How's my driving?

Have you ever tried following every road rule to the letter on Metro Manila roads? You should. Although I’m warning you, it may eventually lead to an accident, road rage or even apprehension. Allow me to back up a second here to explain. 

Last Saturday morning, I joined the Total ‘Drive City’ event, which is an active road safety challenge spearheaded by Total Philippines as part of their ongoing advocacy for safer roads. Nine teams of two competed in a series of driving challenges around the metro, which were all centered around road courtesy, discipline and safety, for a very generous cash prize of twenty, fifteen and ten thousand pesos for the top three spots.

The idea was to get a few media teams, private motorists and taxi drivers, give us all a road book covering around one hundred kilometers of ground, place a judge in the back seat to monitor our driving habits, ask us to navigate our way through Taguig, Muntinlupa, San Juan, Libis, Newport City, Pasay then back to Taguig for a mini gymkhana, all while adhering to every road rule, all in the pursuit of finding out who are Metro Manila’s safest drivers. 

We started out with 100 points and were deducted points every time we failed to follow the rules. And this is where it gets interesting. 

Don’t get me wrong. I commend Total Philippines for their initiative—the event was a tremendous success, run very responsibly and safely by Total and executed flawlessly by racing icon Georges Ramirez and his equally skilled team, and officially endorsed and attended by the MMDA, the AAP, and former head of the LTO and now safety advocate, Bert Suansing. It is an initiative I would encourage them to continue, as it creates much needed awareness for traffic discipline, which we all know is half the battle. I just found it ironic that it took a road safety event to inadvertently highlight just how difficult it is to follow rules in Metro Manila. 

Take the speed limits. We were told that we would be deducted points if we went under or over the posted limits. Fair enough. But do you know what the speed limit is on EDSA? I thought so. But don’t feel bad, because with the absence of signs, even former MMDA Chairman, Bayani Fernando, had trouble with it when he was famously quoted in 2008 as saying, “There are no speed limits on EDSA.”

Then there are the entry ramps to the Skyway. Coming from several lanes where the speed limit is 100 km/h, if you were to follow the rules, you would need to come down hard on the brakes to make the 40 km/h ramp speed only to get on the gas pretty aggressively to be able to reach a safe merging speed of 100 km/h once you reach the top. I tried doing this to avoid demerits; but while I may have impressed my judge in the back seat, that certainly wasn’t the case with the irate Elantra driver that had to swerve around me. 

Then there are the lanes. Trying to follow the correct way to cross the yellow lane almost requires a hand brake turn to flick the rear end out to make it in time or coming to a full stop on a middle lane to wait for cars to give way to you because there’s either no break in the line or simply not enough merging distance when there is. Either way, it is far from safe. 

Also, if you are a stickler for following the rules, you may find the contradiction of traffic markings or signals a little confusing, if not downright dangerous. On EDSA alone, it is not uncommon to be following your marked lane only for it to paint its way into a concrete barrier or another lane without notice. This usually happens on the foot of on or off ramps, and can/will catch out unsuspecting drivers who are just relying on the markings, and illustrates the importance of proper markings, road engineering and the standardization of traffic signs. 

Case in point. When you approach a traffic light that is being contradicted by an enforcer, which is a common occurrence in Makati especially, who should you believe? Man or machine? Once again, if you’re being O.C. about it, international standards dictate that you should always obey a functioning traffic light. In the event where a traffic enforcer needs to override the lights (during a non-emergency) they must switch it to flashing yellow, to indicate caution. 

So, with all the short cuts, poorly researched rules, contradicting signs or knee-jerk reactions that are taken, how can our authorities seriously expect us to follow the rules when they themselves either do not know them (many encourage you to counterflow or block intersections) or cannot create a safe environment to adhere to them? 

Any regular reader of this column will know how strongly I feel about road rules. But after my experience last Saturday, my concern is, if you’re the only one following them, you end up becoming the hazard—which has bred an almost justifiable “When in Rome, do what the Roman’s do” mentality. And that is what needs to be addressed if we want to be serious about insisting that people follow them, rather than an excuse for people ignoring them. 

So personally, whether it was the intention of Total or not, I feel that despite the kudos they deserve for educating drivers on road courtesy, discipline and safety, perhaps the greatest thing to come out of this event was that it raised these issues in front of the proper audience and gave the authorities who were partnered into this program a chance to reevaluate the situation and address the irony.

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