One over the other

Egay Uy

PUTTING one over the other seems to be the norm.  And it appears to be the only trait known to some.  People inserting in queues, jeepneys practicing “dombol” to get the most number of passengers, criticizing others as if the critic is infallible, motorists disregarding (and wantonly, sadly that is) traffic signs and traffic officers.

It therefore appears even to the law-abiding road user that these negative deeds or misdeeds seem to be the normal in everyday road life. While I was in the private sector, my erstwhile Chairman of the Board who lived almost all his life in Manila said that if a motorist practices defensive driving in the city, he will surely end up in a road altercation or accident.  And he had a good point.

Today, even as yellow boxes along the roadside are clearly painted, these are openly ignored by still is a good number of public and private motor vehicles drivers.  Is it due to hard-headedness or just a manifestation of bad habits formed over several years of impunity?

I believe it’s both.

• •

On a dryun basis, the RTA has caused the painting of parking and loading-unloading boxes along Tirso Neri Street in Divisoria.  The white boxes denote parking areas while the yellow boxes are loading-unloading areas.

Probably out of habit, there are those who park on the white boxes with their emergency lights blinking. Or is this an indication that those motorists do not know the difference between those boxes?  Or is it just the bad habit at work?

The additional parking spaces could accommodate 18 or 20 more parking slots.

Even with the clear yellow and white markings, still there are private car drivers who prefer to park inside the yellow boxes which are not parking spaces but loading-unloading spaces.

Stop putting one over the other already!