Countdown to common sense

If I had ten pesos – inflation – for every time I said “Why didn’t I think of that,” I’d be a billionaire. Probably buy me a house in an upscale village in Makati, and buy the million peso bag I’ve always wanted (not!). I added another ten pesos to my imaginary pot when I saw these nifty countdown timers beside these very well thought of traffic lights in Manila. First, the three overhead traffic lights face the road directly, and not hiding behind an electric post or a tree, where an MMDA or local cop is just waiting for his next victim, I’m sorry, arrest. There is no reason for brainstem drivers to say, “I didn’t see the light change,” or some similar lame excuse for beating the red light.

Second, there are these countdown timers right beside the traffic lights that count the seconds away on two occasions. One, to count the number of seconds before your turn to go comes up. And another to count the seconds before the light turns to yellow and eventually red. Why are these useful? For those who can’t figure it out, the first situation tells you how much time you have to make that call, that text message, to find that map, to fix your things, or for women like me, to fix your make-up. The second situation takes out the guessing game as to when the light turns yellow. For the brainstems, a yellow light means speeding up to beat the red light. For the disciplined, it tells them to start slowing down. The problem here is that the transition from yellow to red is too fast. Since a speed limit isn’t enforced on the smaller roads, slowing down poses more of a risk for the car behind you. With the countdown timer, you can actually start slowing down as the seconds come closer to zero.

With this system in place, drivers should not have any reason to block the so-called yellow boxes on intersections. I don’t know why this is so hard to understand. Your lane is already crawling. Yet you still go ahead and block the intersection by forcing to follow the already stopped traffic! I’ve seen this time and again, with offenders coming from the public utility vehicles, most especially on EDSA-Ortigas! No common sense whatsoever! Let’s say the system is still new, and drivers are still getting used to it. The stupid drivers to be precise. Violators should no longer have any kind of excuse for blocking the yellow boxes. So they must be apprehended, and punished with heavy fines and the dreaded three-day whole day seminars on traffic rules and regulations! Repeat offenders should have their licenses revoked. As simple as these traffic rules are, those who repeatedly break them should no longer be allowed to drive.

Common sense on the road is more often than not, wanting, most especially with public utility drivers. The heavily enforced speed limits on Commonwealth and now Diosdado Macapagal Avenue have helped to curb deadly accidents down. The very visible traffic lights and countdown timers should do the same for those who beat the red lights and block intersections. The MMDA should make offenders pay heavily since there really is no more excuse to do the above mentioned offenses. Perhaps jail time for repeat offenders should now be considered. That, I did think of.