Imagine Metro Manila with light traffic
Ayala Avenue
Manila
Roxas Boulevard
Oh right, it actually existed. In the 60s. Photos from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Digital Collections. Ay, progress.
Archive for the ‘In Traffic’
The Matrix Unbound
Edsa, Makati, Thursday afternoon.
NYT foreign editor Roger Cohen succumbs to Federer love.
People develop Federer obsessions the way teenagers have crushes. They can’t get the guy out of their heads. The late novelist David Foster Wallace, a devotee, said of one Federer forehand against Andre Agassi that, “It was impossible. It was like something out of ‘The Matrix.’â€
I think that gets us close to the heart of the matter. Let me put this bluntly: Is Roger Federer part of a Matrix-like artificial reality or is he flesh and blood?
During the final, I couldn’t help focusing on three things. The first was the button on Federer’s Nike shirt. Through more than four hours of punishing tennis, sun-baked by British standards, it remained buttoned up. I mean, come on!
Think back to the upstart Andy Murray, the latest Brit who couldn’t quite, in his losing semifinal to Roddick. The Murray shirt was unbuttoned, of course, and somewhat disheveled, like his game on the day, and there was absolutely no question about the young man’s appurtenance to the human race, a rather surly branch of it at that.
The second was the absence from Federer’s face of even a bead of sweat as droplets poured from Roddick’s forehead and slid from the underside of his endlessly adjusted cap — further evidence for The Matrix theory.
The third was the fact that Federer wore a belt — a belt — in his stylish shorts, as if he was ambling through a Calvin Klein ad rather than serving 50 nonchalant aces and putting on a record-breaking athletic display. . .
Roger’s 14th at the French. A clever man knows that if he’s hoisting a very big trophy he can wear his most torn-up jeans.
As longtime obsessions go, this is our least disappointing. Now For The Gloating, in Emotional Weather Report, today in the Star.
Missing the Bus
Some weeks ago I wrote about the Bus Rapid Transit system which has been successfully implemented in Bogota Colombia. I got some interesting responses and did a little research. It appears that Metro Manila could’ve been the first metropolis to have a BRT. Here’s a letter from William Juan of Versatech, a member of the Philtrak consortium.
‘Sad to say but the Philtrak People Mover System or the Philtrak Mass transport system proposed by our consortium – Philtrak PMS Inc., for EDSA in 1990 and later on for the unfinished C5 corridor in 1997 would have beaten the Bogota, the Jakarta, other BRT systems now in place and even the original Curitiba busway in Brazil.
‘Although the consortium was given an “ORDER” by the LTFRB in 1997 during the time of Chairman Dante Lantin and under DOTC Secretary Josefina Lichauco which was towards the end of the term of President Fidel V. Ramos, the Asian financial crisis caught up with its implementation. The Estrada administration didn’t really put it on top priority. Similarly, it was again presented to the Secretary of Finance during the early years of the Arroyo administration but since it was not a big ticket project, it was not considered as flagship project.
‘The problem with our bureacracy is that, if you are offering a project which do not really give the approving authority a big rebate, chances are your project wont really take off. Or there would be no great effort on those approving authority to assist in the funding of the project.
‘The proposed C5 Philtrak PMS or BRT is segregated and starts in Western Bicutan up to Lagro in Novaliches, passing through the Ft.Bonifacio and the Global City in Taguig City, Pembo, East Rembo and West Rembo in Makati City, Bagong Ilog, Valle Verde and Ugong in Pasig City, Libis, Eastwood, Acropolis, St.Ignatius, Blue Ridge, Project 4, Quirino District, Loyola Heights, Katipunan Ave, U.P.-Balara, Tandang Sora, Commonwealth Ave, Manggahan, Batasan, Fairview and Lagro in northern Quezon City. Loading stations or stops are to be provided in each thickly populated intersections or highly commercial areas. For greater efficiency, 5 shuttle loops or feeder system, i.e. the Bicutan-Airport loop, the Global City – Ayala CBD loop, the Ortigas CBD loop, the Araneta Center CBD loop, and the UP-SM City loop, were an integral part of the Philtrak PMS system.
‘The busway would make use of the 2 innermost lanes closest to the median. It was proposed that grade separations or flyovers should be constructed in all major intersections so that there would be no interference in its unhampered operation, just like in the LRT system. Hence if it is implemented today, the U-turn slots by the MMDA must be removed.
‘Passengers are provided with the normal concourse as access, either aboveground or below ground, to reach the elevated loading platforms situated in the median lane. The control turnstiles are provided on the concourse level which is wide enough to accomodate the high volume of passengers. Magnetic cards with stored value or single journey value would be in used.
‘The buses would be the high capacity articulated type, with perimeter seats, CNG engine driven by Volvo or driven by the super low emmission type Volvo diesel engine, with the buses running as singles, in tandems or in convoys of three or even four, depending on the volume of passengers during peak hours, with 3 minutes scheduled arrival time and the regular 60 seconds dwell time, and I bet you can only achieve this operation if your drivers are not paid like in the “boundary system”.‘
Oh great, another might’ve been.
What’s the mileage on that thing?
Photo: Dune’s Guild Navigator from Dunepedia.
GOOD asked scientist and film consultant Seth Shostak to rate various means of transportation from science-fiction movies according to feasibility. Subjects include the suspended animation capsule from Alien, the DeLorean from Back to the Future, and the transporter from Star Trek.
Not included: Star Trek’s warp drive, the teleporter from The Fly, and the Spacing Guild Navigator who could fold space in Dune.
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In James Cameron’s Terminator, the worldwide computer network attains consciousness and subjugates the human race. New Scientist wonders if the internet could become self-aware.
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Ash in Alien: ‘You still don’t understand what you’re dealing with, do you? Perfect organism—its structural perfection is matched only by its hostility.’
The species that survived its encounters with the alien without toting weapons: the house cat.
A good city has great sidewalks.
Went to an Ayala Foundation-Rockefeller Foundation dinner with a former mayor of Bogota, Colombia. According to the invitation “Former Mayor Penalosa is an accomplished public official, economist and administrator. As a mayor of Bogota, he was responsible for numerous radical improvements as he developed a city model giving priority to children and public spaces, restricting private car use, building hundreds of kilometers of sidewalks, bicycle paths, pedestrian streets, greenways and parks.”
I thought, “Great, now the Colombians are giving us advice on how to create sane, humane cities. Two minutes ago they were the subject of every movie and TV series (e.g. Miami Vice) ever produced about drug wars and carnage.” Misha Glenny’s excellent book McMafia, which tackles global organized crime, devotes a chapter to Colombia’s problems. He described the country as one of the most violent places on earth.
Apparently they’ve turned the corner. “They have plenty of natural resources and great exports,” my friend Fabia pointed out. “Besides that.”
“Next the Somalians will be advising us on economic security,” I said. “Their pirates are making the big bucks.”
“I don’t think they even have a government,” Big Bird said. “Somalians are the most beautiful people in the world. They all look like models.”
“Maybe because their governments screwed them and the world forgot them, and they’ve had to evolve out of the need for a regular digestive system.”
Mr. Penalosa, currently senior international advisor to the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy of New York, gave a riveting talk on urban planning, mobility, and traffic jams. An excerpt:
“In a good city, you must be able to walk to buy milk or bread. If you have to get into a car to buy milk or bread it means the city is not well-designed.
“What makes the difference between an advanced city and a backward city is not that it has flyovers or elevated highways or subways. What makes the difference is that upper-income people use public transport, use the sidewalks and parks. A good city is one with great sidewalks.”
More details in my column on Friday.
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