Tanauan City’s retro tricycles

I’ve always been fascinated with these three wheeled vehicles plying the roads of cities and towns in the Philippines. Either motorized or manually driven, it comes in different forms and designs and are unique to the places they ply. I went down the airconditioned bus when I arrived in Tanauan City, Batangas for an assignment. But what readily got my attention were the uniquely designed tricycles that have been parked near the bus stop. Clean lines, rounded corners and flanged rear that only recalls to mind the pop style cars and architecture of yesteryears and I was just stumped and smiling: 50’s retro!

It’s so subtle that to the untrained eye, is just another tricycle design that we often take for granted. But in Tanauan City, its just wow! How and when did these tricycles started? Who initiated the design? Is this just endemic to the city or is also found in neighboring towns? I’m left to wonder.

Stainless steel beauties zooming past with their modern motorcycles that looks disjointed with its retro sidecab. But it’s in the details that I really like: the rounded and stylized front, the spacious inside, the metal decorations and lines at the sides down to the pointed rear and cargo area at the back.

These are one of the reasons I like going to the provinces as, it seems, every town or city has its own unique tricycle or pedicab design. It’s a testament to the Pinoy’s creativity and adaptability to come up with these contraptions.