Metro driving 101: How to get past U-turn slots, concrete barriers

[shadow]

hinde ko alam san dapat ilagay eh...paki moved na lang mods if you think this does not belong here....

Metro driving 101: How to get past U-turn slots, concrete barriers
By Perseus Echeminada
Tuesday, January 15, 2008 Maneuvering past U-turn slots and concrete barriers scattered all over Metro Manila’s major roads is now a “hot lesson” in driving schools, with instructors teaching students different techniques.
Driving instructors, who requested anonymity for fear of losing their jobs, said the presence of U-turn slots and concrete barriers has complicated actual driving lessons.
“Standard driving technique requires you stay on your lane but the problem arises when concreted barriers and U-turns suddenly emerge at a distance,” an instructor said.
The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) set up the U-turn slots and concrete barriers to ease traffic in the metropolis, particularly along EDSA, but motorists have crashed with alarming frequency into the structures, particularly at night.
The Land Transportation Office’s driving manual makes no mention of the structures, and instructors are left with the job of teaching would-be drivers their own way of dealing with the MMDA’s traffic regulators.
Some instructors favor driving on the outer lane, other instructors tell students to just follow the vehicle ahead of them, while another school teaches students to stay in the innermost lane to get ahead of other motorists.
A staff member of a driving school said the U-turn slots, concrete barriers, and fences along EDSA has puzzled foreign nationals among the school’s students.
According to a driving instructor, one foreign national he taught would panic and make her vehicle stall each time she would negotiate a U-turn slot because other motorists would try to ease her out of her lane. The student would then become furious since motorists behind her would blow their horns as she tried to restart her vehicle.

[wac3]

u-turn slots are just plain stupid. only in the philippines do we have these stupid barriers even on national highways such as edsa!

[hungryalien]

+10000 agree.

[suv]

Nakatulong naman.....

Tanchado ko na nga.....Pag umikot ako nakaparallel na agad....

[froshie1]

u-turn slots are just plain stupid. only in the philippines do we have these stupid barriers even on national highways such as edsa!

You know why? Majority of the Filipinos (like 90%) don't know the meaning of STOP, Intersection, and lane courtesy.

Pag may magsisignal sa left or right kala noong nasa likod lalamangan iyong magtuturn kaya nangyayari hindi paparaanin, result binibigyan tayo ng bulok na systema para sa ating mga bulok na kaugalian.

[CVT]

OT:
Am not from MMDA but an ordinary citizen-driver.

As I said in one of the earlier threads, U-turns in Metro Manila are designed to emulate big circles or rotondas that are popular in other countries. These in turn eliminate the need for traffic lights in the intersections as they theoretically provide smooth traffic flow.

The problem is that they are not well thought-off and implemented and we Filipinos, including myself, tend to shortcut/(and complain) about them.

They should work as designed, if they are well-spaced apart. The problem is some of them are not. My take is at least a kilometer in between a pair of U-turn slots. But we Filipinos, and again including myself, see this as an inconvenience, especially if the place where we are going is on the other side of the U-turn (meaning we have to travel a couple of kilometers more than just cross the intersection) rather than as a traffic scheme that should be followed. Mainit na kaagad ang ulo...

Also, approx a hundred meters before and after the slots,- nobody should be allowed to load or unload or stop as they would impede the flow of traffic. Enforcement is the key here.

Barriers should also consider the number of lanes taken on the opposite side of the road. Corollary to this,- they should not be implemented on an already narrow road... My take is that they should be implemented on at least a 4-5 lane road, one direction.

As for the driving schools,- they should orient the student-driver to drive on the middle-lanes as they're typically slow. The problem is, most of the student-drivers that I see on the road are being oriented to drive on the innermost lane,- so there goes our (including myself) mentality to stick-to-the-innermost-lane-no-matter-how-fast-I- drive.

This forces the regular(faster) drivers to swerve to the middle lane to overtake...

5101:pcwhack:

[jpatricks1]

Sa Commonwealth sinementohan na talaga nila yung U Turn slots. Di ba nila naiisip these are accidents waiting to happen?

[170kphlang]

actually kahit papano nakaktulong ang mga u-turns pero what i don't understand is bakit ang daming mali mag u-turn? i mean i could understand na yung mga long vehicles like pick-ups, large suvs ay kakain ng 1 1/4 lane pagmaguuturn pero yung mga sedan and hatchbacks ang dami kong nakikita na kung mag uturn ay 2 lane pa kinakain na kaya naman ng isang lane lang, parang kulang sa diskarte or wala talagang diskarte, kaya nagiging sagabal pa ang mga u-urn ay dahil imbes na pumila sa inner most lane ay yung iba ay mag uuturn sa 2nd lane, 3rd lane even 4th or 5th take edsa north going to caloocan for example.

[yebo]

di lang sa pinas meron nyan, sa indonesia meron din nyan.

they should work if:

1. the infrastructure are well made. the u-turns must not make the road narrower due to the vehicles in the slot. that means, if the road is a 3 lane road and the u-turn takes 2 lanes, then the road must be constructed as a 5 lane road (3 lanes regular + 2 lanes u-turn) at the u-turn slots. this must be on both sides of the road. so as in the example, a 3 + 3 lane road must be constructed as a 5 + 5 lane road at the u-turns. they are starting to do this at quezon avenue already, niluluwangan yung part ng q ave na merong u-turns. this can be done in a limitted part of metro manila though, since the roads are generally narrow.

2. drivers in the outer lanes must not be allowed to cut the path of those in the inner lanes. nor will they be allowed to change lanes when in the u-turn slot.

3. lanes must be properly and clearly painted and signages clearly visible advising the u-turn slots at the approach to the u-turns. there must be a solid yellow line 100 meters before the u-turn and the no swerving policy strictly implemented so that there will be no vehicles cutting in at the last few meters to the u-turns.

as for the accidents, most of those who have hit the u-turn barriers are drunk, not paying attention to the signs, are going too fast, or simply idiots with drivers licences. matinong driver ba ang babangga sa concrete barrier? kita mo nang solid na semento feeling superman ka pa hahahaha! bakit pag nag-drive ka sa baguio at gabi, nahuhulog ka ba o dumidiretso sa bangin? di naman a, wala din namang reflectors yung gilid ng bangin. kasi di ka lasheng at ingat ka mag-drive sa kenon/aspiras/naguilian. di mo alam na may barrier dun? araw-araw nadadaanan mo e need pa ng reflectors sa gabi para maalala mo na may concrete barrier? di mo nakita? ay kulang ka sa vitamins!

[altec]

whats weird is that our u turn slots are not located on the same intersection. If you are going north, the next intersection is your u turn slot. But the road going south for example, the next u turn slot is the next intersection. What happens is that if I am going north, we are forced to swerve to the right to avoid the barriers set up for the u turn section of the road going south.

Why not put the u turn slot on the SAME intersection, for both directions. To minimize the lanes that are eaten up for the u turn slot? There are soo many intersections that were made into u turn slots that can accomodate both at the same time.