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  1. Join Date
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    #1
    Should causing traffic be a criminal charge?
    COUNTERFLOW By James Deakin (The Philippine Star) | Updated January 9, 2013 - 12:00am


    After spending the 12 days of Christmas staring at the back of a bus, jeep, or any one of the other million and one stationary vehicles on the road last December, I really think that we should be taking traffic a lot more seriously.

    When I say seriously, I mean we should actually treat those that deliberately cause it as criminals. Yes, seriously. Because if you think about it, once you add up the cost of wasted fuel, the loss of man hours and productivity (not to mention the cost to the environment) and multiply that by the millions of vehicles that idle senselessly every single day because of someone’s selfish, stupid or inconsiderate act, it no longer becomes just a public nuisance, but a form of theft. And it’s about time we held people properly accountable for that.

    I’m not suggesting that everyone who commits a traffic infringement be treated as such, but anyone deliberately or systematically causing traffic should face much stiffer penalties, with possible jail time or community service for serious or repeat offenders. The buses, jeeps, tricycles, taxis and any of our other undisciplined drivers are a given, of course, but just before you think this is just another public utility driver rant, I’d like to focus instead on the institutions and establishments that one could argue are another root cause of most of these losses.

    Take many large schools as an example. Many of them are making a fortune in tuition fees from teaching our children, but promote anarchy outside their gates simply by refusing to invest in enough parking, driveways or vehicle access for the amount of students they charge for. They design their buildings to accommodate as many classrooms as possible, but leave no room on their land for anything they cannot earn from—as if anything past their sidewalk is everyone else’s problem. They can say what they like about rush hour, etc., but unless they were expecting that each student just fell from the sky each morning, it’s not as if they couldn’t foresee that. Hello? To think they are teaching math behind those gates.

    What ends up happening is that you get cars, school buses, jeeps, and tricycles parked four deep and choking main roads for everyone—all so these schools can make their money. Same goes with malls, large hotels and other commercial establishments. And to make matters worse, they have amplified it by insisting on redundant security checks when entering their lobbies of car parks.

    Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for security and safety, and if I could see that these measures were providing anything except traffic jams, people jams, and a general reduction in IQ and productivity, then I would be the first to not just cooperate but advocate. But they’re not. They check your trunk, but not the bags in it; so unless you’re pulling in to the car park with a black bowling ball with a fuse that says ACME TNT on it, not just is it not an effective way to curb violence, terrorism and other security issues, it is just downright patronizing.
    Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1

    And because these places are usually situated in the most densely populated areas, these condescending inspections that have all the prevention powers of a life-size cardboard cut-out of a policeman on every street corner, end up backing up traffic for everyone—not just their patrons. The other day it took me over 30 minutes to circle around the garden in front of Glorietta 4 simply because the line to the entry of the car park had snaked around so far back that it was actually preventing cars from exiting the same car park. If you can picture trying to draw a figure 8 but with no one giving way at the intersection, you’ll get a good feel of how it works.

    While attending a Christmas party in a five-star hotel chain in Newport City, the line to get in was so long I managed to park two steel car parks away, on the second floor, walk over, have a beer, all before my colleague, who was in line ahead of me was able to enter the driveway. The guards circled each car, inspected the trunk, and asked a series of pointless questions before raising the US-embassy-level, hydraulic (or electric) steel barriers with spikes coming from the ground that welcome each guest.

    There was another time I went into a mall where I was frisked quite enthusiastically. Out of curiosity, I asked what they were looking for. The guard snaps back, “Deadly objects!” That is fair enough, I thought. But once inside, you could readily buy guns, knives, swords and a whole range of other military-grade assault weapons.

    But while most of us laugh it off as just part of living in the Philippines, what is not so funny is the thought of an entire country unnecessary idling in traffic for five, ten, fifteen or twenty minutes while we wait for schools to inefficiently pile in their students, establishments to bottleneck roads to rake in customers or for car parks to perform these checks just to humor themselves.

    They will always pass it off as security, volume, high demand, whatever. But in the end, we can all come up with excuses; bottom line is, if you are causing a problem, you need to take responsibility. So they can say what they like, but just as I can sure as hell tell you that if you or I had a party in our houses and our friends blocked the neighbor’s driveways or took up their street parking that the association or the authorities would be on our rear ends faster than Gangnam went out of style; it begs the question: why are they exempt?
    source: http://philstar.com/motoring/2013/01...riminal-charge

  2. Join Date
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    #2


    I can still remember some years ago, spending like an hour approaching an intersection... Parang Christmas lights ang traffic lights... Red, Green, Yellow, Red, Green, Yellow, Red.... Merry Christmas!!!..... Hindi pa rin kami gumagalaw....

    That would be the day!...

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    Last edited by CVT; January 9th, 2013 at 10:01 AM.

  3. Join Date
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    #3
    They check your trunk, but not the bags in it; so unless you’re pulling in to the car park with a black bowling ball with a fuse that says ACME TNT on it, not just is it not an effective way to curb violence, terrorism and other security issues, it is just downright patronizing.
    Was actually planning to do this while entering a building in Makati to find out what the guards would do.

    For foot traffic at this building, have long suggested to get an X-ray conveyor like in the 6750 building. No need for bomb sniffing dogs at all entrances.

  4. Join Date
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    #4
    For PUVs, it should be made punishable by instant death! Pag may humarang, anyone with a gun in the immediate vicinity can freely shoot the offending PUV driver. :D

    I agree that developers, business establishments, institutions, etc. should be made more accountable for traffic flow and parking facilities as a main undertaking and not just an afterthought to their planning. It's all too common here to see people maximizing each and every inch of property for income rather than space for traffic movement, ingress/egress, etc. They should also take into consideration weather since it's raining more often nowadays and when it does, traffic builds up more because vehicles try to load/unload in areas that are covered.

    Quote Originally Posted by IMm29 View Post
    Was actually planning to do this while entering a building in Makati to find out what the guards would do.

    For foot traffic at this building, have long suggested to get an X-ray conveyor like in the 6750 building. No need for bomb sniffing dogs at all entrances.
    I wonder what the guards would do if Wil E. Cayote came up the driveway with a barrel of ACME TNT.
    Last edited by vinj; January 9th, 2013 at 10:35 AM.

  5. Join Date
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    #5
    Quote Originally Posted by vinj View Post
    For PUVs, it should be made punishable by instant death! Pag may humarang, anyone with a gun in the immediate vicinity can freely shoot the offending PUV driver. :D
    Walandyo,- pareho tayo ng iniisip bro... Kailangang may mag-sampol sa kalye,- para hindi pamarisan ng iba....

    Kaya siguro hindi ako naging lawmaker... Aba e, baka magpasa ako ng batas na gawing death penalty ang pananadyang paggawa ng traffic, at jaywalking... :hysterical:

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  6. Join Date
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    #6
    wag naman death penalty. sa repeat offenders pwede na yung ankle monitor lang, with a twist. dalawa, left and right leg, tapos pag lumabas ng yellow lane e may 1,000,000 volts charge alternating left and right. at pag nag-swerve o nanggitgit 2,000,000 volts, mga 5 minutes ok na.

  7. Join Date
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    #7
    Quote Originally Posted by yebo View Post
    wag naman death penalty. sa repeat offenders pwede na yung ankle monitor lang, with a twist. dalawa, left and right leg, tapos pag lumabas ng yellow lane e may 1,000,000 volts charge alternating left and right. at pag nag-swerve o nanggitgit 2,000,000 volts, mga 5 minutes ok na.
    Sa yagbols din pwede ikabit. :D

    CVT, pag naging lawmaker ako, ipagbabawal ko ang traffic sa distrito ko.

  8. Join Date
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    95
    #8
    When you think about it, the waste of time and resources are too much! Just crunch some numbers and you will be horrified at how many hours and thousands of pesos burned away bacause of inconsiderate, un-educated, selfish, stupid drivers. I sometimes have fantasies of having god-like powers... crushing them with my bare hands and throwing the carcass into the landfill! hehe, (so sorry, got carried away!).
    In reality, the traffic enforcers are to blame... they should do their jobs and apprehend these "criminals". We're paying them to stand/sit around while our resources are wasting away...

    - - - Updated - - -

    When you think about it, the waste of time and resources are too much! Just crunch some numbers and you will be horrified at how many hours and thousands of pesos burned away bacause of inconsiderate, un-educated, selfish, stupid drivers. I sometimes have fantasies of having god-like powers... crushing them with my bare hands and throwing the carcass into the landfill! hehe, (so sorry, got carried away!).
    In reality, the traffic enforcers are to blame... they should do their jobs and apprehend these "criminals". We're paying them to stand/sit around while our resources are wasting away...

  9. Join Date
    Sep 2007
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    8,451
    #9
    1. Discipline among drivers
    2. Poor road condition
    3. Improper road assignment (gaya ng bus stops, u-turn slots)
    4. Establishments that cause heavy traffic
    5. Too much vehicles on the road

    These problems should be addressed. Giving criminal charges sa mga nagca-cause ng traffic, for me, is a corrective action lang, and I agree with this. Pero what we need ay yun long term solution to solve the heavy traffic.

  10. Join Date
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    #10
    Re: Big Schools with not enough parking. HELLO UST! May carpark nga mas mahal pa sa Makati kung maningil.

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