Road warriors

Can you believe I’m starting to look forward to driving, the farther the destination the better, preferably with some traffic?

I’m still here in the Philippines, in Metro Manila, but I’ve been enjoying the driving because of a phone app called Waze. It tells you the fastest route to take and the approximate time it takes to get there, and warns you about road hazards, accidents, and even police. You can choose to get your instructions through a male or a female voice, in English, Chinese, French, Spanish and several other languages (unfortunately, no Filipino yet).

As if that were not enough, it teaches your kids geography, physics and math.

Waze is one of several applications using the GPS (global positioning system) navigation systems. GPS used to be very expensive, but now you can get Waze and other apps for free on your smartphones. Using satellites, the app figures out where you are exactly, follows you as you move, and can give you information on what’s going on in other streets.

The first app I used came from the MMDA (Metropolitan Manila Development Authority), one which I still use together with Waze. With the MMDA app, there is a line view that allows you to check the traffic, broken down to junctions, on Edsa, C5, Ortigas, Commonwealth, Quezon Avenue, España, Roxas Boulevard, and Southern Luzon Expressway. Let’s say you choose C5. You will see color codes telling you if the traffic is light, medium, or heavy southbound and northbound along Tandang Sora, Capitol Hills, UP, C.P. Garcia, Miriam College, all the way to Market! Market!

There is also a Map View that tells you where you are and, again through a color code, how good or bad the traffic is on major thoroughfares.

I still use MMDA for an overview of Manila’s major thoroughfares, but have shifted to Waze for detailed navigation. Waze, which was developed by an Israeli firm, is so versatile because it’s community-based. When you turn on your app and drive, you join hundreds, even thousands, of other motorists to send information on how many cars there are on a particular road, and how fast you are going. The app pools the information and when you ask for instructions to a certain destination, it does the calculations and figures out an itinerary for you, including an ETA (estimated time of arrival).

If you want to be a more active participant, you can register and offer to send info on the road hazards, accidents, even, in the United States and other countries with wide variations in gasoline prices, which gas station to use.

Navigators

You can program frequent destinations like home, office, or hospitals, or do a totally new search for some street, or larger offices, supermarkets, and similar places. Once you accept a certain route, a voice will instruct you to, for example, “keep right” or “in 700 meters turn right into Edsa,” with additional prompts as you get closer—say in 500 meters, 300 meters, 200 meters, and when you get to the intersection, to “turn right now.”

Have you ever found yourself going into a roundabout or rotunda, and turning around and around, not sure which junction to take? The voice will tell you ahead of time.

If you take a wrong turn, or decide on another route, Waze reconfigures everything and gives you a new itinerary, all without grumbling or scolding.

I’ve used Waze in Metro Manila and in the provinces of Laguna and Cavite, and subsequently cut down on travel time. Waze is said to work as well in other larger cities like Cebu and Davao.

I like the ETA function because it gives me some sense of control; what’s bad about being in a traffic gridlock is not knowing how long you’re going to be sitting on the road. Waze even tells you when the traffic ahead has come to a standstill. With Waze, I’m able to text ahead to tell people at home or in an office how long it will be before I get there.

I’ve also been impressed by the detail of the street maps, including all kinds of landmarks. I’ve discovered all kinds of side streets even in my regular routes, but I should warn you to be critical here. Sometimes Waze sends you into really tiny streets. If you’re not sure about your driving skills, or if you think the streets might not be safe, then avoid them. This happened once when I was driving from Tagaytay to Santa Rosa and Waze told me to go into a small street. I decided not to, and learned later from friends that I had made a good decision because the street isn’t safe at night.

‘Kaytipyunan’ Road

Sometimes, too, Waze participants might not be able to update quickly. One night, on Araneta Boulevard, I got to a junction with a road block. Waze insisted that I drive on and turn right farther up. I ended up having to go into an urban poor area, and Waze seemed lost as well. Eventually, Waze did help me get out of the maze.

The voice navigators can be entertaining in the way they pronounce our street names like “Kaytipyunan” (for Katipunan) or “Aidsa” (Edsa). They also have a “navigator” named Boy Band, who sounds like Boy George practically singing out the instructions, “turn rah-eight,” and for a finale: “You have reached your des-ti-na-tion,” the “na” being one whole octave higher than “des” and “ti.” You almost want to applaud, for the navigator and for yourself.

I do enjoy Waze more when the kids help with navigation. It’s good for them, too, as the app becomes a way to review the metric system (“So, if the turn is 1.4 kilometers away, how many meters is that?”) and to talk about speed and velocity. They learn street names, and how to orient themselves north, south, east, west. The best part is how they come to “embody” the math and geography, picking up a feel of what 200 meters, 500 meters, and one kilometer are like.

Waze can even be a language tutor. Once, I chose Chinese for navigation. It didn’t quite work out. I think it was some rock star’s voice that was being simulated and the Chinese came out a bit too different from what the kids were learning in school.

I’ll get to the other languages some time, a way to entertain myself and the kids.

There are all kinds of other perks in Waze which I haven’t figured out yet, and which I’ll leave to the kids to figure out. You can arrange to have friends register and to know where they are. That would be useful if you’re traveling in a convoy to a certain destination. I’m not sure, though, that I want everyone to know where I am, all the time.

For better or for worse, we’ve become road warriors, learning to battle and outwit traffic. Making that a family affair makes it so much easier, and fun.

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