How to stay sane and alive during your holiday travels
You are reading this story for a very important reason.
You are already grimacing at the abject misery that you will face during your trips over the Yuletide season. There are the social-media posts of gridlocked Metro Manila expressways, which is hugely ironic given the supposedly “express” nature of these costly private roads.
And who can forget the grotesque annual tradition of national highways near tourist destinations like Baguio turning into parking lots – except here, there isn’t a mall where you can eat, relax or watch a movie. Just queues of cars, buses and trucks that seem to extend into the abyss, the glacial progress eating away at your biological clock and your purpose for existing.
That’s why we’ve thought of some things you can do to maintain your holiday cheer on your journeys.
Check your steed
A car is one of the most complex machines that you will ever interact with.
The rise of the modern “throwaway society” means planned obsolescence has infested almost every product segment – high-end smartphones are deliberately outmoded annually, while the latest appliances are usually so cost-prohibitive to repair that it would just be easier to buy a new unit.
However, your car remains highly repairable, but the extent of these fixes depends on how meticulous you are with the maintenance (an anachronistic and deeply reviled concept in a throwaway society). BLOWBAGETS is your go-to acronym – Battery, Lights, Oil, Water, Brakes, Air, Gas, Engine, Tire and Self.
Having all these major categories in excellent condition means you won’t be spending your holidays on the roadside with an overheating engine or in a ditch with blown tires. And the succeeding question to excuses like “Nawalan ng preno” [the brakes failed] is almost always “Ano ba maintenance niyan?” [What’s its maintenance?]
In fact, as a responsible car owner, BLOWBAGETS is something that you must rigorously uphold all year round to keep you, your loved ones and other road users safe. It’s also pretty hard to just throw away a car, especially because it is the second-most-expensive thing that you will ever own.
Check yourself
I put emphasis on checking yourself because the weakest link of a vehicle on the road is almost always the one behind the wheel.
And the numbers back this – the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority said in its 2023 Metro Manila Accident Reporting and Analysis System that out of the 85,954 road crashes in the metro that year, 10,990 were caused by human error. This is all the more chilling because all road crashes are preventable.
Factors include falling asleep at the wheel, driving under the influence of alcohol and/or illegal drugs and driving while distracted or highly emotional. There’s something I always tell my racing students – the car will only follow what you do to its steering, brakes and accelerator.
This heightened sense of personal accountability means you must only get behind the wheel when you are as cool as a cucumber, as sober as a nun and as well-rested as a toddler from an afternoon nap. Such a mindset is all the more pertinent because technology like the life-saving Advanced Driver Assistance System is not yet mandatory in all new cars.
Put another way, you and you alone determine your fate, as with many other things in life.
Think laterally
Many Filipinos understandably want to maximize their time out of town, but perennially whinge over sharing the road with people who have the same idea.
Do you really need to be out at the same time as everybody else? Avoiding peak travel periods is one of the oldest tricks in the book – because who on Earth wants to kick off or wrap up a holiday journey rotting away in gridlock?
Indeed, San Miguel Corporation’s yearly move to waive toll fees on the South Luzon Expressway, Skyway, NAIA Expressway, STAR Tollway and Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union Expressway on Dec. 24 and Dec. 31, from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m., presents an interesting opportunity.
Some have commented that the measure is completely useless because most people have already driven out of town, facing inexorable suffering. But others see this as a chance to travel on fairly clear and open roads at absolutely zero cost.
Stay home
The perennial failure of the government and various stakeholders to ease road congestion over the last few decades has made staycations popular.
Hotels and restaurants in Metro Manila offer a bevy of packages to give denizens an enchanting experience, without needing to spend for fuel and toll fees. And some enterprising people will even deliver a holiday feast to your home.
Besides, isn’t the Yuletide spirit about the love we share with people, instead of the fancy destinations to flex online?
