Seeing the world from Manila’s streets: Order in chaos and a shared sense of safety

WHEN I first arrived in Manila, I tried to understand traffic through the familiar logic of “rules”: red lights, green lights, lanes, pedestrian crossings. But it did not take long to realize that these textbook standards are treated here more as references than commandments. Motorcycles weave between cars. Pedestrians slide naturally through slow-moving vehicles. Jeepneys stop to pick up students, or an elderly woman even in places where it seems impossible to stop. And yet —