Learning from Taiwan's Scooters

Last month, I flew to Kaohsiung, Taiwan to visit the Kwang Yang Motor Company (Kymco) factories upon the invitation of Kymco Philippines, Inc. Besides touring their two biggest manufacturing plants along with representatives from their Philippine dealers, we also visited several exclusive Kymco dealerships in Kaohsiung and learned first hand that Kymco is the Number One scooter brand in Taiwan, capturing almost 38 percent of the market. Yamaha is at the Number 2 spot with 31 percent market share and at third place is another Taiwanese scooter company, Sang Yang Motors (SYM) at 26 percent.

Kwang Yang Motor Company was founded by the nationalistic employees of Honda Taiwan and many of their motorcycle products used technology derived from Honda. After the Taiwanese motorcycle manufacturer was firmly established, Honda left the market in the capable hands of their former employees, who later changed the name to Kymco and began marketing their products around the globe. You can say that Kymco is the Honda of Taiwan.

With native manufacturing companies churning out millions of scooters, Taiwan became the scooter capital of the world and it has the highest scooter density any where on this earth. There are 11 million scooters for the more than 23 million residents living in the 36 thousand square kilometer area. This means that every two people own one scooter and that 88% of Taiwanese families have at least one scooter. You can see scooters everywhere, especially around the place where we stayed in Kaohsiung and scooters provide mobility and convenience for thousands of Taiwanese commuters, office workers, students, small businessmen and even housewives.

The Taiwanese have developed a lifestyle centered on the scooter and have ingrained it into their daily lives. They designed their roadways to be scooter-friendly and have constructed dedicated parking spaces for these two-wheeled vehicles along their road network. Taiwan’s cool climate makes it inviting to ride scooters and since thick, warm clothing is needed to ride at night because it gets cold, these offer some form of rider protection as well. The police force likewise employs scooters as part of their patrol fleet but these are seldom used in pursuit operations since the majority of the riders we’ve seen are disciplined and stay on the right side of the road. Scooters and automobiles co-exist peacefully on Taiwanese roads.

Because of the large population of scooters, the Taiwanese government has recognized that the internal-combustion engines powering these scooters cause serious environmental pollution. According to the Taiwan Environmental Protection Administration’s statistical data, all the scooters emit 330 thousand tons of carbon monoxide (CO) and 90 thousand tons of hydro carbons (HC) every year, making up 12% and 8% of the total pollutants, while 1.8 million tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) is also emitted each year. To solve the serious pollution problem caused by large scooter population, the government mandated the shift from carburetion to electronic fuel injection (EFI), which not only minimizes the harmful emissions from the scooters’ exhaust because of its increased efficiency, but also improves fuel mileage, which helps conserve Taiwan’s fuel resources.

The exhaust emissions of each scooter are also carefully monitored not only during the required annual renewal of registration but also during its scheduled maintenance service. Scooter repair shops are connected to the government monitoring agencies through the use of modern closed circuit televisions (CCTV) and through the internet. The government is also encouraging manufacturers to explore other environment- friendly technologies like electro-mechanical hybrids, fuel cells and other potential combinations to power two-wheeled – as well as four-wheeled – vehicles.

Here in the Philippines, motorcycling only started becoming popular at the start of the new millennium. As of December 2008, there are 4 million motorcycles for nearly 91 million Filipinos, which mean that only one out of 22 Pinoys have a motorcycle. There is still a huge potential growth for the motorcycle industry and this is the reason why a lot of foreign motorcycle manufacturing concerns have their eyes on our country. Last year, local motorcycle sales reached more than 730,000 units and the projection for 2009, despite the worldwide economic slowdown, is conservatively pegged at 750,000 units. The industry is projected to grow to a million unit sales by 2011. Motorcycle-related businesses are also on the rise and these are seen as some of the most promising investments during these critical times.

With election time getting nearer, politicians are also recognizing the voting power of the motorcyclists. Since there is an average of five family members in each Filipino household, the motorcycling community is estimated to produce about 20 million votes and many politicos are now trying to court the affection and attention of bikers in their respective districts. There is likewise a growing clamor to come up with a congressional party list that would concentrate its efforts on the needs of the local motorcyclists and many would-be and aspiring politicians are busy exploring (or exploiting) this new shortcut to the Lower House of Congress. I once kidded DOTC Asst. Sec. Reynaldo Berroya that he could be a shoe-in as one of the party list representatives since he is an avid motorcyclist and with his experience in government. He joked back that he could be placed in a “confrontational and highly-explosive” situation if he became a congressman, especially with Sen. Ping Lacson in the Upper House.

But politics aside, there is a real need to address several issues regarding motorcycling in the Philippines. The first issue that needs to be tackled is the lack of riding safety training, which is the primary reason why motorcycle-related accidents and deaths are on the rise. Many of our motorcyclists and motorists need to be educated on road safety and courtesy, especially with the growing number of riders who learned to ride by themselves. Unlike Taiwanese riders who developed their skills at a younger age riding bicycles that they use to commute to schools, Filipino motorcyclists learn road manners from the worst teachers – jeepney drivers. Since majority of our youth commute to school in jeepneys, they are exposed to the bad road manners of the common jeepney driver, many of whom blast through stoplights, ignore traffic signs, swerve in and out of traffic lanes, drive without headlights at night, and generally and wantonly violate any and all existing traffic laws. It’s not difficult to see the similarities between the riding habits of today’s new riders (and new young drivers, too) and the driving habits of jeepney drivers.

Jeepneys also make it relatively unsafe to ride motorcycles in the city. I firmly believe that the proposed motorcycle lane will never work here as long as there are jeepneys on the street. Unlike Taiwan, where the motorcycle lane is respected by auto drivers, a motorcycle lane here will only be considered as another part of the road where jeepneys and other four-wheeled vehicles can overtake on the right, wantonly load or unload passengers or use as their illegal terminal. And please, don’t tell me that I’m just being biased – look around you. Jeepneys cause majority of the traffic in the country and they even have the balls to dictate whether government has the right to increase the fines on traffic violation. Unfortunately, politicians are also using jeepney groups for their selfish political purposes, especially to transport their “hakot” or flying voters.

Taiwan is a good example of how motorcycles and scooters can improve the mobility of majority of the population and with careful monitoring and strict administration, it can also be proven as a safe and environment-friendly means of transportation. Increased motorcycle use can also increase motorcycle-related businesses which can generate local employment for our OFWs who were displaced because of the global recession, as well as employment for members of the transport sector, who may be displaced soon because of the number of commuters who will shift from jeepneys and buses to motorcycle riding.

Local motorcycle companies such as the Blaze Motortech Corporation of Wilbert Lim and MCX Motorcycles of Eric Lee are introducing Filipino designed and manufactured motorbikes which are comparable in quality to established brands from Japan and Taiwan, which can eventually place the Philippines in the world map of motorcycle manufacturing and further stimulate our economy. On the other hand, municipalities like Dumaguete, Davao and Valenzuela are becoming more biker-friendly because of their growing motorcycle-riding constituents and hopefully, the coming elections will open the politicians’ eyes to the growing needs of the motorcycling community and the inherent opportunities that can be derived from it.

After all, experts believe that by May 2010, an estimated 5 Million motorcyclists and 25 Million voters will be hard to ignore.

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To mobile phone users: Do you know that your cell phone has a unique serial number known as the International Manufacturers Electronic Identification or IMEI number? If you want to know your phone’s IMEI number, just press * # 0 6 # and a 15-digit number will be displayed on the screen. This number is important especially when your phone is stolen and the National Telecommunication Commission (NTC) can use this number to “block” your stolen phone from being used.

Unfortunately, some unscrupulous technicians can “unblock” the stolen phone and it can be resold to unwitting buyers. Recovery of stolen mobile phones is also next to impossible especially with the lack of proper documentation specifically among pre-paid subscribers. It is believed that the proceeds from mobile phone theft are used to fund the drug habits of the perpetrators and further promote the growth of the illegal drug trade. Phone snatching has also caused its victims untold physical injury, mental torture, lost important data and even death in severe cases.

A new company called S@P Philippines, Inc. & Device recently launched their Cell Phone Registration System (CPRS) to the public. CPRS is designed to legitimize and document your phone ownership by registering your IMEI in their data base much like LTO registers automobiles. When your phone is stolen, you simply report it to S@P and they will coordinate with the NTC, the telecom companies and the Philippine National Police (PNP). There is a chance that your phone may be recovered since the IMEI is transmitted along with the phone number even if the SIM card has been changed. The unwitting new owner can be charged as an accessory to the theft under the Anti-Fencing Law and the police have a higher chance of catching the thieves.

S@P’s CPRS system is projected to reduce the appeal of buying “undocumented” mobile phones and reduce the incidence of phone theft. Registration with S@P will only cost P200 and it’s a one-time registration fee that legitimizes phone ownership and brings peace of mind. For more information, please call S@P at 383-1265 or 437-5396 or visit their website at www.sapphils.com. Help stop mobile phone theft today!

It seems that the past few topics we’ve tackled here in Backseat Driver have drawn out the best in many of our readers. Not only do we have a ton of interesting and intelligent comments and questions from you this week, we also had no less than MMDA Director for Traffic Operations Angelito Vergel de Dios actually send in a letter explaining their side on the whole Elevated U-turn issue that we raised a couple of issues back (The Elevated U-turn, Philippine STAR, March 18, 2009). Here are some of your comments on James Deakin’s Little Shops of Horror from last week, and Director de Dios’ letter reprinted in its entirety…

Many of my friends have complained about such problems with casa repairs. However, you stopped a hairline short of making your article truly useful; that is, by letting the readers know which casas to avoid. However, I do realize that such a list may snag some legal problems.

To avoid lawsuits, why not make a periodic list of the good casas? Say, quarterly. This may start a reform of sorts, as casas would want to be in your list. If it works as I hope it will, these companies will become little shops of honor.           – pptataro

What they can do to us, we can do to them. Please give us the names of the shops we can rely on aside from Autoplus. This way we reward those deserving and punish those shops and casas by channeling our business to those who ought to get it. I cannot agree with you more. Please continue with these kinds of articles!        – Edgar A. Epilepsia

I have a 1995 Daewoo Racer, manual shift which is now a gas guzzler. I observed that when the car is on the road the tachometer does not return soon to idling speed after a gear shift. Since the Daewoo casa has already closed shop, I cannot find a mechanic who can trouble shoot the defect. Kindly give me the address of Autoplus in Greenhills so that I can refer the matter to Pacho Blanco. Thank you very much. – Pete Tataro (That’s 233 EDSA, Mandaluyong City, along the car dealership row southbound side.)

Speak out, be heard and keep those text messages coming in. To say your piece and become a “Backseat Driver”, text PHILSTAR<space>FB<space>MOTORING<space>YOUR MESSAGE and send to 2840 if you’re a Globe or Touch Mobile subscriber or 334 if you’re a Smart or Talk ’n Text subscriber or 2840 if you’re a Sun Cellular subscriber. Please keep your messages down to a manageable 160 characters. You may send a series of comments using the same parameters. Or you may log on to www.philstar.com and blog your comments.