The U-turns of Bayani Fernando

Mention the U-turns of Bayani Fernando in any conversation and you are likely to get strong reactions, pro or con. My wife is one of those who harbored pretty strong views about the U-turns of Bayani Fernando. Last week, she was teed off more than usual at “that friend of yours.”

Apparently, the MMDA closed the U-turn slot that cars coming from Greenmeadows Avenue take to get to Eastwood on C-5. Cars now have to go all the way to the corner of Ortigas Ave and C-5 to make the U-turn under the overpass.

I had the chance to try the new system last Saturday as we drove to Shopwise Libis to do our weekly grocery shopping. I thought it wasn’t so bad because it was a Saturday morning and the traffic volume was very light. The new system even makes sense in terms of keeping traffic safely flowing at a faster pace along C-5, which after all, was supposed to be a main artery like EDSA.

But I can see my wife’s point. The traffic flow in that portion of C-5 from Ortigas to Eastwood on ordinary working days, notably during rush hours, can be a real pain… shredding to bits Bayani Fernando’s excuse of wanting to make C-5 a fast moving main highway. In fact, even on weekends, with all the pedestrians crossing C-5 at all times of the day, you have to be a homicidal maniac to drive at highway speed at all.

I was all set to give my wife’s feedback to the MMDA Chairman as we sat to our favorite breakfast of adobo, fried rice and eggs at the Tuesday Club but Bayan, as his Marikina mayor-wife who was with him calls him, beat me to it. He said he got a taste of his new C-5 arrangement when he had to buy something from Fabric Warehouse on the Western side of C-5 in Libis. To get back to Marikina, he had to go all the way to the Ortigas corner to make his U-turn under the overpass. I recall hearing him say that the turn is “malayo pala”.

Bayani Fernando may be known as the father of U-turns in Metro Manila streets but one thing he rarely does is make U-turns on his ideas and strategies once he implements them. It looks like my wife will have to get used to driving a longer distance to make her U-turn to get to her gym at Eastwood.

As for my comment about the pedestrians crossing C-5 that make Bayan’s idea of moving cars faster on C-5 a delusion, he promised to build more pedestrian overpasses. He was fuming when we started talking about pedestrian overpasses. It seems that Citibank took him to court and had an injunction issued against MMDA’s plan to build one such overpass in front of the Citibank building on Eastwood after he had broken ground. He will build that overpass yet.

The MMDA Chairman went on to explain why he is so enamored with his U-turns. This approach, he said, is an effective way of keeping our traffic flowing while saving us the cost of all those flyovers. An engineer and a big time contractor before he entered politics, Bayan is surprisingly critical of the big infrastructure and multi-million dollar approach of DPWH in its Metro Manila traffic engineering solutions. He thinks DPWH is just wasting our money.

In fact, Bayan just rejected a $600-million project funded by Japan that would have constructed an underpass complex in the Kalayaan-C-5 corner to address the heavy build-up of crisscrossing traffic there. That would have closed the highway for a couple of years and would not completely address all phases of the problem aside from being costly, he said.

Bayan instead had his MMDA engineering design people come up with a simple “elevated U-turn” system that would cost half as much and keep traffic flowing during construction. He said Ate Glue was so impressed with his presentation he got a “very good” comment from her. Last Tuesday, Bayan was still basking in the afterglow of the Ate Glue “very good” comment like any dutiful pupil after getting a pat on the back from the teacher.

I complained about MMDA blocking the usual U-turn approach from the leftmost lane of EDSA going north that goes under the overpass at the corner of Santolan and EDSA. I complained that there was no signage warning motorists of the change so that I ended up having to U-turn many kilometers away at the corner of Kamias/Kamuning and EDSA.

He explained that they closed that approach because it slows down traffic on the fast lane of EDSA, as if traffic isn’t bumper to bumper there most of the time anyway. I have no problem with having to execute the U-turn from the rightmost (service) lane except that there was no warning sign that this was the new way to go. By the time I realized what I was expected to do, I could no longer change lanes fast enough safely. Also, the rightmost lane is filled up with slow moving buses and I still think they lost one good lane by closing the leftmost lane approach. But Bayan isn’t going to make a U-turn on that new rule. He isn’t much for consultation once he has made up his mind.

Though rebuffed, I can appreciate what Bayan is trying to do with his U-turns. Perhaps, they can just refine the way they implement the concept. For one, have more signs warning motorists way ahead of the turn. And I also think those cement dividers they use to mark out the U-turns are pretty dangerous specially at night. Those orange plastic ones should be sufficient. Driving in Metro Manila is nerve wracking enough without MMDA adding to the dangers we face on the road with those heavy cement dividers.

But I remember Bayan telling me that they need those cement dividers because that’s the only way they can get respect from Pinoy motorists. Much of what he is doing, he explained, is educating the people. And a strong physical barrier is just about the only thing that would force our motorists to toe the line on traffic rules.

Oh well… it is difficult to argue against that one. I have to agree with Bayani Fernando that most of what he is doing is right. He is giving back our streets to the motorists and the sidewalk to the pedestrians even if he comes out as some heartless bastard dismantling the shanties of the homeless.

That goes too with how he is forcefully clearing our esteros and rivers of illegal structures just so we minimize the flooding problems every time we get a heavy downpour. These are all nasty and difficult things to do but someone has to get them done.

Lucky for us, we have a Bayani Fernando who is not a typical politician. I think he has the public’s best interest in mind and he treats public funds with a lot of respect too. He sees our problems from the point of view of a reform oriented leader in a third world country where there is little respect for rules and a propensity to waste public funds in grand projects. He applies common sense supported by his technical engineering background to problems and comes out with low cost solutions that can be surprising to those of us who are used to the ways of the run-of-the-mill public official.

Bayani Fernando has my full support, whether my wife likes it or not, and I don’t expect to make a U-turn on that any time soon.

Threesome!

Here’s something from Lal Chatlani.

A man in his mid 30s tells about a threesome. He relates how his adventure started out...

“I met an older woman at a club last night. She was OK for 57.

We drank a bit, had a bit of a dance when she asked, “Have you ever had the ‘Sportsman’s Double’.... a mother and daughter at the same time?”

I replied, “No, I had never been so fortunate.”

We drank a bit more, then she said, “Tonight is your lucky night if you want! I am extra horny and it’s a threesome night of fun if you want...”

We went to her place, where she put on the hall light on and shouted upstairs,

“MOM, ARE YOU STILL AWAKE?

Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is [email protected]