The gullible me got caught more than a year ago for some arguable traffic violation. I got caught turning right on the second lane of the North-bound EDSA to Shaw Blvd. It was 8am in a Sunday morning and traffic is light except for the buses that prevented me from turning using the rightmost lane. As soon as I turned using the second turning lane, I got flagged and told that I swerved. It was a reckless violation that costs 500php. (Wait a minute. Why do we have a two-lane-wide right turn provision from EDSA to Shaw when you can't turn on the 2nd lane???)
I asked for a ticket, and the MMDA guy gave me one. He also asked me to pay for the ticket so that he can give back my license already. And so I thought I was doing well. Since I got the ticket receipt, I thought it was OK.
When I got back home, however, I inspected my first ever ticket in my life and saw that only 200php was written on it. Hmmm, I have some complaining to do. I checked on MMDA to find out that I have no pending dues. That, I thought meant the traffic enforcer remitted my payment fine. But still he must have pocketed 300php of it.
I went to the MMDA headquarters to file my complaints. I thought I would do my country proud to try to do the right thing. A few minutes there however dampened my desire to do just that. It rained hard, and I don't have any idea how to proceed and the people there just seem so unhelpful. Traffic adjudication takes too long that it's difficult to justify it with my precious time.
So I went home empty-handed, willing to forget about the traffic enforcer, curse him, and say goodbye to my traffic ticket and give up any hopes for MMDA.
~~~
Until... I tried renewing my license four days ago. I found out I was on the alarm list. The only possibility was that the cursed traffic enforcer didn't remit the payment after all. I was wrong. He didn't pocket 300php of it. He pocketed everything, and gave me a ticket to boot (which was my fault, because I asked for it, wanting to do the right thing, and got kicked twice instead).
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Beating the Red Light
You're coming up to an intersection. Traffic light is green. BUT unfortunately the other side is full, cars on a standstill. Do you still cross the intersection, knowing there's a big chance you're going to be obstructing the intersecting road once their traffic signal goes green?
I've seen this case too often enough and it's one major cause of heavy traffic in Metro Manila. Perhaps MMDA should just redefine "Beating the Red Light" to "Getting Caught by the Red Light". Then, no matter if it's green or orange. As long as the Red Light catches you blocking the intersection, you've earned your ticket.
That will do good on MMDA's revenue collection. At least until people learn a bit of discipline, and everyone can enjoy a bit less stressful road traffic.
I've seen this case too often enough and it's one major cause of heavy traffic in Metro Manila. Perhaps MMDA should just redefine "Beating the Red Light" to "Getting Caught by the Red Light". Then, no matter if it's green or orange. As long as the Red Light catches you blocking the intersection, you've earned your ticket.
That will do good on MMDA's revenue collection. At least until people learn a bit of discipline, and everyone can enjoy a bit less stressful road traffic.
Monday, October 11, 2010
Clogging the Intersections
Why does it seem that the most common traffic problem I encounter the clogged out intersections? We have those yellow signs on the intersections that says "no blocking" the all important crossings everywhere. And if we've learned to drive properly, I mean not just skills but also driving etiquette, we shouldn't even need those on the roads.
I would think MMDA/traffic enforcers can reach their much maligned quotas better by just enforcing the no-blocking-the-intersection rule. If there's such a rule, that is. If there's none, than they should introduce it as fast as they can. If they do just that, maybe traffic in the Philippines will be much better.
Now what do I mean exactly by this rule? Well, we know the green light means go. What the rule would do is that if you see a green light but you're not sure if you do proceed that you'll be blocking the intersection, then you'll just simply have to wait and see. We need to exercise our brains more while driving anyway.
Why do we need this rule? The time you saved by blocking the intersection but getting an early pass is amplified into time waiting for a lot more cars. Driving is a social exercise. Treat each egregious apathy to other drivers as a personal insult.
I would think MMDA/traffic enforcers can reach their much maligned quotas better by just enforcing the no-blocking-the-intersection rule. If there's such a rule, that is. If there's none, than they should introduce it as fast as they can. If they do just that, maybe traffic in the Philippines will be much better.
Now what do I mean exactly by this rule? Well, we know the green light means go. What the rule would do is that if you see a green light but you're not sure if you do proceed that you'll be blocking the intersection, then you'll just simply have to wait and see. We need to exercise our brains more while driving anyway.
Why do we need this rule? The time you saved by blocking the intersection but getting an early pass is amplified into time waiting for a lot more cars. Driving is a social exercise. Treat each egregious apathy to other drivers as a personal insult.
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