Tita Becky's Weblog

There is this one bad habit of mine that my husband has not succeeded in curbing all these years — this screaming out loud when I see anything alarming. It has never ceased to make me shudder in fear and seethe in helpless, futile anger whenever I see the seemingly incurable bad habits of our vehicle drivers and ‘tupid pedestrians in the streets of the metropolis. In order for him to drive safely without having a heart attack, he would urge me to sleep and allow him to drive in peace. <g>

When we traverse the roads of metro manila to and from home and I am not asleep, my husband would often slam at the brakes in near-attack of hypertension everytime I scream in genuine alarm when I see a PUV carelessly abruptly stop in the middle of the road (clearly without regard for the vehicles behind them which are, sometimes too heavy to brake on time) to allow pedestrians to alight and hastily cross the lane to the shoulder. I so fear the pedestrian would be ran over by the oncoming vehicles on the right lane.

During my time (and that’s a looonng time ago, mind you), it was simply unimaginable for a PUV driver not to veer carefully to as near to the curb as he could to pick up or let off a passenger–in consideration for the passenger’s safety, this is the proper way to do it and no driver should give “poverty” (“naghahanap-buhay lang naman ho kami ng marangal… kesa naman nagnanakaw o nanghoholdap kami!” is their trite statement) as lame excuse for this gross negligence for the safety of pedestrians.

Pedestrians should likewise observe safe street manners. Much too often, I see a grown-up walking with a little child in tow–and the child is on the danger side! Along with using the pedestrian lane when crossing the streets, there are other street etiquettes that pedestrians should follow for their own safety and in consideration for the safety of drivers, and this includes situating a small child on the safe side when walking up the busy streets.

Children are very unpredictable and may just run off or lean towards the vehicles’ side, and the probability of mindless drivers sideswiping them is really very high.

There is one other good pedestrian’s habit that I don’t see quite often anymore–it is walking on that side of the street facing the vehicular traffic. This is so that he could clearly see the oncoming vehicles and take care to maintain a safe distance from being sideswiped. And when there are pedestrians walking along the same lane you are on, take care that you stay on the danger side of him because you can see the oncoming vehicles while he cannot and you are in the better position to maintain a safe distance than he is.

These are just citing a few irritants in the streets and there are sooooo many more well worth looking out for and enumerating and taking up. Let’s face it, though, in this fast-pace street life how many of these PUV drivers and ordinary pedestrians find interest, time and/or the means to surf the internet and read these rants? Hmmm… but then, these things could warrant a full mandatory course in public safety in the streets — a good prerequisite to, say, renewal of driving licenses? <g>

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