When the cat is away

“The problem with our roads is that drivers disregard traffic signals and laws when there are no enforcers around.”

This was how one of our friends summarized his view on traffic law enforcement during a recent conversation. 

“In other countries, drivers avoid violating the laws because they know that they can be monitored even if there are no traffic policemen around, but not here,” he added.

Late Sunday afternoon and early Sunday evening, we again saw proof of what our friend said as jeepneys in Tipolo, Mandaue occupied three of the four north-bound lanes to pick up passengers.

There was no heavy flow of vehicles, but the situation did cause some inconvenience, but the jeepney drivers don’t care, there was no traffic law enforcer around.

While traffic law enforcement 24/7 is ideal, the human factor always hinders the implementation of laws.

The solution that some local governments have put in place is the use of security cameras that would catch the violators even when no human is watching.

The cost is quite high, but then we’re sure that the cost of installing the cameras would be negligible if we compare it to the order in the flow of traffic at all times of the day as drivers would not anymore risk violating laws.

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One night we passed an open dump truck used by the Department of Public Services for garbage collection that did not have any tail lights and only had one headlight working.

We understand that there are not enough garbage trucks, but then risking an accident by allowing that truck to be operated at night is probably costlier than finding ways to repair it.

This is also one reason why many people refuse to fix their vehicles as even government is not doing anything for its fleet.

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Since we are in the subject of government, we saw last Saturday a jeep of the Talisay City Police assigned to the traffic division that was parked on the side of the road while its occupant was apprehending a taxi driver, who probably violated the law.

While we applaud law enforcement, we also hope that law enforcers would have the common sense of parking their vehicles properly so as not to impede the flow of traffic.

It actually just takes a little thinking to do this right.

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For your comments, complaints and suggestions please feel free to contact us at 2531276 or 2538613 local 237.

You can also send email to [email protected].