HOW many times have you missed appointments, dates, events and other important matters because of traffic?
“Leave early” is the advice we’re often told. The truth, however, is that most of us living in Metro Manila now dread appointments that would require us to cross the huge parking lot known as Edsa. For a lunch event in Makati, I have to leave Quezon City at 9 am. Because I am not a morning person, it takes me at least three hours to have coffee, shower, do my makeup and get dressed. That means I would have to be awake at 6 am to catch such an event.
We don’t need to leave early because we’ve been leaving unusually early for years. According to ride-sharing company Uber, the average Metro Manila resident spends 402 hours stuck in traffic every year.
In Manila the survey found that 4 out of 5 car owners have missed or have been very late to important events. Doctor’s appointments topped the list of most commonly missed events, followed by job interviews and weddings.
Consider these facts: On average, car owners spend 66 minutes stuck in gridlock and another 24 minutes looking for a parking slot. Across Asia, people are stuck in traffic jams for an average of 52 minutes every day, almost equal to the amount of time it takes to finish an episode of Stranger Things.
These insights were uncovered in a survey commissioned by Uber among 9,000 people across 10 of Asia’s biggest cities, including Singapore, Hong Kong, Taipei, Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh, Hanoi, Jakarta, Surabaya and Manila.
Boston Consulting Group, which was commissioned by Uber to assess the benefits that greater adoption of ridesharing may bring to Asian cities, said in its Unlocking Cities report that “growth in population and wealth have let to an explosion in transport demand in Asia—an increase of four times since 1980.” The survey found that people in Manila spend the third-longest average time being stuck in traffic everyday at 66 minutes.
Just as we guessed, this puts Manila as the third worst in Asia, next to Bangkok with 72 minutes and Jakarta with 68 minutes.
Following Manila are Hanoi and Kuala Lumpur, where people spend an average of 58 minutes and 53 minutes, respectively, in traffic congestion daily.
The study also measured the average time spent everyday looking for parking across major Asian cities. Manila ranked fourth worst in this category in a tie with Bangkok. Consider this scary statistic: With so many cars, Jakarta and Ho Chi Minh could come to a standstill in five years.
In Manila there are over 2.3 million cars, Uber Manila General Manager Laurence Cua said. Only 65 percent of those cars are needed.
“It’s not about the cars but how we use the cars. People want to buy cars and drive their own cars individually. However, these cars are occupied only by one person. So we need to make sure ridesharing is more reliable and more affordable,” Cua said.
“If the situation in Asia’s cities continues like this, they risk coming to a complete standstill in only a few years. Ridesharing can be an important complement to public transport and private cars when reducing congestion, as well as freeing up city space today used for parking spots. By putting more people into fewer cars, we can unlock our cities and their full potential. But it requires that we all work together,” said Brooks Entwistle, Uber chief business officer for Asia Pacific.
The Boston Consulting Group study estimated that between 40 percent and 70 percent of private vehicles on the road today could be removed if ridesharing becomes a viable substitute for private-vehicle ownership. In Manila this means approximately 4 million cars can be taken off the road.
Uber is highlighting the absurdity of the traffic situation in its latest video, titled “Boxes.”
Using cardboard boxes to represent cars, “Boxes” shows the reality of modern-day traffic jams and ends with images of a city being overrun by boxes. Shot on the streets of Bangkok with around 200 extras, the film’s soundtrack is “Bare Necessities” from the 1967 Disney film The Jungle Book.
Check out the film at goo.gl/mJbg95.
For more information on the study, visit www.unlockingcities.com.