Forewarned

One thing I’ve noticed, as I take to the streets every day, is that the traffic organizations of each city in this province share one common trait:  lack of common courtesy.  When was the last time there was a rerouting scheme being implemented due to road repairs or such that had been properly marked out, and information properly disseminated?

A couple of weeks ago, the road that connects a popular business park in the main city with the Kapitolyo City was snarled in horrific traffic.  Imagine the surprise of many motorist when other motorists from the info tech park, who took the usual shortcut to get to this road, were honking their horns to turn left on what was previously a no-left turn road.  And to add to the confusion, the no-left turn sign was not covered or taken down.  So at this junction, you had motorists who were mandated to turn left by the rerouting scheme, being blocked by well-meaning motorists who refused to yield space because the incoming motorists we’re, by virtue of the existing no left turn signage, planning to break the law by turning left.

If the traffic organization in the main city had taken down the signage and placed informative signage to tell every motorist what was going on, traffic would’ve flowed much smoother and, possibly, motorists would’ve taken alternate routes.  Unfortunately, there were no such signage, and neither were there any traffic enforcers to help regulate traffic.

Speaking of the Kapitolyo City, the ongoing road concreting project along the north reclamation area has reached the intersection near the sports complex.  Apparently, if you throw a spanner into this city’s traffic organization, they end up running around like headless chickens.  I would admit, this certain section of the road has more than enough traffic enforcers to smoothly regulate traffic.  Unfortunately, they fall flat in the smooth traffic regulation part.  While one enforcer is letting vehicles turn left into the city’s center, another enforcer is letting perpendicular traffic go through and jam the vehicles turning left.  In another section of this mishap, an enforcer is letting vehicles weave in and out, and cut through eight lanes of traffic just to get to the other side.

It’s one thing to have a lot of enforcers to man traffic, but it’s totally another to have traffic enforcers who know how to coordinate and ease the flow of traffic.  And it’s not a good idea to have motorists play Frogger against other motorists just to get across.  A more logical situation would be to have them follow traffic flow and slowly edge their way to the left side of the road, and turn at the traffic lights in front of the derelict convention center.

But the crown for lack of common courtesy goes to Diaper Island.  Due to road repairs, traffic towards the second economic zone and beyond is as horrible as a bad Halloween costume.  But before you get there, the three-lane road is split into two.  One road will allow you to go straight to further traffic, while the other mandates you to turn left to a new shopping center.  Take the wrong road and you find yourself taking a half a kilometer detour just to get things right.  Since this city is so in love with painting colours all over town, would it hurt to paint directional signages that would tell motorist were to go?  Or are the city heads too busy bragging about and putting up your world-class skate park for an event that was supposed to happen last month?