I have no sense of direction whatsoever. Which is why I don’t have the guts to drive through unfamiliar routes. Show me a new destination and I will show you a dozen different ways to get lost. Sometimes I wonder if I’m in the right profession.
But I have recently found the audacity to drive to shopping centers and convenience stores well outside my current zip code and comfort zone. I’ve been motoring to towns and streets whose names I haven’t previously encountered. Yes, I’ve occasionally missed a turn or two but have never panicked, confident of my newfound ability to find my way back.
That ability comes courtesy of a handy GPS navigation device. You should know I’m now in the US on a holiday visit to my parents, and the navigation gadget sits handsomely on the dashboard of my father’s car. I have been driving this car a lot lately as I hunt for the missing pieces in my
Cars die-cast collection. The GPS device is very easy to use. I just enter “TOYS R US, ” for instance, and the thing gives me a list of the nearest outlets of the toy store. When I click on an outlet address, the device promptly prepares the quickest route to my desired destination. It then gives me a series of visual and vocal instructions. The guidance is so simple you’d have to be blind and deaf to still lose your way.
“In one mile, bear right.”
“In half a mile, make a right on Spring Valley Road.”
“In 400 feet, turn right on Spring Valley Road.”
“NOW, TURN RIGHT ON SPRING VALLEY ROAD!”
I admit I’m poor with directions. But I’d be dumb not to clearly get the above instructions. It’s like having your own co-driver, without the annoying small talk. The other day I mistakenly got on an interstate highway--which could be daunting for a directionally challenged driver like me (I was already seeing signs leading to another state)--but I kept my cool, knowing that wherever I wound up in, the GPS device would simply recalculate the route and gladly show me the way back. Indeed, it did. What confidence and freedom this navigation technology brings. To think I was driving by myself, and in a foreign land at that.
This got me wishing we had this motoring convenience in the
Philippines. Yes, yes, I know: AVT now offers the Navigator device locally. Although I haven’t personally used one, a few colleagues tell me its functionality is pretty decent. I don’t doubt that. I know we also have the technical know-how to plot electronic maps. But my personal experience with a GPS device also tells me that, for the whole concept to work seamlessly and efficiently, at least two prerequisites should be present. Two prerequisites that, sadly, don’t exist in our country.
First, every single street needs to be properly labeled. We need up-to-date and legible street signs, in other words. Remember that the GPS device gives instructions by spelling out and pronouncing street names. It will be awfully difficult to follow such instructions if you have no visual affirmation that the street you’re about to enter is the same street being referred to by the device.
This would be especially hard in Metro
Manila, where many streets lie close to each other. If adjoining streets have no signs, it’s fairly easy to get confused as to which one is being called out by the device. If you need to roll down your window and ask a pedestrian for street names, what’s the point of having a GPS device to begin with?
The beauty of the navigation system is that it accurately tells you which street to take. The absence of street signs negates this. Unfortunately, it seems to me there are nearly as many streets in Metro
Manila with no signs as there are labeled ones. Drive to an inner
barangay and check out its street corners. I pity the foreigner who must look for a Philippine address. And on top of missing street signs, we change street names as often as we change presidents. Leave the country for just six years and you’ll be greeted by new, whimsical street names when you get back. I know as many people who still say “Buendia” as I do people who say “Gil Puyat.”
The second obstacle to using navigation systems in the
Philippines--particularly in Metro
Manila--is that our traffic authorities are as fickle-minded as a woman shopping for a pair of shoes. One week a street is two-way, the next it’s one-way. One day you can make a left turn at a particular junction, the next you’re prohibited from doing so. The route I take every day to work features a stretch in Pasay City that changes U-turn slots as quickly as a flurry of Pacquiao jabs.
GPS devices in the US work because the traffic rules are permanent and consistent. They won’t tell you to enter a street if it’s one-way in the opposite direction. They won’t make you turn left at an intersection if doing so isn’t allowed. Sure, they won’t be able to tell if a road-construction project has recently been commenced four blocks away, but these things are rare exceptions and are virtually unpredictable anyway.
I don’t question the quality of GPS devices now available in our market, or our ability to plot electronic maps necessary for such devices. What I have serious doubts about is the compatibility of these gadgets with places that have poorly labeled streets and capricious traffic rules. Until this issue is addressed, don’t expect to be driving to Bicol with only a navigation system as your companion.
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