Transportation in the Philippines is significantly different than it is in the US. Most notably, an hour long cab ride is about the equivalent of six bucks over there. You can hardly get lunch in New York City for this price let alone travel a block in a taxi.

Along with the price to get anywhere, one major difference between the US and Philippines on the road are the amount of motorcycles. Everyone in the Philippines has ridden a motorcycle at some point. In the US, this is reserved for stuntmen and renegades. Although I can sell a fake punch pretty well and I’m a bit rebellious with not eating vegetables regularly, I am not someone who has ever gone for a ride on a motorcycle. The closest to this I’ve been is driving in a car with two flat tires.

Motorcycles are convenient for Filipinos. Their roadways are thin thus more can fit in a lane; in the few places they actually do have lanes. Roads in the Philippines are like sidewalks in the US. Sidewalks in the Philippines are pretty much non-existent. So if you ever have an idea to create a business in the Philippines I’d recommend a sidewalk building business.

In America we like giant gas guzzling minivans. We don’t care how much pain it causes to the environment or how many animals’ habitats it destroys. All we want is elbow room and a place to put our stuff. All of our glorious, unneeded stuff needs room. While transporting it to our homes it goes in the back of our minivans.

Traffic itself is out of hand in the Philippines with no real laws. This is helpful with all of the motorcycles since it’s a lot easier to swerve away from hitting someone. You also jump over someone if you are an especially skilled driver. If you’ve seen any of the Mad Max films the Philippines is minus the Australians and leather outfits.

I’m not sure, because I can’t be bothered to look it up, what the difference between accident rates in the US is compared to the Philippines. I’d imagine anyone keeping such statistics probably died in a car accident because of how reckless many drivers are over there. Traffic in the Northeastern United States is pretty cutthroat, but at least we’re petrified of cops pulling us over.

The difference between the use of motorcycles and minivans is a great representation of the cultures in general. Filipinos are sensible, generally simple, and (said with a ton of love) smaller. Americans on the other hand take up too much room, only think about convenience of their stuff, and kind of pushy. Filipinos use cars to get places. Americans, we use cars to have a second life inside of. Nobody needs a television in a car. If you know someone with one, break it.