Description
For most densely populated cities around the world, motorcycles are popular personal mobility options. They allow riders a speedy and small option for bypassing traffic jams while getting to their destinations faster. For carrier and delivery services, motorcycles end up being the default transportation as they allow for good private transportation. However, they do not make good public transportation as riders can only carry a limited number of passengers. In rural Philippines, the local terrain is uneven, with most roads being narrow, unpaved, and have steep slopes that make it practically impossible for 4-wheel vehicles to get through.
In response, areas like Mindanao, Philippines, have created the habal-habal (also known as a “skylab”), a modified motorcycle. They modified it to have rectangular, wooden plank extensions attached to each side of the seat to create extra seats to carry more passengers. Riders need to learn to balance and navigate the vehicle through mud puddles and potholes with the passenger’s weight for a smooth ride. And with no protective gear, the riders need to weigh the pros and cons of using a habal-habal.
Even with all the risks that come with it, people use habal-habals to carry many more objects and people than they could without one. Sometimes, people can carry up to 6 extra passengers on one, with some even managing to carry over 10 passengers at once. Despite how much people use them in these regions, they are illegal in the Philippines due to how dangerous they are. In 2022, a driver died with his passenger being severely injured after they were struck by a pickup truck in Baragay Tal-ot. These types of accidents aren’t uncommon, yet for many, the benefits outweigh the risks that come from not having proper public transportation.
Connection to Mobile Networked Creativity
This example represents how Mobile Networked Creativity is not only concerned about the design and use of the final product. It is also about the micro-process of creation, which includes the network of relationships developed among people and technologies in a particular space and time. This particular design of the habal-habal is reflective of Mindanao’s mountainous rural region, addressing a community’s needs by adapting existing technology to their spatial reality. They came together and created an alternative way of executing an already established activity; public transportation or a cab. They took their privately owned vehicles and gave them a communal purpose. It enabled mobility to connect people to resources by adapting technology to their spaces and needs by showing that Mobile Networked Creativity does not need to be a top-down approach from other countries, but can be achieved through local efforts.
Location
Mindanao, Philippines
To learn more
- Lucas Janone, “Motociclistas estão envolvidos em mais da metade dos acidentes de trânsito no RJ,” CNN Brasil, July 27, 2021.
- Shafiq-Ur Rahman, Sanjida Bintey Ali, and Tawshif Islam, “Proceedings of the Eastern Asia Society for Transportation Studies, Vol.12,2019,” n.d., 16; Charles David A. Icasiano and Araz Taeihagh, “Governance of the Risks of Ridesharing in Southeast Asia: An In-Depth Analysis,” Sustainability 13, no. 11 (June 7, 2021): 6474.
- Mong Palatino, “Habal-Habal: The Philippine Motorcycle That Gives 10 People a Ride,” Global Voices, April 6, 2014.
- Guam P. Logrono, “Habal-Habal Driver Dies in Barili Collision; Passenger in Critical Condition,” Yahoo!News, November 17, 2022.
- Mimi Sheller, Mobility Justice: The Politics of Movement in an Age of Extremes (London: Verso, 2018).
- Lisa A. Flores, “Stoppage and the Racialized Rhetorics of Mobility,” Western Journal of Communication, no. Journal Article (2019): 1–17.