Insufferable know-it-all, mostly law, science, politics and Canadian football
However, the battle for Manila at the end of the World War II devastated the city, and the tram network couldn’t be salvaged.
Luckily, when the Americans left, it turned out to be too expensive to take their Jeeps with them. They were sold for $1 apiece to the locals who cut them in half and put a top on them, thus was born…..
The Jeepney!
Privately operated Jeepneys, together with municipal buses and motorcycle taxis, form the backbone of Greater Manila’s transportation system. As most of the vehicles are privately operated, there’s massive political opposition to doing away with them and replacing them with a fully municipal system.
One of the problems is that Greater Manila is so big, but has lot of old narrow roads, there’s a massive “last mile” problem. Even Jeepneys have trouble navigating some of Manila’s neighbourhoods, which makes motorcycle taxis perfect for the job.
It would be nice if Manila could do something about it. It’s traffic is terrible and Jeepneys and motorcycle taxis are one of the reasons why. They run short routes, are always on the road, and stop at random places wherever they can pick up or drop off passengers. However, they’re also tremendously cheap - an auto taxi can cost ten times what a similar journey by motorcycle taxi and Jeepney will.
The people of Manila aren’t thrilled with the system despite its low cost. Only municipal buses make really long trips (more than 10 km) so a typical trip is motorcycle taxi to a Jeepney route, then Jeepney to a bus, take the bus to another Jeepney route, then take another motorcycle taxi to your destination. It’s insane.
The good (or bad) news is that Jeepneys can no longer be replaced - they’re brightly painted but usually patched together as best as possible.
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