Ukraine scraps all traffic cops

[FLiPMaRC]

Imagine if this happens in the Philippines ... LOL

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bribe too far! Ukraine scraps all traffic cops

July 26, 2005

By Stefan Korshak

Kiev, Ukraine - Ever wonder what would happen if traffic cops were done away with and you could drive any way you wanted?

In Ukraine, less than a month ago, that's what happened and things are pretty much just fine.

The story of the "liquidation" of Ukraine's State Automobile Inspectorate (DAI) began in June after President Viktor Yushchenko, the pro-Europe politician who led the country's Orange Revolution at the end of 2004, decided to drive to the mountainous for some hiking.

Fighting official perks is a focus of the Yushchenko administration and the former National Bank boss has made it clear he is no fan of either officialdom or officiousness
A bribe bid too many - when it happened to the president he killed off the traffic cops
.

So, instead of travelling the 300km from Kiev to the Polish frontier in a Soviet-style motorcade of armoured vehicles, police escorts and the like, Yushchenko went in an unmarked family sedan.

Big mistake - as any rank-and-file Ukrainian driver could have told him.

Traffic cops halted the presidential vehicle, Yushchenko later fumed at a news media conference, every 30 minutes or so over the four-hour trip. The Yushchenko family's late-model German sedan was, he said, functioning perfectly and he wasn't speeding.

The stops were nothing more than repeated shake-downs for bribes, the Ukrainian leader charged.

"There is more to a traffic policeman's job than collecting bribes," Yushchenko said. "These people are undermining public trust in law enforcement agencies and I will not allow it to continue
'The stops were nothing more than repeated shake-downs for bribes' - Viktor Yushchenko
."

From his subordinates Yushchenko demanded - and received - a plan to dissolve the DAI and by the beginning of July the deed was done, the executive order signed.

Ukraine's once-feared traffic police ceased to exist.

Immediately traffic cops appeared in the media, always predicting mayhem and often justifying bribes on the grounds of poor salaries.

"A traffic policeman receives only 500 hryvnas ($100, roughly) a month and who can live on that?" a cop, identifying himself as Volodymyr N, whined to a newspaper reporter.

"If we received $300 or 400 a month we would do our jobs perfectly," he said, "but now, with no police out there, our roads will become slaughterhouses."

But that's not the way it turned out. Drivers in the Ukrainian provincial cities of Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk and Lviv reported traffic was moving quite normally and most drivers were obeying regulations, even though there were few, if any, traffic cops around to enforce them.

"Just like people have been driving before, breaking the rules when they can, they're driving now," said Arnold Shapyro, an Odessa taxi driver.

"The difference is that now the traffic cops aren't hassling us."

'Driving less stressful'

Despite furious road construction piling up epic traffic jams daily in Kiev, vehicles in the Ukrainian capital have in recent weeks been moving more quickly, and with a good deal less honking and noise, than when the traffic cops were running things.

"To be fair, a lot of people are out of town because it's the summer holidays," said Vadym Chabanov, a Kiev courier rider, "but driving is less stressful because now you don't have to worry about some goon on every street corner inventing violations to hit you for a bribe."

Road accidents in Ukraine average between 150-170 each day, the death toll 20-30 with another 80-100 injured.

The numbers, according to statistics complied by Ukraine's Ministry of Emergency Situations, have not changed since the traffic police handed in their badges.

"It appears drivers are being more careful," said Valery Borysov, a Kiev city official. "In general the road situation is stable."

Well, sort of.

Take the Simferopol-Armiansk highway, onthe Crimean peninsula.

Tearing along

This stretch of road, running through one of Ukraine's poorest provinces, is notorious for voracious traffic cops preying on interstate travellers - usually city folk heading to or from a Black Sea vacation.

But last Thursday motorists were blithely tearing through the table-flat Crimean steppe (on a two-lane road that would hardly qualify as a secondary farm road in the US and probably not exist at all in Germany) in excess of 130km/h, almost twice the posted speed limit.

The only law enforcement visible on the 110km run was outside a shabby cafe in Armiansk: a mannequin dressed in a traffic cop's uniform, holding a sign saying:

"Dear motorist! Take care as you drive. Armiansk wishes you a good visit to sunny Crimea!" - Sapa-DPA

http://www.motoring.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=2639862

[OTO]

No one has the political will to do something this needed.

[nugundam93]

sana nga dito rin! hahahahaha!

[mikey177]

So, instead of travelling the 300km from Kiev to the Polish frontier in a Soviet-style motorcade of armoured vehicles, police escorts and the like, Yushchenko went in an unmarked family sedan.

This is what our elected officials and other government bigshots should do --drive around without police escorts, so they will know how traffic conditions really are and will enact policies that address real-life problems. Haaay, if only...

[need4speed]

somehow i'd feel if this ever happened in the Phil. people won't be more "careful" !

[mrpink]

.. i can only imagine what PUVs will be doing without any traffic enforcement .. ngayon na meron pasaway na .. ano pa kaya kung wala talaga ...

[mazdamazda]

.. i can only imagine what PUVs will be doing without any traffic enforcement .. ngayon na meron pasaway na .. ano pa kaya kung wala talaga ...

yup.

ngayon lang eh... mawalan lang ng traffic enforcer ng saglit... halos sa gitna na nag baba yung mga bus sa EDSA.

[coiter]

true. kung nangyari dito, totoong magiging slaughterhouse ang mga daan. mga bus at dyip driver hindi na gagalaw hangga't mapuno yung sasakyan nila. mga maaangas na private car drivers magccounter flow, papark kahit saan basta nakahazard. patay ang mga intersection na walang stoplight. haaay. iniisip ko lang nasstress na ko hehehe

[EL Chicane]

Remember the time nung nag-issue ng TRO yung isang judge preventing PNCC from collecting toll fees sa South Luzon Expressway? Nawala yung PNCC and South Luzon Expressway became a no-man's land over night. Imagine, driving at 100 km/hr tapos bigla na lang merong tumatawid dun sa expressway! Tapos ninakaw yung mga lamp posts kaya ang dilim sa highway pag gabi. Nagkalat ang smoke belcher. Complete mayhem talaga.

I think every civilization needs some kind of law enforcement to keep things in order. Ukraine is not Utopia. I'm sure the criminals in Ukraine will see this as a new playground sooner or later.