Morning Coffee

I got lucky a couple of months back and got handed a certificate for an overnight stay at one of the fancy hotels on the Island City.  A few days ago, I decided to use the said certificate and took advantage of the numerous amenities this quaint hotel had to offer.  One such amenity is a balcony outside the room I was staying.  Since I don't have such a setup in my own home, I decided to have my early morning coffee at the balcony while marvelling at the building vehicular traffic.

From my loft, three storeys up, I began to count and take note of the hundreds of thousands of lost daily revenues that this island city failed to collect due to the ineptitude of and the lack of traffic personnel assigned to the area near the hotel.

First, there were the scooter, moped and tricycle drivers who drove on the left shoulder of the road, facing on-coming traffic.  In many traffic regulations, this is called counterflow and a blatant violation of traffic laws.  In this island city, it is called "normal."  And based on the country's regulations, this is a ten thousand peso violation.  If I were to base it on the number of scooter and moped dimwits who committed this blatant violation, the island city would've stood to earn five hundred thousand pesos in a span of sixty minutes.

Second, there were the numerous parents, children, uniformed police and armed forces who, not only drove their scooters and mopeds against the flow of traffic but also, drove without regulation helmets or without helmets altogether.  And if memory serves me right, the helmet law, which punishes offenders with a hefty one thousand five hundred pesos for the first offence, was enforced starting this year.  Only half the year gone and our "law" enforcers are already breaking and forgetting the law they pledged to uphold.  And with a count of at least twenty helmetless offenders, the city lost thirty thousand pesos by not apprehending them.

Third, there were around thirty vehicles who took turns parking along the "No Parking - Tow Away Zone."  Apparently, the island city doesn't believe it needs the sixty thousand pesos, at two thousand pesos per offender, it could've collected by towing away the vehicles of these illiterate drivers.  I am sure this news will not sit well with the private towing service the city signed a deal with.  While they are out there waiting for the first call to deploy their tow trucks, the island city is feeling too well off to feel the need to collect such a paltry amount.

If the traffic law enforcers in the island city actually did their job and spent a whole day of strict law enforcement, the city would stand to collect around four million pesos.  Multiply that by thirty days in a month, the city would probably be able to collect over a hundred million pesos in traffic fines in a month.

As I was finishing my cup of coffee, I stopped and mused.  Maybe the island city has so much excess funds in their coffers, they don't feel the need to keep their citizens in line by strictly enforcing the law.  Then I looked over at the other side of the balcony and saw the numerous road rehabilitation projects the city had and is currently undertaking.  I guess, at the alleged twenty percent cut key people get from each project, the island city is swimming in millions upon millions of cash.