Post by sabretooth on Jun 21, 2006 14:33:26 GMT 8
Part of Conrade de Quiros' opinion today in Inquirer:
THERE'S THE RUB :
Street life
By Conrado de Quiros
Last updated 00:07am (Mla time) 06/21/2006
Published on Page A12 of the June 21, 2006 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer
I DON’T know if you’ve noticed, but the streets of Metro Manila today are full of tricycles, motorcycles and bicycles. I used to see them only at odd hours, the bicycles and tricycles in particular venturing into the main thoroughfares to the unseeing or unmindful eyes of cops and traffic enforcers only when traffic was light. But today they’re there at all hours, not just turning nightmarish traffic during rush hour into absolute torment but threatening to cause a host of mayhem, accidental or deliberate, on the streets.
That is so particularly because the tricycles, motorcycles and bicycles no longer bother to keep to the sides of the streets. They overrun them on all sides, weaving through and dodging motor vehicles as though they were in a video game. For some reason, none of the drivers or riders appears to think he is governed by traffic rules. Who knows? Maybe there’s a perverse logic that says that if you shouldn’t be driving a tricycle or riding a bicycle on Quezon Avenue or the Edsa highway in the first place, then you are ipso facto exempted from traffic rules.
The solution to this is not to banish motorcycles, tricycles and bicycles from the face of the earth, or the streets of Metro Manila. My irritation at encountering these things in the main thoroughfares has long given way to an appreciation of the fact that gasoline today may now qualify as a prize in contests. It’s a fortune in itself. And I am not a little dismayed that the oil companies should continue to advertise their product without a thought to this. Some of the ads are plain indulgent. They offend sensibilities, if not rub salt on wound. Obviously the reason the motorcycles, tricycles and bicycles are advancing like Attila’s horde today is that gasoline prices bore a hole in the pocket. My sympathies go to bicycles in particular, which don’t use any.
The solution is to put bicycle lanes in the main streets. That’s for bicycles and motorbikes; tricycles should clearly be kept to the side streets. It’s a cause some of my friends, who believe, completely rightly, that bicycles are healthier physically and financially, have been fighting for many years. Now more than ever, they have reason to push it vigorously.
Put bicycle lanes on the main streets. Cars, buses and jeepneys found poaching on them should be stopped and their drivers given a ticket, fined, or extorted from, whichever puts a bigger chill in their hearts.
It should help to improve health, the individual’s and the nation’s. The individual stands to enjoy more exercise, or at least suffer fewer accidents, and the nation stands to conserve more fuel. Some small things have a way of producing big results.
THERE'S THE RUB :
Street life
By Conrado de Quiros
Last updated 00:07am (Mla time) 06/21/2006
Published on Page A12 of the June 21, 2006 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer
I DON’T know if you’ve noticed, but the streets of Metro Manila today are full of tricycles, motorcycles and bicycles. I used to see them only at odd hours, the bicycles and tricycles in particular venturing into the main thoroughfares to the unseeing or unmindful eyes of cops and traffic enforcers only when traffic was light. But today they’re there at all hours, not just turning nightmarish traffic during rush hour into absolute torment but threatening to cause a host of mayhem, accidental or deliberate, on the streets.
That is so particularly because the tricycles, motorcycles and bicycles no longer bother to keep to the sides of the streets. They overrun them on all sides, weaving through and dodging motor vehicles as though they were in a video game. For some reason, none of the drivers or riders appears to think he is governed by traffic rules. Who knows? Maybe there’s a perverse logic that says that if you shouldn’t be driving a tricycle or riding a bicycle on Quezon Avenue or the Edsa highway in the first place, then you are ipso facto exempted from traffic rules.
The solution to this is not to banish motorcycles, tricycles and bicycles from the face of the earth, or the streets of Metro Manila. My irritation at encountering these things in the main thoroughfares has long given way to an appreciation of the fact that gasoline today may now qualify as a prize in contests. It’s a fortune in itself. And I am not a little dismayed that the oil companies should continue to advertise their product without a thought to this. Some of the ads are plain indulgent. They offend sensibilities, if not rub salt on wound. Obviously the reason the motorcycles, tricycles and bicycles are advancing like Attila’s horde today is that gasoline prices bore a hole in the pocket. My sympathies go to bicycles in particular, which don’t use any.
The solution is to put bicycle lanes in the main streets. That’s for bicycles and motorbikes; tricycles should clearly be kept to the side streets. It’s a cause some of my friends, who believe, completely rightly, that bicycles are healthier physically and financially, have been fighting for many years. Now more than ever, they have reason to push it vigorously.
Put bicycle lanes on the main streets. Cars, buses and jeepneys found poaching on them should be stopped and their drivers given a ticket, fined, or extorted from, whichever puts a bigger chill in their hearts.
It should help to improve health, the individual’s and the nation’s. The individual stands to enjoy more exercise, or at least suffer fewer accidents, and the nation stands to conserve more fuel. Some small things have a way of producing big results.