As the title of this blog suggests, the following are commentaries on our roadside manners but they might as well also be digs at how (dis)honesty plays out in our daily, traffic-ridden lives. Read on.
- When caught by a traffic enforcer for a violation, don’t hesitate to roll down your window even if the driver’s side faces the road and other motorists can see you, the enforcer, and the violation ticket. After all, there should be nothing to hide, right?
- When caught for a violation at night, turn your reading lights on before you roll down your window. This should send a signal to the officer that you are for transparency.
- Can’t find a parking space? If private security guards demand money (minus any official receipts) before you can park in a no-parking area, just remember that they do not own that property. They do not have any right to collect for their own pockets.
- Even if you’re from the media or working for the government, you are not exempted from paying for your violation penalty. Your position does not put you above the law so best to just go pay—at the right office.
- If you see able-bodied drivers taking the Persons With Disability (PWD) or the Senior Citizen’s parking slots like they deserve to use these, go up to them and remind them that the parking slots are there as per the magna carta for PWDs or Senior Citizens. I once saw a 20-something man hurriedly park his SUV in one of these special slots, arrogantly skip out of the vehicle and call his friend on his cell phone. “Pare, marami na bang tao dyan? Sige, papunta na ako.” The gall of the man. Or his mama forgot to teach him how to be humane.
- Many motorcycle riders who are fond of overtaking vehicles tend to forget the rule. That is, that they can only overtake on the left side of the vehicle to be overtaken. Ever noticed though how riders commit this violation in herds? And that it happens everyday? I know, I know: Seldom do traffic enforcers accost them for the violations (come to think of it, I wonder why?), but that still does not mean they are not breaking traffic rules.
- Vehicles with red plates mean these are government-owned vehicles, and therefore, both unit and gas are paid by taxpayers’ money. Just because it’s assigned to you does not mean you can use it to bring your family to a beach resort every weekend. Unless you are on official duty, the rule is to refrain from using the government’s property during holidays or weekends.
- See rickety public or private vehicles coughing out smog in front of you? That might be one of the reasons 60 percent to 70 percent of the medicines sold in the country’s urban areas are for bronchitis, asthma and other respiratory diseases. For the life of me, I cannot understand why a bus that expels dark smoke in its wake every single day could still pass the annual emission test.
A visit to the Land Transportation Office (LTO) website shows that the office is working on its mobile query facility called TextLTO. According to the site, you can send your complaints against wayward public drivers (and operators) by typing LTO Complaint PUV <Plate No><Complaint> and sending to 2600.
Here’s hoping that the P2.50 we pay per message will see some real action and that our SMS messages will not merely end up in some virtual dumpster.
