*kitsons,

Tricycles are what I would term in an oxymoronic way, moving shackles. They are shackles that tether the drivers to poverty. They only allow the drivers to survive on a daily basis but not to rise above poverty. Practically all the drivers I have talked to admitted they were in no better financial shape than when they first started. A bad day or a family emergency usually sets them back to the point where they have to borrow money. Of those who were able to improve their lot, it was because of external assistance. You can also refer to the research papers by NGOs and international lending institutions that I have on occasion disseminated to the group.

A motorcycle is an enabling mobility for the poor. A private tricycle is an enabling mobility. But tricycles for hire are not the livelihood panacea for the poor as commonly perceived. If they were so, perhaps the country’s second oldest bank would still be in operation today. (Of course, the allegations regarding its bankruptcy, while openly discussed in coffee shops then, were never formally proven one way or another. AFAIK.) Sadly, in addition, tricycles are also a major cause of both noise and air pollution, as well as traffic gridlock all over the country.

Now, let’s take the kuliglig. It is admittedly a cheaper bastardized adaptation of the tricycle for the poorer of the poor. While it can be considered an enabling mobility (for private use), its range is realistically limited. Thus its role as an enabler, is therefore limited, either for specific situations or in significance.

Now if you are saying the kuliglig has the potential to play the public transportation role of the tricycle for the C & D classes, think again. What kind of infrastructure will it have? The same as that of the tricycle? If tricycle drivers have proven to be unmanageable, lack simple discipline, and disobey traffic laws wantonly, do you honestly think kuliglig operators will be better? And for what? The kuliglig will not lift them out of poverty. If the tricycle wasn’t able to, what makes you think the kuliglig will, being the inferior, less capable contraption that it realistically is.

If the tricycle has functioned as a band-aid that stops the (daily) bleeding of the poor but not cure the wound, the kuliglig will function as a contaminated band-aid that may stop the daily bleeding but at the same time seriously infect the wound.