26 motoring trends we'd like to see

Manila, Philippines -  Twenty six years is a long time. It’s enough time for one person to be born, enter school, graduate college, and get a decent job. It’s enough time for our country to transcend five government administration and countless policy changes. It’s enough time for cars to have nothing more than a steel body and four tires to something packed with cutting-edge technology. It’s enough time for The Philippine Star to rise from a relatively unknown start-up to the country’s foremost broadsheet newspaper. But while some are busy, reminiscing about the past, it’s my personal belief that we should always look ahead to the future.

And so, this is the point of this entire piece. I don’t really care if we’d see these trends in twenty six days, months, or even years; what’s important is that we’ll get to see these some time in the future. So without further adieu, here are the twenty six motoring trends we’d like to see:

1. Roads that are built to last

Today, whenever you see a road being re-blocked, expect it to crack up and destroy your suspension in six months time. It’s hardly surprising, but if you don’t believe me, try going through C5, especially near the Eastwood / Greenmeadows Area. Hopefully in the future, the government will build roads that will last for a minimum of ten years. And please, don’t cover the manholes this time.

2. Better managed traffic

EDSA has always been synonymous as “the hellhole of Manila traffic”. Thankfully, the MMDA is doing something about it by not letting buses go up the flyovers and underpasses. They’re on the right track, hopefully then can continue their crusade to finally make EDSA feel more like a road than a parking lot.

3. No more floods

Well, the MMDA blames missing manholes, but I think the problem goes further than that. Every time there’s a strong rain, it floods. Tremendously. There’s no denying that a big portion of Metro Manila lies at or below sea level. But perhaps there’s an ingenious solution out there to finally solve the flooding situation.

4. Safer roads

Roads are for cars, sidewalks are for pedestrians. Again, the MMDA is on to something here by actually apprehending jaywalkers. This should begin to instill discipline among our people. More than that, I think there should be a legislation to properly implement rules concerning the usage of our roads, especially sidewalks. Anyone who’s tried walking around will know how difficult it is to use sidewalks that are practically nonexistent or how some buildings in Makati (yes, I’m talking about you, RCBC Tower) who won’t allow people to cross using their “private sidewalk”.

5. Consistent implementation of road rules and regulations

Just because you’re poor or powerful doesn’t mean you can just decide not to follow our road rules. No one is above the law, so whether it says, “One Way” or “No Parking” everyone should follow it, including our policemen who have the tendency to run red lights and go through one way streets even when they’re just on their way to a Ministop. Tsk tsk.

6. Easier license renewal and car registration

All drivers go through a painful exercise every three years called ‘license renewal’. Although to some degree they made it easier by putting up satellite LTO centers, they can streamline the process to make it faster. I mean, why the mandatory drug test? Any doctor in the Philippines knows that if you’ve been taking illegal substances, it will be out and gone of your system before you urinate into that plastic cup. The same goes for car registration. Why go through emission testing, when you can fake it?

7. Adoption of stricter emission standards

The world is already moving to the realm of Euro V and Euro VI standards, while we’ve been stuck at Euro I for quite some time. For the sake of the environment and our children’s future, the government should speed up the adoption of stricture emission standards, particularly for diesel vehicles. And let’s start with the petroleum companies. We’re paying a lot for our fuels (comparative to other countries in the ASEAN), so I think we’re entitled to cleaner stuff.

8. Phasing out of jeepneys

Jeepneys are a thing of the past. They started as a product of ingenuity when American servicemen left a lot of Willy’s Jeeps lying around and Filipinos needed a form of mass transportation. Sixty years on, they’re still around. They’re not ingenious anymore. They’re prehistoric, and frankly, dangerous. I understand you can’t phase out jeepneys in the provinces just yet (they’re often used to transport goods), but please, do all motorists a favor and remove them from Metro Manila.

9. Reliable mass-transportation system

Coinciding with the removal of jeepneys from Metro Manila’s roads, it’s about time the government should come up with a reliable mass transportation system. The LRT and MRT project is a good start, but they often breakdown and go only so far. We need an overhead rail system that doesn’t break down and could pack a few more people. While we’re at it, the government should begin revitalizing our rail network too. This should reduce the number of large trucks plying (and destroying) our small provincial road network.

10. Finalize road names

We’re sick and tired of having to remember new street names when the old one was doing its job just fine. It’s a common occurrence here to have street names changed between three to six years (coinciding with a congressman’s term), so we need to keep buying road atlases just to keep up. To our lawmakers: do us a favor and stop it already. If you want to look busy, trying fixing the roads without putting your mug around it.

11. Inconsiderate parkers will be towed and fined

Parking is a precious commodity. On a per square-meter basis, the typical condo parking slot is more expensive than the condo unit itself. In short, it’s more expensive than gold. So please, I hope both public and private parking lots will do something about inconsiderate parkers who park through two or even three slots. They should be fined. They should be towed. They deserve their driver’s license revoked. They’re much more reckless than speedsters.

12. A strong automotive manufacturing industry

Although this prospect is looking dimmer every single day, I think the government can still salvage something and promote the Philippines as a good automotive hub. We lost Ford’s manufacturing and we’re close to losing yet another one pretty soon (we bet it’s going to be a shocker). But with the right legislation, perhaps we can woo them back. Take the Koreans for instance, they still don’t have assembly hubs in the ASEAN, perhaps we entice them to set up shop in the Philippines. They’re here for tourism, English studies and golf after all, so why not extend it to the automotive business as well.

13. We’ll have the Philippine Grand Prix

Forget Disneyland Clark or Universal Studios Subic, what the Philippines needs is our very own Formula One circuit. Not only is this cheaper to build and host compared to putting up another Disney theme park, but it will cement the country’s reputation as a place to go to for sports and car enthusiasts.

14. Higher speed limits on toll roads

Currently, the NLEX, SLEX or any other road for that matter with a name spelled in all caps has a maximum speed limit of 100 km/h. Although there’s nothing generally wrong with this, modern cars can go a bit faster. It must be remembered that the leading cause of accident is not over speeding, but it’s inappropriate speed. To the toll road operators, add just 20 km/h and you’ve got a deal.

15. More affordable sports cars

Hyundai did it right with the Genesis Coupe, Toyota followed with the 86, and finally Ford unleashed the Mustang. If there’s something our country needs is more eye candy to break from the monotony of SUVs and MPVs. Hopefully other carmakers will soon follow. Who cares if they can’t go fast because of our traffic; as long as they look fast and they don’t cost an arm and a leg, you can count me in.

16. Chinese cars with world-class quality

The Japanese took sixty years to make decent cars, while the Koreans took thirty. By all intents and purposes, the Chinese should be able to do it by the next decade or so. Currently, they’re being ridiculed by lousy engineering and even lousier build quality. But who knows? Perhaps in the future, they can begin to complete with the best of them.

17. Safety technology becomes standard

Right now, we’re beginning to see things like SRS airbags and anti-lock brakes migrate from luxury-oriented cars to basic ones. In my mind, this is perhaps one of the greatest achievements carmakers have done in the past two decades. Hopefully in the near future, we’ll see electronic stability control and the like become standard equipment on even the most basic of cars. This will undoubtedly make our driving much safer than it is today.

18. Everyone goes hands-free

Together with more safety equipment, carmakers should begin to look at providing Bluetooth hands-free connectivity in cars a standard affair. With more and more people becoming increasingly connected to their e-mails, BlackBerry Messenger, Facebook, or what have you, carmakers should look at ways to actually help drivers manage these distractions. By providing a good and easy-to-use hands-free system (perhaps with the added functionality of voice command), this should enable everyone to concentrate on driving.

19. Smarter connectivity

In relation to putting hands-free systems standard in cars, perhaps carmakers can think of ways to make connectivity even smarter. Right now, Ford’s a class act, putting SYNC as available equipment on much of their line-up. But carmakers can go further, making the car scan for traffic situations up ahead, recommend restaurants in the neighborhood, or make calls for you in case of an emergency.

20. A reliable GPS-based map

Currently, the best way to go around the Philippines is through Google Maps, and even that’s not fool-proof. Mapmakers and carmakers should begin to collaborate to finally bring an accurate, easily-updatable GPS-based map.

21. Cars go at least 15 km/L in the city

With the pace of modern technology, there’s still life left for the internal combustion engine. Thanks to advanced electronics, direct injection, turbocharging, and the like, we should hopefully see cars that can deliver at least 15 km/L in the city. Although there are some cars out there that can achieve those figures, they’re more of the rarity than the norm. Perhaps in the future, cars that go 15 km/L with be the run-of-the-mill thing.

22. Tires that don’t get punctured

One of the biggest banes when it comes to roadside emergencies is fixing a flat tire. Anyone who’s experienced fixing a flat knows the hassle associated with it. Hopefully carmakers come out with a tire that doesn’t get punctured. BMW was the first to pioneer run-flat tire technology, but they’re just too costly for us regular folk. Something much more affordable would be good.

23. Bumpers that repair itself

We’re just too tired of getting minor scrapes and scuffs on our bumpers. Whether it’s because of inconsiderate parkers or careless motorcycle riders, it happens. But what if carmakers could make a bumper that virtually repairs itself? That would be awesome. We’re not talking about a car that repairs a fender bender; that’s too close to impossible. What we’re after is a paint that incorporates nanotechnology enabling it to blend to pits or scratches left by minor scrapes and scuffs.

24. Less maintenance requirement

It used to be, cars needed to report back to the casa for servicing every three months or 5,000 kilometers, whichever comes first. Then, carmakers started implementing longer intervals. As it stands, it’s typically every six months or 10,000 kilometers. Of course, there are some which rely on on-board computers to determine when the next service interval would be. Perhaps one day all carmakers can adopt this standard. Not only is it cheaper and more manageable to the car owner, but it’s also more beneficial to the environment by lessening the need to change oil or fluids.

25. Cars that drive themselves

We saw a glimpse of the future in films like The Minority Report or I, Robot. And for me, the coolest thing there is the notion of cars driving themselves. There are some advanced systems available for luxury makes that enable the car to track itself on the road while Google as gone a step ahead by introducing a car that can drive itself autonomously. Though we seriously like the notion of a car that can automatically parallel park itself, but it’ll be totally wicked to actually have a car drive you to work and back. I can already imagine myself uttering the words, “Home, James.”

26. Flying cars

We can all hope, right?