Are we there yet? Curfew

CEBU, Philippines - I know that I mentioned in my last article that I will continue to talk about how the transport office and the Joint Administrative Order (JAO) they put together are totally not in sync.  However, something very important came to my attention, which I believe should be written about first before I continue with the rest of the items on the JAO.

The newly-elected President of the country has been known for the no nonsense way he ran his city.  One of the ways he maintained discipline in his city was through the imposition of a curfew for minors after ten in the evening.  And now that he has been elected to the highest government position in the country, the implementation of a nationwide curfew has been widely discussed and debated.  Now, you may begin to wonder, why am I reading an article about curfew in the motoring section?  Good question.  The answer lies in the next paragraph, so please do read on.

As much as I wish to bash on how horribly backward Diaper City is, I have to commend them for having been way ahead in the implementation of a citywide curfew.  Unbeknownst to me, this pretender city has a ten o’clock curfew that strictly forbids the implementation of traffic rules and regulations.  You see, at ten in the evening, all hell breaks loose on the streets.  One way streets are suddenly open to two-way traffic, regardless of road width.  What once had a barricade during the day has its blockade conveniently moved aside by unauthorized personnel to allow for straight access to the first bridge.  Motor vehicles may freely roam the streets without switching their headlights on.  Public utility vehicles park themselves on intersections to wait for passengers to fill their seats.  The list goes on and on.

Who would’ve thought that a place, that posts banners upon banners of so-called progressive achievements, has no regard for the safety of its constituents?  The place practically boasts of the presence of economic zones whose operations run round the clock, yet the safety of the workers going to and from their workplace is compromised once the clock shows 10:00 p.m.  I don’t know about you, but I think a thorough review of this “curfew” should be done, and heads should, figuratively, roll.  How proud the officials of this city are about what they’ve achieved should also be conversely proportional to how embarrassed they should be at allowing road lawlessness at nights.

Should they deploy traffic enforcers at nights to help correct this?  Yes and no.  Yes, if they deploy efficient traffic enforcers that would actually do their job, and no if they’ll only waste taxpayers money by deploying the same-caliber traffic enforcers they have during the day that don’t even reprimand helmetless motorcycle drivers, or pull-over and ticket vehicles that intentionally run counter to the flow of traffic just to get ahead of the long queue heading to the bridge. 

Diaper City’s traffic enforcers need to be trained to know the rules through and through, and need to be tough.  And while they’re going through that training course, this pretender city should stop their 10:00 p.m. nonsense before someone gets hurt.