New study ranks Philippine traffic as 9th worst in the world
While not entirely surprising, it's still worth spilling that the Philippines has ranked high among the countries with the worst traffic in the world.
A report by Numbeo - a crowd-sourced global statistics database - has placed the country ninth on the overall list for 2020.
Significantly, no other country in the ASEAN region has made it into the top ten, making us the worst in Southeast Asia.
The report studied traffic situations in 84 countries with criteria ranging from CO2 consumption related to traffic, time consumed in traffic, time consumption dissatisfaction, and inefficiencies in the traffic system.
Here are the top ten list and corresponding traffic index scores:
- Nigeria (308.03)
- Sri Lanka (293.36)
- Kenya (274.71)
- Bangladesh (255.21)
- Egypt (240.72)
- Iran (220.43)
- Peru (214.86)
- India (207.52)
- Philippines (198.84)
- Colombia (198.41)
The next ten is composed of Turkey, Indonesia, Jordan, South Africa, Lebanon, Russia, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, and Thailand.
The last ten countries overall are Switzerland, North Macedonia, Czech Republic, Iceland, Finland, Norway, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Denmark, Estonia, and Austria. It means that traffic in these countries is good and free from the usual inconveniences.
The Philippines has consistently ranked among the world's worst traffic.
In 2019, the country, particularly Metro Manila, placed second overall according to TomTom Traffic Index 2019. Occupying the top spot was Bengaluru in India.
In 2018, the Asian Development Bank puts Metro Manila as the most congested city in developing Asia.
The Boston Consulting Group, meanwhile, ranked Metro Manila third in the worst traffic in Southeast Asia in 2017.
Incidentally, newly appointed Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) head Benhur Abalos has spoken about the worsening traffic congestion in the city.
“Every year the number of vehicles grows with our population, so we need to address this by opening more roads...I am thinking of asking our research and planning team if we could move the motorcycles on the right side and study if bike lanes are feasible along EDSA,” he told CNN Philippines.
The MMDA chief eyes to introduce more elevated bus ramps, pedestrian walkways, and opening new roads to address the issue.
But while waiting for that to happen, maybe we can find inspiration from what Kapuso host Joyce Pring did to deal with the metro's traffic problem.
In a Spotify interview in September of last year, Joyce revealed that her foray into podcasting was made possible due to consistently being stuck in traffic.
Hours and hours of listening to podcasts inspired her to come up with her own show.
Today, Adulting with Joyce Pring is one of the most listened to local podcasts.
Her show was named as the second most popular podcast on Spotify Philippines last year.
So, the next time you're stuck in traffic, maybe you can try checking out these local podcasts hosted by Filipino celebrities: