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THE
travails of vehicle owners will not end unless the cost
of oil prices stabilizes in the near future.
Oil hit
$100 per barrel and that pushed the prices of gasoline
and other oil-based products to unprecedented heights
these past few days. Motorists are not the only ones
feeling the pinch but also various sectors in the
country that see a spike in the costs of services and
commodities whenever there are oil-price hikes.
With the
oil-price hikes come the various scrimping methods of
the people in order to save on gas money. Those who live
in faraway subdivisions and work in the metropolis now
leave their vehicles at home and take FXs, join a
carpool or ride the LRT or the MRT. They are a much
cheaper means of transportation although there are lots
of hassles such as traffic and annoying outdoor heat.
Many
vehicle owners these days are now developing good
driving habits. Correct driving methods are now being
embraced by drivers especially those who have their own
cars. Seldom do we see jackrabbit starts or hard foot
stomping on the accelerator. But one thing that
motorists can’t do anything about is the heavy traffic
that meets them almost on an everyday basis.
I think
the government must conduct a thorough study on why
traffic is an everyday fare on our major thoroughfares.
Haphazard solutions that we are seeing on those major
thoroughfares not only seem to exacerbate the problem
but also create white elephants that litter our roads
and waste the people’s money. Remember those pink fences
along Edsa which cause bottlenecks and monstrous
traffic?
A part
of this study should also look into how many jeepneys
and buses were issued licenses since time immemorial and
compare that with how many of them are still plying our
roads today.
More
than always, those jeepneys and buses waiting for
passengers on street corners are the No. 1 cause of
traffic. We can’t deny that those jeepneys and bus
drivers are family men who are earning their living. But
they just don’t accept the fact that the traffic they
create when they stop on a street corner to wait for
passengers is a cardinal sin on the road.
Another
thing that needs to be studied are the millions of
vehicles—old and new—that ply our streets everyday. I
can see vintage 1970s cars still being used as everyday
family cars or haulers for business. We don’t have
anything against old cars, just to clear our point. But
old and dilapidated vehicles that spew huge clouds of
carbon monoxide must be banned from our streets.
The
local and foreign car manufacturers doing business here
have given rise to the increasing number of new vehicles
on our streets during the past two decades. And we are
not even talking about the number of vehicles that were
sold in the country through the so-called “grey market.”
The total volume of vehicles is mind-boggling. But have
our streets and major thoroughfares become wider and
bigger? No!
The
study should also consider what Japan has done to ease
heavy traffic in Tokyo. During my trip there last year,
I was amazed with the way railways and overhead highways
crisscrossed the metropolis. Everyday, millions of
Japanese commute to and from their homes and work with
ease and speed. Pollution is also lessened and traffic
is not a problem because of their mass-transport system.
Here in
Manila, the solutions are just in our midst. The problem
is that the authorities choose to ignore them. If only
they would just open their eyes wide enough….
‘USING a
cellular phone while behind the wheel impedes the flow
of traffic, clogs highways and extends commute times.
It’s a bit like breaking wind in the elevator. Everyone
suffers,” according to Peter Martin of the University of
Utah’s Traffic Lab.
Studies
have equated the risk of driving while talking on a
cellular phone with driving while drunk. Some 50
countries have banned the use of handheld phones while
driving. The latest study shows the impact of cellular
phone use on traffic patterns. “When a driver who is not
distracted is in a traffic stream and the vehicle in
front slows down, the driver will brake in response.
When a vehicle speeds up in front, the driver will
respond and speed up,” said Martin who is part of a team
of researchers who devised a study involving 36
university students, each of whom drove through six 9.2
mile-long freeway scenarios in low- to high-density
traffic at speeds that resembled driving on an
interstate highway.
“Delays
in traffic streams of very small amounts grow into
massive numbers when you project it across a highway and
across a nation,” Martin added. |
