Road Discipline for Drivers and Passengers
Maintaining discipline on the road, both for passengers and drivers, is easier said than done. Sometimes you get to think which should come first: disciplined drivers or disciplined passengers. For instance, if drivers load and unload ONLY in designated places, and not anywhere they please (including in the middle of the road), perhaps passengers will be forced to wait and alight at the designated places. On the other hand, if passengers wait only in designated bus/jeepney stops, then drivers would hopefully follow. Please continue reading here.
I stayed in Chicago for about two months and when I got home here in Manila, I just can’t stop comparing how disciplined the Americans are. Sometimes it is so irritating why Filipinos can’t obey such simple rules. Discipline should come from both – drivers and passengers. I am a commuter myself since I am a probinsyana working in the city, everyday I encounter such things like drivers picking up passengers at the corner of an intersection causing so much traffic and those passengers who get angry to the driver when he didn’t stop in the middle of the road after saying “para mama”… just to name a few, I think If I make a detailed story of my everyday experiences on the road, I can make a book out of it!
artsy, before you write a book, perhaps you could write an article or two at the other site…
Both the drivers and passengers should be disciplined. As to who will enforce the traffic rules, let the law have the final say.
If I remember right, it was the police who used to direct traffic. But with the enactment of the Local Government Code, the local government is now in charge of the traffic in their area. So we now see those traffic enforcers who have their own color of uniform. These uniforms have given rise to such terms as “pulahan” for red uniform, “pambraun” for the brown uniforms, etc.
I would prefer to have the local government take charge of the traffic. The MMDA has miserably failed to manage traffic when their office took over the traffic in the main thorougfares by assigning those street cleaners of martial law days to direct traffic.
But the mayors must have the political will to direct their traffic enforcers to implement traffic laws. The traffic enforcers must also be given the proper training. Violators among the traffic enforcers (kotong, poor oerfomance, and the like_ must be dealt with severely.
one solution to traffic jams is for drivers to stick to their lanes and not make a 2 lane road into 4 lanes.