Metro Manila traffic has become one of the worst in the world. Or maybe it has already reached the top spot? Either way, the point is that almost all of us living there or nearby have no choice but to endure this problem every day. Of course, you’re not exempt from this. Every time you hit the road, you sit on your Toyota Fortuner from the Philippines for an hour or three just to get somewhere that would’ve taken around forty-five minutes only if traffic were light.
While some government personnel and agencies and some concerned citizens are trying to find ways to permanently solve this crisis, there is no quick fix to this. There are, however, ways to keep your mind off the river of red taillights in front of you. And considering how heavy today’s traffic is, you can do them regularly for quite a considerable amount of time.
Consult Waze
No matter how stuck in traffic you seem, don’t just resign yourself to such a hassling fate! The power to avoid heavy traffic is in your fingertips, literally. If you think that your smartphone is only good for social media apps and games, then you should know that there is an app called Waze, which helps you navigate through the streets of Manila by showing the different routes you can take and how light or heavy the traffic in them is. After all, whenever you’re stuck, the best thing you can do with your time is figuring out how you can escape.
Read a Book
Because of the advent of smartphones, which gave us internet access almost anywhere, and our ever-shortening attention span, less and less people turn to books as a form of leisure. What they don’t know is that books are actually very convenient ways to pass the time. Not only that! They also widen your vocabulary and get your brain running, as you have to think and imagine what is happening in the pages and what the many things found in the story symbolize. Also, books don’t require batteries, don’t have startup times, and don’t need internet connection, so you can access them almost anytime as long as there is light.
Play a Game
Carefree family riding in convertible
By this, I don’t mean whatever portable video game console you have with you; those are one-player games that only you can enjoy. Let your passengers have some fun too without them resorting to video games as well by playing games. Try out the following:
- Dugtungan – the game where participants sing lyrics from another song to continue the song the previous person just sang.
- I Spy – a person describes what he is seeing, and the others have to guess what it is.
- Storytelling – a person starts a story, stops, and the rest take turns in continuing the tale. Get creative!
Stuck on the road doesn’t have to mean being bored out of your mind. With these things you can do – and a few ones you can come up with – you can make the most out of your time on the road.
