This may be of interest to all road users, especially motorcyclists. Road deaths in PH: Most are motorcycle riders, pedestrians
It makes you wonder about this who report and if anyone has ever lived here in the pi for any length of time! Maybe the road deaths bit may be close ish but have my doubts,the other garbage about which laws are followed well! They certainly haven't been to Negros Oriental as I don't know af any law which is followed or enforced here. Maybe it's just a foreigner law they are talking about!
I would tend to agree in the several months since I moved here I had not seen the police/lto do anything as far as enforcement of laws of the road but was pleasantly surprised today when coming home from Lee Plaza Hypermart the Police had a roadblock up between hypermart and the two gas stations across from Bagacay Barangay hall and seemed to be pulling over everyone on a motorbike. Maybe because of the recent deaths on the same road going to Valencia??? Anyway I was pleasantly surprised to see it at about 4:30 pm today just in time for rush hour on a major thoroughfare at that.
This has nothing to do with enforcing the laws and everything to do with bulking up the wallets before Christmas. Happens every year.
According to the article 53% of fatalities were motorcyclists and 24% were in four wheel vehicles. Almost all the fatalities I've heard of were motorcyclists and very few four wheel unless they are counting the guys that fall off Jeepneys.
Roadblocks aren't enforcement. Showing presence and pulling people over is enforcement. Yesterday I just about got tackled by a minivan. What a way to go. I was crossing the zebra stripes and the thing roared (if a minivan could be said to "roar") around the corner seemingly from nowhere. A modest proposal. With the lack of traffic enforcement, it should be legal to pull people out of their vehicles and kick the sh*t out of them. It's not the safest retribution (driver may be packing) and I wouldn't advise it generally (onlookers would probably take their bets first and then kick your @ss later.) But if I just got hit by a car and I can still stand or I'm pumped up from a near death experience, then I think I could handle a crowd (and certainly the driver.) This place can't handle 4 wheels. It's attempting to apply a scooter culture to a car culture. The transition doesn't work well. These people drive their cars like they drive their scooters. In the U.S. you have traffic laws, here you have traffic flow. In the above example, the minivan did exactly what people would do in a scooter. You just go, then you deal with obstacles by flowing around them. This doesn't work with a car. You have to anticipate problems and then stop for obstacles. Hopefully the city makes this place really inconvenient for driving. 4 wheels are just a status symbol anyways. Jackasses buying pickups and SUV's they don't need just like people in the U.S. do. At least in the U.S. we can thank the auto industry for creating a middle class. The locals are just getting the debt and are still a poor nation. This place is so small, I can WALK from downtown to Robinson's in 15 minutes. In another 15 minutes, I can reach the edges of town. That's a short commute for most people back home. Jackasses can't go a block without hopping on a motorcycle. Jackasses can't ride a pedicab because they are above doing that (one of the kids got upset about having to go to college on a pedicab while all his friends are riding motorcycles.) ... Blah, blah, blah Rant, rave The IQ of a city affects your own IQ. Might be time to throw in the towel and GTFO.
