Waze confirms the appalling traffic conditions of Metro Manila

Traffic app Waze recently released their first ever "Global Driver Satisfaction Index". The results? Surprise, surprise! The Philippines, particularly Metro Manila, has the worst traffic conditions in the world and one of the countries that has the least satisfied drivers.

The index is scored from 10 (satisfying) to 1 (miserable). With their 50 million users in 32 countries and 167 metro areas, they were able to evaluate the driving experiences based on 6 key factors:

• Traffic Level by frequency and severity of traffic jams.
• Road Quality and infrastructure.
• Driver Safety based on accidents, road hazards and weather.
• Driver Services like access to gas stations and easy parking.
• Socio-Economic including access to cars and impact of gas prices.
• “Wazeyness,” the level of helpfulness and happiness within the Waze community.

Although this is not new to us anymore, it's still different when we get to compare our current situation with others. The Netherlands is densely-populated but they are on top of the Traffic and Most Satisfied index with 7.9. So as France and United States with 7.2 and 6.9 respectively. The Philippines, however, is at the bottom of the Traffic Index with 0.4.

You may jump into conclusion that this is the authorities' fault, or that the government is to blame for this road menace that we're experiencing. That’s true – if we’re not seeing our government do their job in keeping our roads accessible and safe. However, look at the tables below.

Safety Index is based on the density of accidents and hazards on the road and quality of weather. On the other hand, Driver Services Index is based on the number of gas stations, car services, and parking lots available for the motoring public.

Surprisingly, we are sharing the 2nd place for Safety Index with the Netherlands with a score of 9.3, and acing the Driver Services Index with a perfect 10. We’re even higher than that of the United States’. This means that our government is doing their job pretty well. So, where does this dissatisfaction comes from?

We, Filipinos, have the tendency to blame others for our mishaps. However, with the numbers shown above, we can fairly say that we have all that we need on our roads for a better traffic. You know what we're lacking? Discipline.

The problem and dismay are from within ourselves. Traffic rules and regulations are there not just to be written words on sheets of paper. We should be abiding by these rules in order for us to see improvements not just on traffic, but on our country as a whole. There is really a reason why the word “law” was invented in the first place.

If you want to see the full results of the survey, you can check it out at blog.waze.com.