The Metro Manila Skyway Stage 3 is a massive infrastructure project that is expected to curtail the worsening traffic situation along EDSA, C5 Road, and Central Manila by connecting the North Luzon Expressway and the South Luzon Expressway.
That’s why an eager motorist, known only as Dmitrivalencia and Pinoy Joyride, has been patiently documenting the progress of Skyway Stage 3’s construction ever since it broke ground in 2014.
In an exclusive interview with Wheels.ph via e-mail, Dmitrivalencia shared that he thought about documenting the construction progress of Skyway because he’s one of the many motorists very eager to see the mega infrastructure project finally bridge the gap between the northern and southern parts of Luzon.
“The update series become more popular than the other series in the channel. After some time, we added some drone videos using the XVSKY series to be able to compensate (for) dash cam video limitations,” Dmitrivalencia said.
Dmitrivalencia’s YouTube channel has a plethora of videos apart from his Skyway series, some of which show his road trips across the Philippines while some features drone videos overseeing the government’s other infrastructure projects, such as the NLEX Harbor Link, the MRT Line 7, LRT Line 2 East Extension Station, and Central Luzon Link Expressway.
But among his series of videos, Dmitrivalencia’s infra footage has been racking up views from his fellow motorists who are also eager to see the progress. That’s why Dmitrivalencia has been uploading videos every month to show the changes on Skyway’s segments.
To date, Dmitrivalencia’s Skyway series has a total of 81 videos on his YouTube channel.
Dmitrivalencia shared that he already explored the north and south end of Luzon and recently documented the west of Luzon and the east corridor.
“There are still many places I wanted to go to using a car. The problem is (time and my work).” he said.
Dmitrivalencia started posting videos of his hobbies on YouTube but eventually shifted his focus on documenting his road trips in a bid to feature the state of roads in the Philippines.
“Some might think the Philippines is mostly poverty stricken but I kind of wanted to prove them wrong. We’ve got wonderful mountain roads, nice expressways, and scenic roads just like the ‘Ridge Racer’ and ‘Outrun’ games,” Dmitrivalencia said.
Although he began documenting his adventures on the road for almost 12 years now, Dmitrivalencia admitted that there are still many places he has yet to visit.
“One of my favorite things to document are mountain
roads (like) the Bessang Pass in Ilocos Sur Cervantes and Bontok-Tabuk Road
passing Cagayan Kalinga reaching Mountain Province. It was really fun and
relaxing to drive the twisties and seeing how beautiful the mountains are,” he said.
When it comes to foreign trips, Dmitrivalencia shared that his most memorable adventure was in Tokyo.
“I also posted some of my foreign travels mounting the action cam or the dashcam to bus, vehicles or even Uber, and shared it to the channel. One of those was the Tokyo night drive. A dash cam was mounted on a Toyota Crown while [I’m] being toured around the Rainbow Bridge,” he said.
Asked about his opinion on the road conditions in Luzon, Dmitrivalencia said that thoroughfares outside the NCR are more comfortable to drive on such as the AH26 Sorsogon.
“It is not relaxing to drive in the capital. As for the traffic? I always tell my friends I’d rather drive all the way to Mabitac than towards Katipunan. We have limited roads, a large volume of vehicles, poor mass transit system and inefficient existing transit design; these are the factors that contribute to traffic. As long as we have limited choices of roads inside the city, expect EDSA and C5 to experience heavy traffic. As for the volume, the more time we spend on the road, the more we occupy space, the more we occupy space, the more we become a part of traffic,” Dmitrivalencia said.
“The shorter time we’re on the road, the less we become a contributor of traffic. Usually we use the road to get from Point A to Point B, and with many people doing the same, we should be moving a little bit faster to be able to accommodate others.” Dmitrivalencia said.
Dmitrivalencia also shared that what he likes the most whenever he’s on a journey is meeting people from different sectors of society.
“Because of this hobby of mine, I have met good people and made good friends in various places. This is the best part of what I have been doing for the past 12 to 13 years. The channel itself is not enrolled in any monetizing program of YouTube. I don’t earn anything, but spiritually I have earned a lot, including friends and good memories,” Dmitrivalencia concluded.