In the field of transportation, the first automobiles are first introduced in the early 20th century.

There are no rules existed during these times, and drivers are not required to choose either you
drive on the left side or the right side of the road. When the Philippines reached this technology,
early automobiles initially adopted the left-side driving, it means that drivers drive their cars on
the left side of the road while the steering wheel is on the opposite side. When the world war broke
out, our way of driving was changed because the Americans, who also took part in war, brought
with them their vehicles that were totally different from the vehicles that the Filipinos used to
drive. These left-over vehicles, which later became part of the war surplus were modified giving
birth to the Philippine jeepneys. Filipinos then adopted the American style vehicles which you
drive on the right side of the road while the steering on the left side of the car. The permanent
change was implemented by the former President Sergio Osmeña in the Executive Order No. 34
that made us become left-hand-drive country, joining the 75% of the countries driving the same
way.

In terms of railway system in the Philippines, it started in the year 1878 when Leon Monssour, an
official of the Department of Public Works of Spain, submitted a proposal for the manila streetcar
system in Madrid. It was inspired in the same system in the Paris and New York that envisioned
as a five-line network with a central station outside of the walls of Intramuros. Although the
Spanish government favored the proposal, the project should still have to wait for an investor to
be able to push through. The entrepreneur Jacobo Zovel de Zangronis, together with the Spanish
engineer Luciano M. Bremon and Madrid banker Adolf Bayo funded and operated the said project.
Initially, horse drawn carriages were used as a railways system that uses an average of 125 horses
per day that carried approximately 2,626,606 passengers per year. When the Americans arrived in
1898, they were unsatisfied about the rail system, but they saw its usefulness for the Filipinos. In
1902, two new steam railroads were operated in the island of Luzon. One of these is operated by
Compaña de las Tranvias de Filipinas that runs from Tondo, Manila to Malabon in Rizal province
with a 7-kilometer distance. The other one is operated by the Manila and Dagupan Railway
Company, now Philippine National Railways runs from Manila to Dagupan in the province of
Pangasinan, with a distance of 196 kilometers. (Gardner, 2004). During the Japanese period in the
Philippines, Manila-Dagupan Line was a witness in the torture of the Filipinos and Americans
from Bataan that ended in San Fernando called “death march” and compacted from San Fernando
to Capas, Tarlac inside the train. Due to poor maintenance and bombing, the railways were
deteriorated and damaged that the railway never recovered.

And in our highway system, DPWH has been the arm of the Philippines in terms of road
construction and repairs. It started during the Spanish colonial Era but developed during the
American Period. During the WWII, lots of roads were destroyed because of bombs thrown in
different areas. Japanese government paid and the American Government granted the Philippines
for the rehabilitation and construction of roads after the World War II. And during the term of the
former President Ferdinand Marcos, major infrastructure development occurred. He started
developing the national roads, bridges and the rail transportation that are still used even up to these
days. Some of these are the SCTEX, San Juanico Bridge, and LRT that is highly important and
patronized by the commuters.
The Philippine Government should provide support on the field of transportation in science and
technology because every day, most people uses public transportation to go to work and school.
Most people arrive late because the traffic is always on the way. For students, the number of
dropouts are continuously escalating due to major traffics. They can’t manage their time causing
them severe fatigue and making them to drop and fail in class. And for the ordinary workers, being
late also means fewer working hours. The number of working hours is the one being paid. If an
ordinary worker got less income, they can’t provide normal support for their family causing severe
poverty in our society.

Another reason is that the Philippines loses 3.5 Billion a day because of the traffic in Metro Manila
according to the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). By the year 2050, the Philippine
economy may suffer a great loss because of fuel consumption, major pollution, delays and
accidents are continuously rising making the government to lose funds in the import of goods,
environment, and medical funds.

And the last reason is because the Philippines is being left behind in the Southeast Asia as a
developing country in terms of transportation. Our mode of public transportations such as
jeepneys, busses and trains are not modernized. People are still plodding in the maintenance, low
quality service and low speed transportation because Filipinos do not have any other choice but to
patronize the service. Our public transportations do not have the exact time of arrival and we do
not have much stations unlike in the other countries, so we can be dropped everywhere making the
driver to suddenly park causing severe traffic and accidents on the road.

In summary, the transportation should continue to be developed and improved because as our
population grow, our needs also grow most especially in the mode of transportation. Each year,
private vehicles multiply on the road causing major traffics. Solutions shall be made because if
this traffic persists, our country will suffer not only economically but also environmentally.
Solutions like the road widening, high-speed rail transport and modernized jeepneys and busses
should be the start because if this problem continued, our country will suffer a great loss in
economy throughout the years. This is because the workers are getting late at work each day also
making a loss in income causing extreme poverty in our society. The traffic also causes severe air
and noise pollution, making our health and environment to suffer. The development of the mode
of transportation is directly proportional to our economy because this is one way to success.
References:

Retrieved from: https://filipiknow.net/how-philippines-became-left-hand-drive-country/

Orbon, Glenn & Dungca, Joana. (2015). The Philippine Railway System. 10.13140/RG.2.2.32407.06563.

Retrieved from: https://steemit.com/history/@gailbelga/brief-history-of-road-and-highways