Honk if you love Manila

If you are a car that likes to party, I am certain, Metro Manila is your equivalent of a never-ending Rio Carnival.

Twenty-four hours, seven days a week, the capital is a two-million-strong conga line for the vehicular set.

This is my observation after a week living in the Philippines. I have been impressed by nearly every facet of your country — the friendly people, the tropical air, the Spanish-Chinese cuisine — but there is no aspect I love more than your capital’s roadways.

Manila’s transit system has its critics, but I am not one of them. I believe this city’s traffic, which coils lovingly around every skyscraper, banana-que stand, and Filipino in sight, is a marvel of 21st century urban planning.

I ask the city’s detractors, what metropolis in the world can boast the efficiency of Manila’s streets? On four-lane roads, this city often fits seven rows of cars. By comparison, the freeways of Los Angeles are space-wasting monstrosities.

By ignoring basic road markings and traffic lights — irritating formalities in most countries — a Manila motorist is able to shave seconds from their journey, thus improving travel times for everyone.

And, rush hour, rather than isolated to twice-daily peaks like in most cities, is equitably distributed in Manila from sunrise to midnight.

Perhaps what has impressed me most about the city’s traffic, however, are the vehicles themselves.

As far as I can determine, the forward momentum of all Filipino automobiles — be they car, motorcycle, or colorful jeepney — are dependent on a driver’s persistent, unmitigated honking.

This use of kinetic energy is not only a marvel of green technology; it is an advance that is decades beyond Western car design.

In action, these autos are a sight and a sound to behold. On certain occasions, I have watched traffic grind to a halt and, only together, with the uniform honking of all drivers, did gridlock ease, like the inexorable thawing of a glacier.

In a country’s most banal moments, its true heroes often shine. Everyday, I believe, honking Manilans prove they are beacons of the industrious Filipino spirit.

Conversely, if I have one disappointment with Manila, it rests with those city-dwellers who do not commit to their daily share of honking. These drivers, I suspect, create the occasional bottlenecks that are targeted by the city’s critics.

Fortunately these non-honkers are in the minority. They are outweighed not only by wheel-slapping patriots, but by supportive pedestrians. I have noticed that walkers make it a daily priority to veer off footpaths and into traffic as a way of standing in solidarity with commuters.

Indeed, I have been humbled, on more than one occasion, by mobs of men, women, and children, who, caring so deeply about the efficiency of the capital’s transportation system, launch themselves in the path of oncoming vehicles.

These people are the Manila motorist’s greatest friend and cheerleader. They, much their honking brethren, deserve commendation.

When I flew into Manila last Monday, my friend Joem told me that if you can drive in the Philippines, you can drive anywhere in the world. It is with some embarrassment, I must admit, that I am not yet at that skill level.

With my ingrained subservience to traffic lights and poor pedal-to-honking dexterity, I fear that I am liable to kill someone.

That is why, when I return to America in three weeks, I will take what I have learned and hone my Manila driving skills.

Practice, as they say, makes perfect, and on the roads of Oregon, I will honk with abandon.

I will honk because I love the Philippines.

(Daniel Simmons-Ritchie is a New Zealand-born reporter who is currently working for a newspaper in Oregon, USA. He is working for the Philippine STAR for a month as an intern through the Asia New Zealand Foundation.)