Asbjørn
How people experience the Philippine urban transportation system in 2030
Asbjørn is a middle-aged financial manager who works for a multinational company that has a presence in the Philippines. He recently got assigned to the country and arrived just two months ago with his whole family. His ex-pat contract includes housing right in the business district.
He’s still adjusting to the weather and his new team, but he’s particularly happy that his residence is within a reasonable walking distance of his new office. The company provides him with a car, but he doesn’t take it every day. The walk is easy. He can also bike to the office. Walking or biking keeps him healthy, and it saves his company money from paying the decongestion tolls.
His route is comfortable. There are spacious sidewalks and safe bike lanes. (More people ride bikes, so there’s less pollution.) He has to cross a few busy streets, but the pedestrian crossings are all at grade (no pedestrian overpasses or underpasses) and are all clearly marked and equipped with crossing lights. The buildings along his route have awnings over the sidewalks. Much of the route is sheltered from rainy weather.
He hasn’t used the company car on weekends, either. Asbjørn and his family visited interesting places outside the city via public transportation. They took a bus or an e-jeep to the nearby train station, where they hopped onto the regional rapid rail networks.
There are car shares and e-bike and e-scooter shares at nearly all the train stations, so they were still very mobile when they got to their destination. Plus, the transportation information system gave him the right information when he needed it, on his phone app and on electronic signs and maps in the stations.
The information was also automatically translated into any language he preferred. He’s trying to learn Tagalog, so he had that on as default, but he could easily switch if he needed some clarity.
He seriously wonders if the company car benefit is worth the high taxes his company has to pay for the program. It’s really just a holdover from the old days of ex-pat privilege and status. The fancy car IS useful for going to fancy events, but it’s hardly a necessity. So much so that Asbjørn is seriously considering recommending that the company do away with the car benefit. It makes more sense to replace it with a bike benefit which is tax deductible and comes with incentives. Plus, he wants to try the bike highways.
Then again, the company car benefit tax and the decongestion tolls pay for the upkeep of the sidewalks and bike network and the excellent metropolitan and regional transportation system that he also gets to enjoy.
-oOo-
