The struggle that is C-5

No. This isn’t another Bayani Fernando-bashing piece meant to stress my stand on the ever-controversial elevated U-turn. I’ve said my piece regarding that issue on several occasions. And it stays. Let’s leave it at that. This piece is about another development along the national highway known as C-5 – a very positive one at that. Well, at least the first part of it is positive.

Last year, I wrote a piece regarding how people risk life and limb while crossing the normally fast-paced highway. There are two overhead pedestrian walkways in the area that are rarely used because people can’t be bothered with using proper infrastructure. What residents along the C-5 area normally do is play chicken with some very fast moving vehicles as they negotiate one side of the national highway to the other. People crossing such a busy highway would be a harrowing sight for any foreigner visiting the Philippines for the first time. But it’s par for the course in the good old Philippine Islands. It’s stubbornness and stupidity at its most blatant, but that’s the Filipino road user for you – oblivious and unconcerned about road safety.

Back when this writer vehemently criticized the practice, we were able to garner many a Backseat Driver reaction. However, all our complaints seemed to fall on deaf ears where both the road using pedestrian populace and the authorities were concerned. That is, until very recently…

Lately, there has been a commendable effort on the part of the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) to purge the practice of high speed jaywalking altogether. Along C-5, a long stretch of tall white fences is being put up. It’s an effort obviously meant to discourage people from crossing the highway on the ground level – and force them to use the overhead pedestrian walkways. While I haven’t stopped to see the state of the overhead pedestrian walkways myself, I’m assuming that the MMDA is also cleaning both structures up and ensuring their structural stability.

What’s more, the very tall fences are in an acceptable shade of white – instead of the ridiculous pink that we’re now accustomed to. In fairness to MMDA Chairman Bayani Fernando, this is one project seemingly devoid of irrational reasoning. Salutations are in order.

That being said, however, we still see the other half of the C-5 equation being less than cooperative – and I’m talking about the road using public this time around. More than once, we’ve seen pedestrians still straddling the center island, walking the length of the fences that are already in place. Worse, we even once caught a fellow crawling underneath one of the fences. In other words, despite the newly built fences, people are still crossing the national highway – uncaring for their own safety. How stubborn can we get, really?

We’re hoping these little kinks get ironed out and that the MMDA plants a firm foot on this particular effort. This is one instance where forcing the public to work within the rules is beyond reproach – because the infrastructure being put up is proper. No caging them in ill-hued fences and no scaring the crap out of them by putting up huge but otherwise useless warnings that what they’re doing is “nakakamatay”.

Wayward pedestrians are merely half of the problem along C-5, however. As I regularly ply this route on the way to the office, I’ve become witness to some of the dumbest road practices imaginable – and they are many along C-5. Many of these practices can be avoided if only the average Filipino road user used half of his common sense. Simple or complicated, however, we feel that we need stricter implementation of existing laws.

Case in point: anyone who’s ever tried to make a U-turn along C-5 using the underground provisions is bound to be mesmerized by the chaos underneath all the concrete. As passenger-hungry public utility vehicles are only allowed to use these service roads, they also pretty much dictate the traffic flow along them. Tricycles crisscross at will and jeepneys (as usual) stop wherever it’s convenient. The result is a free for all that you would only be too happy to get out of unscathed. Not all are so lucky, of course.

Accidents of the high-speed nature, meanwhile, are quite common along the main highway itself. Given the average Filipino driver’s propensity for stupidity, this is not at all surprising, of course. What’s really frustrating is how we all tend to react to such accidents. Any road accident – no matter how inconsequential – is bound to draw Filipino drivers like moths to a flame.

I once got stuck in a mind-boggling traffic jam that lasted for thirty minutes along a normally quick one-kilometer stretch (Without traffic, you’d be too slow if you took two minutes to finish the said stretch). It was along the southbound area that led to the second of the overhead pedestrian walkways. Anyone familiar with that stretch of road knows that it’s a straight line and that there are no bottlenecks along the short stretch whatsoever. As I precariously negotiated through the crawling mass of vehicles, I was expecting at least a mid-sized vehicle to have turned over. The traffic flow was simply much too slow for it to be anything other than a major accident.

When I finally got to the chokepoint, I was aghast with what I saw. In front of me, there was nothing. No accident at all. To my left, on the northbound side of the road, a small delivery truck had spun off and was now facing the opposite side of his lane. In other words, the accident that had stalled the southbound lane did not even occur on it. People were merely watching a stalled vehicle on the other side of the road! There was no drama, no movement from either the vehicle involved or the people in it – merely a stalled vehicle facing the wrong side of the road. Quite literally, it was the dumbest (non) reason for a traffic jam I had ever seen in my 20-odd years of driving.

All this irrational behavior can be avoided, of course. But it’ll take a lot of fine-tuning and serious implementation. Driving along C-5 is such a struggle because despite the fact that structurally it ought to bring out the best in a driver, mentally, our drivers aren’t up to maximizing its potential as a free-flowing stretch of road. Seriously, I cannot wait for the next generation to learn how to use our roads properly – because this generation is completely hopeless. Let’s face it. As a road using populace, we stink. Acceptance is the first step in complete rehabilitation. And, small consolation that it is, at least I know that I’ve taken that first step. Have you?

We got our fair share of inquiries about Leder Interia after we wrote about their car interior restoration efforts last week. If you are interested in getting in touch with them and giving your car’s interior a second lease on life, call or text 0920-9252930, 396-2262 or log on to www.lederinteria.com.