A few months back (or maybe not that long ago — heck, I don't remember), I mentioned very little about the local transportation here. Back in the eighties, when I was deployed here with the Marines, you didn't see nearly as many vehicles on the roads as today. Obviously, population growth played a big part in it. There's another factor that has affected this small city. More Filipinos have cars than they did back then, percentage wise. In the eighties, the cars here were owned by mostly military members stationed here. You couldn't just go to Manila, Philippines or some other place and buy an American, Japanese or other foreign car. The dealerships didn't exist. Today, you have dealerships in several large cities. I bought my car in San Fernando, in the Pampanga province.

The population of Olongapo City, Philippines is more than four times larger than it was 20 years ago. The city itself is not. Residential roads, like the one in front of my house, continue to be paved with cement on a regular basis, but the business area has not grown. The former naval base, closed in the nineties, was reopened as the "Freeport Zone". Most people just call it "SBMA" because it's run by the Subic Bay Management Authority. It's adjacent to the city and new businesses are being built and started up there all the time. The city's business district is not growing because of SBMA — the growth is there.

In Manila and other large cities, taxis as well as jeepneys and trikes are commonplace. In Olongapo City, the only thing you'll see besides jeepneys and trikes are buses and private autos. I don't believe a taxi service exists here. Commercial jeepneys and trikes are not allowed on SBMA. Privately used versions of them are allowed, but you don't see them much. Here are a couple of pictures I thought I would include so that you know what a jeepney and a trike (also called tricycle) look like. A trike is nothing more than a covered motorcycle with a sidecar.

Depending on the location, a jeepney costs between 7 and 9 pesos (about 15 to 20 cents in US dollars). Trikes cost about twice as much, but get to the destination twice as fast.