Breaking the Norms: Philippine Highways [revived!]

[sammi]

Hey everyone! Sammi here. I (just tonight) read the post Anthony made a long time ago on Philippine highways. He was going to write a series, but he's been inactive for the past ... 4 years so I decided hey, why don't I write it myself?

I don't want to reply there anymore. (I don't like red warning messages D: ) Here's the OP:

The Philippines: a spectacle of 7,100 islands, filled with colorful and vibrant characters... from guys named Bong and girls named Bing, to crooked politicians and witty street vendors. But, the best thing, for me, about the country, is the presence of its vast (and varied) highways that many would say as "weird", "strange", and sometimes the "Ha -- I cannot think of that in my own country!"

Here are some of the strange things that I saw in many Philippine highways:

- Most of the main arterial highways in the Philippines (beyond Manila) have two lanes (one each way)
- Lack of shoulders and clear yellow lanes disallowing swerving on the roads
- Complete lack of lighting in many areas (only around downtown areas)
- Lack of safety signs and reflectors (curve signs, directional signs)
- "Caution: Children Crossing" signs exist, even when there are no children around (think: summer vacations)
- Lots of roadblocks, many for no reason at all (e.g. PNP checkpoint for agriculture inspection, but no police watching the checkpoint)
- Basic service stations, many lacking or having toilets (but are dirty and smelly)
- No warning signs on weight limits on many highways
- Roads crack as fast as they are being repaved
- Highway used as a basketball court or a rice drier
- Highway converted into a procession for a funeral

There are so much more interesting facts and stories about Philippine highways, and I would love to share some of my memorable trips around the Philippines.

The highways I will focus on include:

- Pan-Philippine Highway (from Laoag to Zamboanga, mainly between San Fernando (La Union) to Legazpi City)
- EDSA (I will give you the full name of it in a later article)
- Ortigas Avenue
- Highways named after Presidents
- Highways and roads that constantly change

---

I'll start the first of the series.



EDSA. Short for Epifanio de los Santos Avenue, named after Epifanio de los Santos, a historian and scholar whose Spanish name literally translates to Epiphany of the Saints. Arbitrarily designated Highway 54 during the American occupation, also referred to as the Circumferential Road 4 (C-4) as part of the Metro Manila Arterial Road System. A 12-lane divided highway (perhaps this can be termed an expressway?) for most of its length, EDSA handles over 300,000 vehicles at any time.

This image shows a typical section of the highway. Billboards towering over the highway, bus stops to the sides, and in the middle of the road, a 17 kilometer stretch of railroad track, one of the three metro lines that form the Strong Republic Transit System.



This type of congestion is very typical of EDSA, with the hundreds thousands of cars, buses and jeepneys plying the route every day, and their stubborn drivers who refuse to follow traffic rules (most vehicles aren't even in the right lanes), combined with pedestrians carelessly walking across the already-busy highway, somehow managing to make it alive on the other side, even with this sign in place:



"NO CROSSING / PEOPLE HAVE DIED HERE."

The cause of many traffic problems on EDSA would be buses and jeepneys, a lot of them simply swerving to change lanes, much to the inconvenience of those behind them, significantly lowering speeds to about 15-20 km/h (9-12 mph). As a result, the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA), the agency in charge of managing the flow of traffic along EDSA, has implemented such things as a Uniform Vehicular Volume Reduction Program, informally known as number coding, in which vehicles are prohibited from driving on EDSA on certain days based on the last digits of their plate numbers.

EDSA is world-famous as the site of the People Power Revolution, a nonviolent movement from 1986 that aimed to end the 20-year dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos (more on Marcos in a later post) and restore democracy in the Philippines. A second Revolution "EDSA Dos" occurred to oust Joseph "Erap" Estrada in 2001.



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For any questions, or if you think I missed something important (not that most of you would know ), just post a reply.

~Sammi

[CentralCAroadgeek]

I don't have neccesarily anything to add, but as a full Filipino myself, I would enjoy this series. I can understand personally how bad the traffic is in Manila ("If you thought LA traffic was bad, you've never been to Manila!"). It would be nice to someday see an article about all the expressways around Luzon, such as NLEX, SLEX, SCTEX, and so forth. Can't wait to see the rest of the series!

A fellow Filipino,
Daryl

[sammi]

"If you thought LA traffic was bad, you've never been to Manila!"

I agree so much with this statement. (Are LA freeways really that bad?)

It would be nice to someday see an article about all the expressways around Luzon, such as NLEX, SLEX, SCTEX, and so forth.

I plan to write a few more articles than Anthony originally intended, and one of those articles will be about expressways.

---

Can't wait to see the rest of the series!

Glad to know! This seems to be a fun endeavor.

I've actually learned a few things writing this article, such as that it has 12 lanes (I only remember 6 ), "number coding", and that overly nonstandard No Jaywalking sign.

And this time, unlike Anthony, I actually am writing (and finishing!) this series.

[sammi]

On to the next part of the series.



MacArthur Highway. Named after former Governor-General of the Philippines Arthur MacArthur, Jr., formerly the Manila North Road for obvious reasons. Radial Road 9 (R-9) in the Metro Manila Arterial Road System. About 480 km from Manila to Laoag City in the north.

The highway begins with 6 lanes at a roundabout in the neighborhood of Monumento, Caloocan City, so named because of this thing in the middle, the Bonifacio Monument:



To the right, the start of MacArthur Highway; to the left, Rizal Avenue (Avenida), also part of R-9; behind the monument is Letre Road (C-4), and behind the photograph is the beginning of EDSA (54, C-4) which I just wrote about earlier. This point is 9 km from Manila's km 0 in Rizal Park, from where all road distances are measured. (If in the United States, highways begin at state lines, Rizal Park is where theoretically all roads begin.)

At km 15, in Valenzuela City, we're left with 4 lanes, 2 on each side.



At km 30, in Malolos City, Bulacan, still 4 lanes (but the photo doesn't seem to show the lane division on the left side:



Angeles City, Pampanga is at km 87. The lane markings are gone, but the drivers don't seem to care. At least 4 jeepneys are in the photo. If you didn't already know (and I should have written about it in my last post), jeepneys (the term was derived from 'jeep' and 'jitney') are a type of share taxi, using US military jeeps refitted to increase passenger capacity, that let you stop anywhere along the sorta-fixed route.



Mabalacat City, Pampanga is at km 93, adjacent to Clark Freeport Zone and the Clark International Airport [CRK], which was formerly a US Air Force base. Two toll expressways, the North Luzon Expy (NLEX) and the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expy (SCTEX) serve the city. The last time I was there, it was only a town, but it was converted into a city due to economic growth after the completion of the SCTEX in 2012.



Tarlac City, Tarlac is at km 125. The terminus of the SCTEX and the still-under-construction Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union Expy (TPLEX) [I don't like long expressway names] are to the east. The 6,000+ hectare sugar plantation known as Hacienda Luisita, owned by the family of President Benigno Aquino III, is within the vicinity as well.

At km 170 is Rosales, Pangasinan, commonly called Carmén because of its largest neighborhood, which is also a common rest area for provincial buses. Oddly enough, this town of 60,000 has its own shopping mall, SM City Rosales. It is a relatively recent expansion and one of 46 such malls across the country, shown below standing in front of what is now a 2-lane national highway. It is usually simply called the National Highway north of this area.



At km 182 is Urdaneta City, Pangasinan. The highway re-widens to 4 lanes, and this stretch of MacArthur is the most congested north of Manila. My dad always drives around the city proper to avoid heavy traffic. The picture below is past the city proper, so not much traffic:



Rosario, La Union is at km 216. About 3 km before the town proper, there is a major junction. MacArthur continues on the left, while turning right would lead you to Kennon Road (11, R-9), one of three access roads to the mountain city of Baguio, which will be discussed in a later article. In the middle of the junction is the old Junction Restaurant (I don't know if it's still open).



San Fernando City, La Union is at km 269. There is another one in the province of Pampanga (which I passed by earlier), so the name tends to confuse non-locals. There are actually five more municipalities named San Fernando, none of them are close to the highway.



North of San Fernando, the highway narrows back down to 2 lanes. And while we're in this part of the highway, let me show you my hometown, Bangar, La Union, at km 307:



Bridge of Interest. The Amburayan Bridge, crossing the Amburayan River into the province of Ilocos Sur at km 312, tends to be submerged by floods quite frequently. My mom said she once had to swim across because the bridge was closed. D: The photo below shows a second, higher bridge under construction. It has opened since.



Another Bridge of Interest. The Quirino Bridge crosses the Abra River at km 395. There are actually two bridges; the first one was partly destroyed by a typhoon, so a closer but longer replacement was built in 2007 and opened in 2009. The old bridge is preserved as a tourist attraction.



At km 406, you can take a left turn to enter Vigan City, Ilocos Sur, an old Spanish city and a major tourist destination, which is ~500 m (the arch says "492MTS.") from the main road. MacArthur continues to the right.



Not much happens past Vigan, until you get into the province of Ilocos Norte. Turning left at km 459 takes you to the town of Paoay, another tourist destination and the location of the old Paoay Church.



Bridge of Interest. The Laoag Bridge crosses the river between Laoag City and the town of San Nicolas. The boundary is right at the foot of the bridge, where this welcome arch is located.



MacArthur Highway (3) ends at the welcome arch, and the Maharlika Highway (5, 26, AH26) continues into the city and goes around the rest of the island for another 750 km before returning to Manila.

[formulanone]

^ What do the combined solid double-yellow and white dashed center lane markings represent?

(The only thing I could find was a blog stating vaguely that lanes are merging together, which doesn't seem to match the scenario in the photo above.)

[realjd]

^ What do the combined solid double-yellow and white dashed center lane markings represent?

(The only thing I could find was a blog stating vaguely that lanes are merging together, which doesn't seem to match the scenario in the photo above.)

That's an old US-style center marker. Roads all had a white broken line as a center divider. A yellow line on your side of the line indicated no passing.

Sometime in the 70's (?) we dropped the white and standardized on our yellow-only markings, eliminating the broken center line in double yellow situations. Since the Philippines are a former US territory, I'm not surprised to see them still using markings like that. It's very cool! I think NZ still does it similarly also.

[sammi]

^ What do the combined solid double-yellow and white dashed center lane markings represent?

That's an old US-style center marker. Roads all had a white broken line as a center divider. A yellow line on your side of the line indicated no passing.

Uh yeah, I didn't know that either. Tried to browse the pavement markings manual for that specific scenario, but the closest I got is "no passing on your side": solid yellow on one side, dotted white on another.

[Interstatefan78]

I'm a Filipino myself and when I went back to the Philippines back in 2005-2006 and 2006-2007 I've seen the NLEX having 8 lanes from EDSA to Tabang exit perhaps NLEX needs 8 lanes from Tabang to Dau since it forms a Manila to Subic or Tarlac route.
Another thing I've seen was that the San Fernando Pampanga to Bataan road has gravel shoulders between San Fernando up to the Bataan border and speeds on this stretch would drop to 20 kph if it was rush hour although the speed is 60-80 Kph

[sammi]

Next! This one's about the expressways. But for now, I'll be focusing on the expressways north of Manila, as I know those better. The south will come in a later article (obviously).

First, a background on expressways in general. All expressways in the Philippines are tolled (again, sucks), as they are actually owned by private companies, financed with the build-operate-transfer (BOT) scheme. Specifically, each expressway is owned by a different company, so at the moment, integration of toll collection proves to be a difficult task.

Philippine expressways are typically rural; as such, they don't require exits every mile or so like on American freeways. The interchanges are about 5-10 km apart and serve multiple towns in their vicinity. (In fact, the first one below stops just a few km after entering Metro Manila.)

Before entrance to an expressway, there is a sign denoting that expressway rules are in place. I don't know what that looks like in the US, but in Europe you only see the chopsticks motorway symbol. In the Philippines, on the other hand, it has to be a lot more specific than that:



There are nine expressways in the Philippines, all on Luzon Island, three of which are north of Manila.





(Keep in mind that no Philippine signs are actually like this. These name plates are my own creation.)

The MacArthur Highway was heavily congested, due to it being one of the two access roads to Manila from the north (at the time), so a limited-access toll road was built to alleviate the traffic. The resulting road was named the North Diversion Road, which was then changed to the North Luzon Tollway shortly after.



(Traffic Discipline Zone [TDZ] is the term used for what Europe may describe as an area under 'motorway regulations'.)

It continued to operate under the control of the Philippine National Construction Corporation, the government agency which constructed it in the 1960s, until operation and maintenance were transferred to the Manila North Tollways Corp. (MNTC) in 2005, after which it was renamed the North Luzon Expressway (NLEX) as it is now known.

NLEX starts at a cloverleaf interchange in the neighborhood of Balintawák, Quezon City, the shape of which I find interesting for some reason. Here's an aerial shot (note: Street View doesn't exist in the Philippines. Sucks ) This interchange is at km 9, just like the Monumento roundabout (3, 54, C-4, R-9). Across the image is EDSA (54, C-4), while south is Bonifacio Avenue (unnumbered at the moment), to which all traffic goes if it hasn't already exited onto EDSA. The expressway starts with 8 lanes, 4 in each direction.

(I won't be writing down all the exits, alright? The map above shows all of them anyway.)

To the immediate north of Balintawak Interchange at km 10 is a northbound-only exit onto Quirino Highway (R-8A), which leads to uptown Quezon City and eastern Bulacan province.

2 km north of that at km 12, the northbound carriageway widens to 16 lanes to accomodate the Balintawák Toll Barrier. The open system begins north of this point, and the toll costs ₱45 ($1 US = ₱43.57 according to Google at the time of writing).



Not far from that, at km 13, is an unfinished cloverleaf interchange, called the SMART Connect Interchange, which boasts itself as the largest cloverleaf in the country. The stretch of expressway east of the interchange is a spur road, called the , while the west side is still under the planning stages.

The highway has three more exits and 2 service stations before getting to the southbound-only Bocaue Toll Barrier at km 26, where motorists pay tolls for both the open and closed systems. The open system ends here, and the rest of the expressway is tolled at ₱2.38/km (9¢/mi).

At km 32, northbound traffic can exit onto the 4-lane , which ends at a parclo interchange with the MacArthur Highway (3, R-9) and the Maharlika Highway (5, 26, AH26) at km 37 in the city of Malolos, Bulacan. There is a toll barrier at the end, which has significantly less lanes than Balintawak and Bocaue. NLEX becomes 4 lanes north of here.

Intermission: While I'm at this exit. This is something that could go on the Terrible Maps thread, but I'm probably not putting it there. An advertisement for a resort whose name literally translates to 'cold':



A few things I'm looking at:

• I like the exit sign. While it doesn't follow spec, it's probably the only semi-accurate thing on that map. (The color's inconsistent too.)
• "HI-WAY". They couldn't just say "HWY".
• NLEX has intersections now?

At km 48 is the Candaba Viaduct, the longest bridge on the island, shown below traversing the Candaba Swamp and the Pampanga River in the municipality of Candaba, Pampanga. Look for the long straight gap between San Simon and Pulilan on the map above.


(Sorry about the watermark.)

At km 65 is San Fernando Exit, to the city of San Fernando (duh), Pampanga. I find the layout unusual, as (in my experience) it is usually a British thing to have roundabouts at interchanges. Two malls to the east are visible from the exit, the white one is SM City Pampanga, the red one is Robinsons Starmills Pampanga.

Southbound on km 76 is a Shell service area in Ángeles City, Pampanga. I've been to the others before but this one is the most memorable for me. >.> Every year our little high school of 350 had a field trip to Manila. We always took 3 buses, always from the same company, always taking the same route to get to Manila (but different places to go every time of course!), and for some reason, we always stop at this one, which is around the time I wake up and start texting again, so that people would think, "oh, he's she's at Ángeles City already."

At km 82, the expressway widens again, on both sides this time, for the Daú Toll Barrier, the last one.



At km 83 is Daú Exit in Daú, Mabalacat, Pampanga. My dad used to take this all the time. NLEX used to end here until it was extended further north another 5 km in 1989. This used to be a signalized intersection until the rehabilitation in 2005. (They should have grade-separated it right when they built the extension. )

A northbound-only exit at km 85, simply called the SCTEX Exit, leads you to the Mabiga Spur, a 3-km 2-lane road that serves as a connection point between NLEX and SCTEX (see below). Mabiga Exit at km 87 is on the spur road, and a U-turn area exists for eastbound motorists coming from SCTEX to be able to the Mabiga Exit.

The expressway ends at a trumpet interchange at km 88 in Santa Inés, Mabalacat, Pampanga. There are plans to extend it past this exit to meet up with the SCTEX up north, but it is also in the planning stages.

[NE2]

Before entrance to an expressway, there is a sign denoting that expressway rules are in place. I don't know what that looks like in the US, but in Europe you only see the chopsticks motorway symbol. In the Philippines, on the other hand, it has to be a lot more specific than that:

The US has similar signs (though, as regulatory signs, they are black on white). It depends on the state, but usually it will say something like no pedestrians or non-motorized vehicles allowed. Sometimes animals and motorized bicycles (low-power motorcycles, like on this sign) are included, but I don't think oversized trucks are on any of these signs.

Thread here: https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=9515

[sammi]

The US has similar signs (though, as regulatory signs, they are black on white). It depends on the state, but usually it will say something like no pedestrians or non-motorized vehicles allowed. Sometimes animals and motorized bicycles (low-power motorcycles, like on this sign) are included, but I don't think oversized trucks are on any of these signs.

Thread here: https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=9515

I see, thanks. I guess the difference is that the Philippine one is in Arial.

[sammi]

The Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway is so named because of the three major areas it serves, the Subic Bay Freeport Zone in Olongapo City, Zambales, the Clark Freeport Zone in Angeles City, Pampanga, and Tarlac City, Tarlac. The 94-km expressway is tolled at ₱2.67/km (9.9¢/mi), just a bit higher than NLEX.

It was built starting in 2005 by the Bases Conversion and Development Authority, a government controlled corporation whose aim is to transform former US bases for civilian use (hence the development of both Subic and Clark), and opened in 2008 in two phases, one in April and one in July. More importance was put on the southern segment than the northern.

Before construction of the SCTEX, the main route for travelers from Manila to Subic was using the NLEX (E-2, R-8) or MacArthur Highway (3, R-9) up to San Simon, Pampanga and taking the Jose Abad Santos Avenue or "JASA" (7), roughly a straight line from San Simon to Dinalupihan (see map above). The 4-lane highway was always congested during rush hour (as Interstatefan78 pointed out), so a proposal was put forth to build an expressway connecting the NLEX to Subic. The original proposed alignment was from San Simon to Subic (again, see map), however the connection to Clark was prioritized more than that to Manila and a Subic-Clark route was constructed. The plans subsequently extended the route to Tarlac.

Construction of the expressway cost ₱35 billion ($800 million), funded by a loan from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). The project is thus considered a partnership between the Philippines and Japan.



[I will not number this road in terms of km from Manila, but instead starting from its terminus in Subic. However, the exit numbers are different from the official numbers because the contractors made the subtle mistake of numbering the exits starting from 88, where NLEX ends.]

The SCTEX begins at a T junction in Subic. A northbound-only Y-exit at Tipo provides access from Subic to the province of Bataan (I hear they have an expressway, owned by the province, but I don't have enough details.)

After 3 exits on about 50 km of 4-lane highway (the towns were really spaced apart here): Dinalupihan at km 16, Floridablanca at km 34 and Porac at km 58, we enter the city of Mabalacat again. NLEX serves Mabalacat with two interchanges, while SCTEX does the same with three. Clark South at km 61 technically doesn't serve Mabalacat, while it is within city limits, as it exits into the Clark Freeport Zone in Angeles City directly. Mabalacat Interchange (perhaps this should have a more specific name than 'Mabalacat') at km 62 exits onto Mabiga Spur (see NLEX). Clark North at km 69 Interchange leads to Clark International Airport [CRK/RPLC], and Dolores at km 85 exits onto MacArthur Highway, all within the city of Mabalacat.

Past Mabalacat, the interchanges space out again. The exit at km 103 serves the small town of Concepción, Tarlac. Then, an unfinished interchange at km 127 serves Hacienda Luisita, which also has access along MacArthur Highway. Then finally, the last exit on the SCTEX is at km 137, which exits onto a provincial road to Tarlac City.



God, that's a long name. TPLEX (or TPLUEX) for short.

While the road continues, as you can see in the map, what's on the road past Tarlac City is technically part of TPLEX, which is why these signs had to be installed.





They should really fix that by renumbering the two expressways under one route, as I've done here.

Originally proposed as the Tarlac-La Union Toll Expressway in 2009, the project involved the construction in two phases of an 89-km 4-lane expressway from Tarlac City to Rosario, La Union (where, if you've read Part 2, the major junction to Baguio City is). Baguio, as the summer capital of the Philippines, invites thousands of tourists (mostly white) every year, and the construction of an expressway will strongly impact tourism not only in Baguio, but in the rest of the region.

The first phase is the construction of a two-lane undivided highway for the entire length, and the second phase is the expansion to a 4-lane divided highway when the volume exceeds 25,000 per day. However, the plan was changed so that the phases were instead made to correspond with different segments of the highway. The highway was divided into three segments, and as of now, only half of the first one is finishing construction, and is scheduled to be opened next week.

Problems with the acquisition of right-of-way occurred earlier in the year (funds went elsewhere ), so as a result construction was delayed and very expensive. The expressway is planned to be tolled at ₱3.47/km (12.8¢/mi), nowhere near the current toll rates for NLEX and SCTEX, however this has not yet been approved by the Toll Regulatory Board.

At opening day, there will only be two exits on the new expressway, serving the town of Victoria at km 146 and Gerona at km 150-something.

There's only so much I can write about an unfinished highway.

[sammi]

Correction: Unless the spurs count as separate expressways, there are only 6 expressways in the Philippines, not 9.

In the previous two articles, I wrote about expressways north of Manila. Now I'm writing about those south of Manila.


(I'm sorry, this is the best way I could piece together the information on Wikipedia.)




South Luzon Expressway, or the SLEX, and its companion route the Metro Manila Skyway, or MMSW or Skyway. About 60 km from its northern end within the city of Manila, to its southern end in Santo Tomás, Batangas. What I don't like about this highway is the toll. It's pretty steep at ₱3.-something/km, compared to ~₱2.50/km for the northern ones.

This expressway was built earlier than the NLEX (but originally as an at-grade expressway), as the faster development of the southern provinces necessitated a similarly fast access route. The Skyway was built starting in 1995 to decongest the SLEX, and was fully operational in 1997. The Skyway and the SLEX are designed to work like a collector-express system, where the overhead Skyway would act as the express lanes and have exits onto the SLEX, which would then act as the collector lanes.



The first segment of the expressway is the President Sergio Osmeña Highway (more on highways named after Presidents in a later article), from the terminus at km 6 in Buendía (Gil Puyat) in the city of Manila ("Manila City" isn't exactly proper form), where the Skyway also begins, up to Filinvest in Muntinlupa City. The highway is non-toll (and has at-grade intersections) for the first 4 km, until the Nichols Toll Barrier signals the beginning of the tolled section of the SLEX.

The Skyway and SLEX run concurrently for 16 km, the entire length of the Skyway, before all Skyway traffic defaults onto the SLEX as it leaves Metro Manila. Exit numbers start appearing on roads past the Filinvest exit, upon entering the province of Laguna.

The exits on the SLEX are tightly spaced together (1 km, compared to 5-10 km on the NLEX), due to it being an urban expressway. A few of these exits actually lead to housing developments (Susana Heights, Mamplasan) and industrial parks (Mamplasan, Santa Rosa, Malitlít), while the rest lead to small towns in the provinces of Laguna and Cavite.

The SLEX ends at Santo Tomas Exit at km 60, where the next expressway begins. There are plans to extend the SLEX to Lucena City, Quezon, about 75 km from where it currently ends, and then another extension to Matnóg, Sorsogón, about 300 more km. As a result, I've numbered the STAR below as a spur route to SLEX.



This highway is named because of the region it serves, the Southern Tagalog or "Katagalugan", the provinces which mainly speak Tagalog. The current name "STAR" is obviously an acronym for the original name "Southern Tagalog Arterial Road". About 40 km from Santo Tomas, where the SLEX ends, to its southern end in Batangas City, Batangas. This is now a rural expressway, so the exits are farther apart from each other again. The highway is 4-lane divided for 22 km, until you get to Lipá City.



This is the two-lane undivided section of a 100 km/h expressway, for the remaining 18-km length of the STAR from Lipá to Santo Tomás. Originally a two-lane single carriageway was built, the second one to be built at a later time, but they seem to have forgotten. The northbound carriageway is under construction and is expected to open in 2015.

Also, what country uses that type of sign? o.o This expressway is full of nonstandard signs. (But it's not like all the others aren't. >.>)

There isn't much I can say about these either, because I've never really been on them, having only clinched them in my sleep. (I took a bus from Bangar to Batangas, a good 400 km, only stopping over at a pharmacy in Calamba to buy an asthma inhaler. The rest of the time I was asleep.)

Highways clinched while asleep: NLEX, SLEX, STAR.

[KEK Inc.]

I don't have neccesarily anything to add, but as a full Filipino myself, I would enjoy this series. I can understand personally how bad the traffic is in Manila ("If you thought LA traffic was bad, you've never been to Manila!"). It would be nice to someday see an article about all the expressways around Luzon, such as NLEX, SLEX, SCTEX, and so forth. Can't wait to see the rest of the series!

A fellow Filipino,
Daryl

Oh hey, another Pinoy brotha'.  (I'm half white, though). 

Any road pictures from Cebu?

[CentralCAroadgeek]

Got some pictures I'd like to share from here in the Philippines (Surprise, surprise!). So far, I've only gotten Skyway pics and a few of SLEX and EDSA. All taken from the back seat of a taxi...

Some Clearview greeting you as you enter the Skyway:


A sign for the exit to the terminals of Ninoy Aquino International Airport (known here as NAIA):


Pretty much all exit signs on the Skyway (probably even the South Luzon Expressway [SLEX])


The view of SLEX from a Skyway exit (the Skyway is located directly above the Expressway):


Here's a (rather blurry) pic of a mileage sign (are they still called mileage signs even if they're in kilometers?) on EDSA:


And finally, a typical gantry on EDSA:


Enjoy!
~ Daryl

[sammi]

I don't understand this practice of signing each lane differently. The three middle lanes can all take you to Guadalupe and Monumento. I actually saw one too (on SLEX) which had different control cities on each lane, even if those cities were all accessible from every lane.



I tried to redo and semi-Caltrans it: (lane spacing under, and I'm missing a motorcycle icon)



or for current situations, because EDSA isn't signed as 54 yet, just replace it with "EDSA".

[CentralCAroadgeek]

Some more pictures, first two from the provinces (Camarines Sur in Bicol, in this case).

Arches like these are common at city boundaries out in the provinces. Here's one from Naga City:


Here's a typical scene on the Maharlika Highway in (could we call it suburban?) areas:

The Maharlika Highway is mostly two-lane, mostly with no shoulders except in areas like these, where it could serve as sidewalks or parking areas.

Back to Metro Manila, Fort Bonifacio in Taguig City uses signs that are styled like signs you'd see in America. The Fort was formerly an American military base, after all. First are their traffic lights:

The "No Left Turn" and "No U-Turn" signs in the lower-left corner are also similar to the ones you'd find in America, except with more European-style arrows.

For the street blades, here's a closer detail:


Here's a pic of the Kalayaan Flyover, connecting Buendia in Makati to Fort Bonifacio:


At the Fort, I saw signs in both Highway Gothic and (pretty compressed) Clearview. First, here's the Highway Gothic sign:


And finally, here's the compressed Clearview sign located outside the recently opened SM Aura shopping mall:

[sammi]

Arches like these are common at city boundaries out in the provinces. Here's one from Naga City:

They're actually at the boundaries of most towns I've been through. The rest of the time it's a welcome sign to the side of the road. The width of the arch makes it possible to place those... banners.

The banner is a Christmas message from the governor of Camarines Sur apparently. Also notice, the family name of the governor, Villafuerte, is the same as that of the mayor or Naga City. Politics.

I've also seen one of these within Metro Manila, if the one at the boundary of Makati and Manila counts.

From (the city of) Makati... Thank you for visiting

And another boundary marker I like would be the Welcome Rotunda, between Quezon City and Manila. The boundary line runs across the image through the "legs".

WELCOME

Quezon City

[Tom958]

Just read the whole thread-- nice! Thanks, sammi!

[sammi]

Just read the whole thread-- nice! Thanks, sammi!

You're welcome. As you can see I haven't written anything in a while, because I haven't really gotten around to writing any full articles yet. But I might move this stuff to my website once I put it up (see the URL on my profile to the left), then I could write more stuff.

[bing101]

http://www.panoramio.com/photo/46685628

Check out this sign you have 3 cities in the Luzon area but the problem here is that I can't see any miles or Kilometers on the South Luzon Expressway.  Why are the Kilometers left Blank?

But if you look at the West end of US-50, I-305 @ I-80 interchange in Sacramento, CA the Distance to Control city sign is used to warn drivers the distance to a destination from that point.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9b/Rt50_termini_ca_ocmd_sign.jpg

Or this Distance Between Control Exits sign seen in many Urban Freeways in the USA and Possibly Other countries.  Why did SLEX Toll Authority leave the Kilometers blank. This is a bad design. How will the drivers know when to exit?

www.interstate-guide.com/images805/i-805_ca_nt_27.jpg

[sammi]

http://www.panoramio.com/photo/46685628

After searching for the names of those places (San Pedro is the only one I know), that places the vicinity of the exit around here.



SLEX is the orange line through the middle of the image, and the exit ramp in the photo is the lighter orange near the top of the map. It exits onto Magsaysay Rd, which then provides access to "La Marea" and "South Peak", which are subdivisions, and the city of San Pedro.

I'm guessing it was supposed to be their way of saying "La Marea, South Peak and San Pedro are all this way --->", but I'm also guessing they should have put it after the toll booth.

SLEX Toll Authority

Manila Toll Expressway Systems, Inc. (MATES)

[bing101]

http://www.panoramio.com/photo/46685628

After searching for the names of those places (San Pedro is the only one I know), that places the vicinity of the exit around here.



SLEX is the orange line through the middle of the image, and the exit ramp in the photo is the lighter orange near the top of the map. It exits onto Magsaysay Rd, which then provides access to "La Marea" and "South Peak", which are subdivisions, and the city of San Pedro.

I'm guessing it was supposed to be their way of saying "La Marea, South Peak and San Pedro are all this way --->", but I'm also guessing they should have put it after the toll booth.

SLEX Toll Authority

Manila Toll Expressway Systems, Inc. (MATES)

What the dash lines don't look like Arrows to Me

[sammi]

What the dash lines don't look like Arrows to Me

They don't look like it to me either. But then again it's

Breaking the Norms: Philippine Highways

[bing101]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:I110SBndEnteringTheSlot.jpg


Welcome to San Pedro. This is Downtown LA on the South End of CA-110 to North End of I-110 this is San Pedro (San PEED-ro) Port of Los Angeles. Not San Ped-Ro as the people of Laguna Province would say.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:I-4_east_exits_111A-B.jpg


Here are exits done in the USA.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:I-4_west_exit_58.jpg


Another Exit sign from Taiwan


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Taiwan_Freeway_New_Exit_Sign.gif


these all meet the respective DOT Standards.