Trike, Hike or Bike?

Tricycle o lakad? Yan ang pamimilian mo ngayon pag me pupuntahan ka. Except if you have your own car, motorcycle or bicycle. Or you hire a car to take you somewhere and take you back home later. From what I heard, it costs P500 to hire a private car to take you somewhere in the city. Kaya kung malapit lang pupuntahan mo na medyo malayo pag lalakarin mo, tricycle ka na. [Picture above by Dmitry Abramov from Pixabay].

Going to Munoz, for instance, you take a tricycle to Road 20 and then a tricycle to SNR. Then you walk from there going to EDSA or to the LRT station. Some walk from there to the MRT station at Trinoma. I heard a guy who walks from the MRT station there to Project 8 everyday. 

I can't imagine having to go to work from here to Manila or Makati. Yes, you can take LRT or MRT respectively, but what I can't imagine is the time you consume waiting in line to ride a train. Kasi konti lang ang pinapapasok at a time. Biro mo yung ganon, tapos aaw-araw yon. Ang hirap. Buti nalang I work from home. Kaya work from home na dapat. Lahat ng office work gawing work from home na para malaki mabawas sa mga commuters.

At yung bike lane. Daming pictures showing na ginagamit na parking ng kotse o delivery pick-up ang bike lane, although bawal na dapat. Ang dapat lakihan ang multa. But here's the pitfall--I see some traffic people given the authority to apprehend traffic violators abusing their power. They stand there on the highway, not to help ease traffic, but to catch erring drivers even if they do very minimal violations. 

Na pa-kabig lang ng konti (konting-konti lang) yung driver ko minsan hinuli na. Walang patawad. Di naman nag-i-issue ng ticket. Satsat lang ng satsat na P2,000 daw babayaran ng driver ko sa opisina nila. Syempre, alam mo na ibig sabihin non. So I tend to doubt strict implementation of traffic penalties. Kasi na kokorap lang. 

Buti nalang wala pang penalty sa maling paglalakad, except of course, jay walking. What I mean is, if you just lean a bit to your right while walking, a traffic officer would approach you to issue a ticket for "swerving." Baka mamya magkaron ng ganyang batas. It's possible. Just look at how some law maker thought of taxing online sellers who are just trying to make ends meet. Good that the Palace overruled this by saying that incomes lower than P250K a year are exempt. 

But wait. That means if you make P20,000 a month you'd be taxable na. Pero what's P20K a month? Kaliit na mababawasan pa. Don't think P20k is big these days. Barya nalang yan. At first glance it looks good--below P250K a year is tax exempt. But on closer look, you're not given leeway to really build a good business. Sana man lang nilakihan ang margin---like P500K a year and up is taxable. Diba? That means dapat P40K income mo a month bago ka ma-tax. Sounds fair enough.

Kahit saan ka bumaling pinahihirapan buhay mo. Hirap ka mag commute pag employment ka. Pag nag business ka online tataxan ka naman. Is government helping us or punishing us?

Now, going back to trike, hike or bike, lahat pahirap. Sana man lang me konting ginhawa. Like, putting up walking sheds along highways and main roads for walkers (hindi yung zombie na walker ha), safe bike lanes, and more tricycle units. I don't know if they'd resurrect jeepneys. This might be the death sentence for them. And then what they call modern "jeepneys" today don't look one bit like jeepneys. It's a gross misnomer. They look like mini-buses. 

And sana mura na lang ang rubber shoes and hiking so hoes to help Juan walk to and from work. And also make good bikes cheap enough for ordinary folks to buy. Di ba mga ka-ocho?