A long time coming

After a couple of misfires, the MMDA’s Organized Bus Route (OBR) program would be finally implemented this week as announced by Chairman Bayani Fernando in his weekly radio program.

If the program would be implemented as planned and designed, it would decongest the Metro’s main thoroughfare of buses, many of which spew deadly levels of emission, waste a lot of precious fuel that is currently soaring in prices and perennially unsafely encroaching into private vehicles lanes, while only having a little over of a third of its capacity.

With the OBR, bus operators are projected to have a more viable business operation by having fewer trips (less overhead in fuel costs and wear and tear) with an assurance of having more passengers.

In this new traffic scheme, terminals will be put up at designated end points, where buses would be dispatched sequentially on a demand and "first come serve" basis. The MMDA will assign tamper-proof, color-coded dispatch numbers to each unit so as to ensure the desired flow of these buses, which will be checked at all control stations located along EDSA.

Under the OBR, the MMDA envisions buses to have doubled its present loading factor to 70 percent instead of seeing less than half-filled buses lingering in loading areas waiting for passengers while creating a long line of similarly almost empty buses thus creating grid locks in such areas to the dismay of other motorists.

I can only appeal to all (commuters, bus drivers, private motorists and the general motoring public) to give this traffic experiment a chance by patiently cooperating now as it may take a little time before we could feel the positive impact that the OBR can bring about to the present near-chaotic traffic scenario in EDSA.

Mazda3 celebrates birthday

It was in August last year when Mazda Philippines introduced to the local market the Mazda3, indeed a highly-calculated gamble considering that the highly competitive compact sedan class has been historically dominated by players that have been in the country for many years.

Now, a year and a long line of reservations after, the Mazda3 has carved its own niche in the local automotive market with enviable sales figures to boot and a long line of names of eager would-be Mazda3 owners waiting for delivery.

To celebrate the event, Ford Group Philippines and Mazda Philippines invited a group of motoring journalists for an out-of-town adventure. Wisely hitting two birds with a stone’s throw, we were made to enjoy some exciting competitive driving exercises with the prospect to win a array of valuable prizes and a the same time experience first hand many of the vaunted attributes of the Mazda3 like its maneuverability, engine performance and driving comfort — the basic requirements of a "must have" automobile.

The motoring journalists’ exciting driving experience can best be described by a statement made by Gerry Alejandro, AVP for brands of Mazda Philippines, "As Mazda offers vehicles that are a joy to drive, we also complement them with features that will allow the drivers to maintain control at all times. We offer them vehicles that will let them enjoy an exhilarating drive at what we call the safety speed, to enjoy not only superb functions a fresh and confident style, but also an exceptional driving experience whether it be with the Mazda3 sedan or the 5-door."

The driving exercises and competition that were held at the Batangas Racing Circuit (BRC) were very ably supervised by JP Tuason and ably assisted by his very pretty and dynamic better half, Jeanette and their team of highly-skilled driving instructors of Tuason Racing School (TRS). With JP’s charming and never "over-bearing’ style of managing some of the most spoiled motoring journalists, the event went smooth as silk with nary a scary moment for Ford’s "money man", its chief financial officer, Don Gelinas, who gamely participated in the driving exercises with all his daring and bravado.

The driving competition called for a fast sprint from a starting line to a slalom through a maze of pylons of different spacing that would require nimble handling of the steering and on to a tight hairpin turn to a long straight that would require a "pedal to the floor" gutsy driving to a tire screeching u-turn that should end with a flawless parallel parking in a very tight area enclosed by more pylons. It’s a 5-sec penalty for every fallen or even touched pylon and a two-pylon drive would automatically merit a DNF (did not finish).

After the competition, which was won by SPMJ founding member and editor of the Bulletin’s motoring supplement, Overdrive, Anjo Perez, with Manila Standard’s Dino Directo clinching runner-up honors and your columnist a "special award" for a perfect parallel parking, Mazda Philippines Managing Director, Dave "Mr. Mac" Macasadia made sure to meet the media guests at the Punta Fuego in Batangas, despite having just flown in from a conference held in Bangkok, Thailand.

Well, with Dave "The Supremo" around, the motoring journalists can only expect, as a usual matter of course, a long night of merriment and wholesome fun and excitement.

Upon our arrival at the plush resort, Mr. Mac’s welcome remarks coming from his be-mustached lips with an ever-boyish smile, "This is the lest we can do to show our appreciation for the continuing support that you have unselfishly afforded Mazda Philippines in the media. We feel very strongly that the recent success of the Mazda brand in the Philippines cannot be achieved without the media’s role of disseminating the information about the vehicles that we offer in the local market."

After a long night, the journalists all trooped to the nearby Terrazas de Punta Fuego for whatever we fancied — jet ski, massage, a long dip in the pool or sunbathing at the beach or just plain having leisure time.

Happy birthday, Mazda3!

Pit Lane Notes

Welcome to Pit lane Notes, a.k.a. the Formula 1 version of a gossip column.

Like the wild and wooly world of showbiz, F1 never fails to give us something to gossip about. Just when we thought that Kimi Raikkonen could very well stay in McLaren for as long as he could — what with his and his team’s fantastic record and all — here come rumors that he could move on to more scarlet pastures in 2007. Michael Schumacher is doing nothing to put out the smoke either — he said that he would love to work with the young Finn. We all know that Rubens Barrichello couldn’t wait to get out of Ferrari, and has since signed a contract with BAR Honda for 2006. I don’t understand why Kimi would want to leave McLaren despite the fact that he is obviously their number one driver. If he moves to Scuderia Ferrari, he will most likely play second fiddle to Schumi — which is why Rubens left in the first place. This season’s team and driver standings also make it clear that McLaren’s technology is now more superior to that of the Prancing Horse. Why would Kimi leave the team? I just don’t get it. Both McLaren and Ferrari have denied these reports, but this could very well be like when our teen stars say "we’re just friends," when asked if there’s something going on.

SPMJ Strengthens Teaching Modules

Members of the Society of Philippine Motoring Journalists (SPMJ) met last Saturday, August 27 at the Valle Verde Country Club in Pasig City for a workshop aimed at further strengthening the teaching modules on Road Safety that they helped produce in cooperation with UP’s National Center for Transportation Studies (NCTS).

After close scrutiny of the modules, SPMJ members agreed to the recommendation of its Project Manager, Quito da Roza that there was need to make definite statements on how to keep safe while on the road in order for the students to understand better the tenets that the teaching modules espouse.

In the workshop, several situations were presented in which a learning student must be given a definite stand or reaction in order to be ensured not only a safe resulting scenario but also one that would be most proper for everyone’s concern. The young minds of the students should not have any quarters for "grey areas" in deciding what is right, proper and safe. The SPMJ members worked together to craft the most appropriate and understandable statements that the teaching modules would contain.

The workshop was in time for the start of the seminars that will be conducted, not only for the students but also for teachers so that the beneficiary schools can continue with the seminars until the time that legislation would be approved to have Road Safety a regular subject in every school’s curriculum.

An initial of 20 schools were adopted by Toyota Motor Philippines through its Toyota Foundation where these Road Safety seminars would be held for both teachers and students.

SPMJ has lined up several corporate entities that would most likely join in supporting its advocacy of educating the youth on Road Safety and similarly adopt schools to have these seminars conducted.

Motoring Tip Of The Week

For the newly-learning drivers, don’t be pressured into running faster than your own comfortable pace or speed by other drivers behind you who may endlessly honk their horns to urge you to speed up.

Just politely wave to them to go ahead but make sure to give way to them at the first safe opportunity for you to drive to the side of the road.

Remember to drive only at your own comfortable speed. If you start holding up the traffic flow, safely maneuver to the side of the road to make the impatient motorists drive ahead.

Happy Motoring!!!

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