Instead of 'wet flag,' enforce traffic rules
Instead of 'wet flag,' enforce traffic rules
Updated 10:06pm (Mla time) Jan 18, 2005
By Neal Cruz
Inquirer News Service
Editor's Note: Published on page A12 of the January 19, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer
CHAIR Bayani Fernando of the Metro Manila Development Authority is right: pedestrians and drivers (and sidewalk vendors) are undisciplined and something should be done about them. For want of anything better, that "something" is the present "wet flag scheme" that is now raising temperatures among the MMDA chair, some Metro Manila mayors and the commuting public.
Briefly, the problem is this: Commuters waiting for rides get off the sidewalks and wait on the streets, oftentimes up to the middle of the street, to be the first to board arriving jeepneys or buses. Thus, they constrict the space for vehicles, creating traffic jams.
The MMDA and local governments have put up signs ("Strictly No Loading/Unloading," "Huwag mag abang dito; doon ka sa bangketa," etc.), constructed waiting sheds, put up barricades and fences along the sidewalks and on the street islands (making Metro Manila look like Laguna Lake with its myriad fishpens) to force pedestrians off the streets, but to no avail. Commuters continue to ignore them.
Even with the sidewalk barriers, commuters get off the sidewalk through the gaps where they are supposed to board jeepneys and walk back to where the jeepneys are coming from so they would be among the first to get rides, filling up the streets with people instead of vehicles.
Thus, the MMDA thought of the "wet flag scheme." A dripping wet flag hanging from a pole slung on the roof of a vehicle slowly moves beside the sidewalks, thus wetting pedestrians who are on the streets. This will force them to go back on the sidewalk, goes the MMDA logic.
The trouble is, people get off the streets when they see the "wet flag" coming but go back as soon as it passes. In a few minutes, the situation is back to where it was.
Why not just arrest the pedestrians for jaywalking and the drivers for loading passengers outside the loading/unloading zones as the law mandates?
The MMDA counters that it does not have enough manpower to arrest all the traffic violators. Maybe so, but when the people see that at least some of the jaywalkers are being arrested, some of them will take the hint and wait where they are supposed to.
Lack of manpower is not the real reason. The real reason is that the MMDA's traffic enforcers are afraid to confront violators. Being former street sweepers promoted to traffic enforcers, they have inferiority complexes. They feel inadequate when arresting violators (are they even authorized to do that?). They prefer to stand in the middle of the street where they can be seen by their superiors waving their arms at oncoming vehicles. Even when all hell is breaking loose at the nearby intersection, they won't bother to go there to straighten up the jam. That's too complicated and stressful.
The situation was worsened by the cowardly act of the Philippine National Police to withdraw all its traffic policemen and leave traffic enforcement to the MMDA. The reason of PNP Director General Edgar Aglipay is to put the "kotong cops" out of business. Instead of controlling and disciplining his policemen (as then PNP chief Panfilo Lacson was able to do), Aglipay would rather take the easy way out. No cops, no kotong, so he and the PNP cannot be blamed for mulcting cops. Aglipay abdicated and adandoned the PNP duty of enforcing traffic regulations.
Result: anarchy. Pedestrians and drivers do their own thing, regardless of traffic rules. They're not afraid of the traffic enforcers who, on the contrary, are the ones afraid of them. Or worse, they are as corrupt as the "kotong cops" they replaced. The MMDA's traffic enforcers are next to useless. The salaries the taxpayers are paying them are a waste of money. Aglipay and Fernando are as much to blame for the breakdown in traffic order as the undisciplined drivers and pedestrians.
If the MMDA will arrest and fine only a third of all traffic violators, it would have enough funds to run itself without depending on the money contributed by local government units. Better still, it will finally impose discipline and restore order.
Instead of the "wet flag scheme" and other harebrained gimmicks, why doesn't the MMDA enforce traffic rules strictly, the same way it successfully cleared most sidewalks of sidewalk vendors (although they're coming back with a vengeance, thanks to mayors coddling them)? The "wet flag" is as harebrained as the petroleum sprinkled on the vegetables and fruits being sold by sidewalk vendors to get them off the sidewalks.
The MMDA spent a lot of taxpayers' money constructing the pink waiting sheds, but which few commuters bother to use. They prefer to wait on the the street corners where buses and jeepneys stop to pick them up. Why doesn't the MMDA arrest drivers who load/unload passengers away from the waiting sheds? Why doesn't it put up steel railings or ropes to the waiting sheds so commuters will be forced to fall in line while waiting for rides? If all PU vehicles would only line up to load/unload beside the waiting sheds, the process would be faster and there would be order. Commuters won't have to wait in the middle of streets and fight to get aboard PU vehicles.
Commuters fall in line to ride buses and jeepneys outside some malls in Makati. They fall in line at Megamall. Why can't we do this in other places as well? The MMDA should be concentrating on this instead of continuing the crazy "wet flag scheme."
Updated 10:06pm (Mla time) Jan 18, 2005
By Neal Cruz
Inquirer News Service
Editor's Note: Published on page A12 of the January 19, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer
CHAIR Bayani Fernando of the Metro Manila Development Authority is right: pedestrians and drivers (and sidewalk vendors) are undisciplined and something should be done about them. For want of anything better, that "something" is the present "wet flag scheme" that is now raising temperatures among the MMDA chair, some Metro Manila mayors and the commuting public.
Briefly, the problem is this: Commuters waiting for rides get off the sidewalks and wait on the streets, oftentimes up to the middle of the street, to be the first to board arriving jeepneys or buses. Thus, they constrict the space for vehicles, creating traffic jams.
The MMDA and local governments have put up signs ("Strictly No Loading/Unloading," "Huwag mag abang dito; doon ka sa bangketa," etc.), constructed waiting sheds, put up barricades and fences along the sidewalks and on the street islands (making Metro Manila look like Laguna Lake with its myriad fishpens) to force pedestrians off the streets, but to no avail. Commuters continue to ignore them.
Even with the sidewalk barriers, commuters get off the sidewalk through the gaps where they are supposed to board jeepneys and walk back to where the jeepneys are coming from so they would be among the first to get rides, filling up the streets with people instead of vehicles.
Thus, the MMDA thought of the "wet flag scheme." A dripping wet flag hanging from a pole slung on the roof of a vehicle slowly moves beside the sidewalks, thus wetting pedestrians who are on the streets. This will force them to go back on the sidewalk, goes the MMDA logic.
The trouble is, people get off the streets when they see the "wet flag" coming but go back as soon as it passes. In a few minutes, the situation is back to where it was.
Why not just arrest the pedestrians for jaywalking and the drivers for loading passengers outside the loading/unloading zones as the law mandates?
The MMDA counters that it does not have enough manpower to arrest all the traffic violators. Maybe so, but when the people see that at least some of the jaywalkers are being arrested, some of them will take the hint and wait where they are supposed to.
Lack of manpower is not the real reason. The real reason is that the MMDA's traffic enforcers are afraid to confront violators. Being former street sweepers promoted to traffic enforcers, they have inferiority complexes. They feel inadequate when arresting violators (are they even authorized to do that?). They prefer to stand in the middle of the street where they can be seen by their superiors waving their arms at oncoming vehicles. Even when all hell is breaking loose at the nearby intersection, they won't bother to go there to straighten up the jam. That's too complicated and stressful.
The situation was worsened by the cowardly act of the Philippine National Police to withdraw all its traffic policemen and leave traffic enforcement to the MMDA. The reason of PNP Director General Edgar Aglipay is to put the "kotong cops" out of business. Instead of controlling and disciplining his policemen (as then PNP chief Panfilo Lacson was able to do), Aglipay would rather take the easy way out. No cops, no kotong, so he and the PNP cannot be blamed for mulcting cops. Aglipay abdicated and adandoned the PNP duty of enforcing traffic regulations.
Result: anarchy. Pedestrians and drivers do their own thing, regardless of traffic rules. They're not afraid of the traffic enforcers who, on the contrary, are the ones afraid of them. Or worse, they are as corrupt as the "kotong cops" they replaced. The MMDA's traffic enforcers are next to useless. The salaries the taxpayers are paying them are a waste of money. Aglipay and Fernando are as much to blame for the breakdown in traffic order as the undisciplined drivers and pedestrians.
If the MMDA will arrest and fine only a third of all traffic violators, it would have enough funds to run itself without depending on the money contributed by local government units. Better still, it will finally impose discipline and restore order.
Instead of the "wet flag scheme" and other harebrained gimmicks, why doesn't the MMDA enforce traffic rules strictly, the same way it successfully cleared most sidewalks of sidewalk vendors (although they're coming back with a vengeance, thanks to mayors coddling them)? The "wet flag" is as harebrained as the petroleum sprinkled on the vegetables and fruits being sold by sidewalk vendors to get them off the sidewalks.
The MMDA spent a lot of taxpayers' money constructing the pink waiting sheds, but which few commuters bother to use. They prefer to wait on the the street corners where buses and jeepneys stop to pick them up. Why doesn't the MMDA arrest drivers who load/unload passengers away from the waiting sheds? Why doesn't it put up steel railings or ropes to the waiting sheds so commuters will be forced to fall in line while waiting for rides? If all PU vehicles would only line up to load/unload beside the waiting sheds, the process would be faster and there would be order. Commuters won't have to wait in the middle of streets and fight to get aboard PU vehicles.
Commuters fall in line to ride buses and jeepneys outside some malls in Makati. They fall in line at Megamall. Why can't we do this in other places as well? The MMDA should be concentrating on this instead of continuing the crazy "wet flag scheme."
posted by Dante at 12:00 AM
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