The Commuter

I spent half of the day today doing errands, mostly paying bills. I have six locations to go to- bank, water district, power company, mall, health insurance, cooperative. Before I left the house, I already list down what I need to do.

Here are the bills I need to pay:

I am getting to all these locations by commute. I have always been a commuter. My family never owned a vehicle after I was born. My dad said he had a car and a jeep when he was younger. My mom never felt the need to own a car. I feel the same way. We live in the middle of the city in the province so traffic is not a problem. Getting to places is easy.

In the Philippine provinces, tricycles and jeepneys rule the streets. My city has these orange tricycles that will get commuters to their desired locations. All I need to do is to flag them down and tell them where I want to go. There are times that drivers get choosy with their passengers, though. If the location is unfamiliar or too far, there runs the risk of not getting to your destination on time. With patience, you will eventually find a tricycle driver who is willing to get you to your destination.

Now, if only I own a bike (or know how to ride one!), I can go places in my city without being snubbed by tricycle drivers. Actually, I used to own a bike and was able to ride it well. Now that I am older, I lost by biking skills. I now fear that I might crash and hurt my knee or bruise my elbow. Last year, I saw this bike in a university in Manila (Go, University of the Philippines! Forgive me for showing some school pride.)

Students can rent these bikes for a semester and bike through the school. What is cool about my school (ahem, ahem, UP pride!) is that there are bike lanes in the campus. (Look at those gorgeous canopy of trees! Who would not want to learn how to bike here?)

I can learn how to bike again if we have a lane like this in my city. 🙁
I will just settle for the tricycles and jeepneys in my city. My commute is still as interesting. Being in one with other people who just need to go somewhere like me is an experience itself (and I may need another blog post for that).

Now, when will we have electric jeepneys in my city like this one?

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