become and because I don’t want to compare Bacolod to Metro Manila yet, I’m just not going to do that for as long as I can.
Perhaps the road “improvement” projects will end one day, the heavens will part, the angels will sing, traffic will flow better, and flooding will be reduced. While that would be nice to see happen, I’m not holding my breath because it feels like this is never ending cycle is simply too easy and profitable to be allowed to end.
Maybe it is time we started using Waze every day, just like the people from the big city.*
