Jeepneys

Posted by tomo at 11:46 PM in transportation . | 4 Comments

The most hilarious form of transportation in Manila and elsewhere in th Philippines is the Jeepney, old US Army Jeeps converted into public transportation. Open to the elements, and occassionally to armed robbers, at 5 pesos (about 10 cents) it's affordable to some but even at that price not all. These vehicles are more than a mode of transportation. They are a form of individual artistic expression, mobile art on the street, usually completely tasteless to the American eyes. But that's why they're amusing. My favorite was the one that said "FART HITS" on the front in big letters. Anyways, I found this site doing a quick search and it has a gallery of Jeepneys in the Philippines.

Right now I'm in Jakarta, the megalopolitan capital of Indonesia. I was very pleased to discover that they had a busway system (aka bus rapid transit) here as of just last year. This is the type of system that was pioneered in Curitiba, Brazil, (home to many innovations in urban planning) but has expanded elsewhere in South America. Cleveland is even in the early stages of developing a busway along its Euclid Corridor and Metro Detroit has studied the idea over and over again but unfortunately its SpeedLink system hasn't gone beyond that. As found in Curitiba, the busway system in Jakarta offers separate right-of-way for only busway busses, elevated platforms so that stepping up onto a bus becomes unnecessary, and ticketing gates at each station to further reduce the boarding times. They can also use normal roads, reducing startup costs immensely.