EVERY road user is complaining. Understandably, that is. What took only a few minutes to traverse now takes several times longer. Of course, the sights are trained on the traffic office, the Roads and Traffic Administration. And maybe rightly so.
But, before we point fingers at others, it may help if we stop for a while, ponder upon the tangled motor vehicles in busy thoroughfares, and look back.
Every road user may not be used to waiting for that appropriate moment before he stops and thinks of other road users behind him. Before the so-called holiday rush and the sudden increase in the number of moving vendors, which are the main causes of the current traffic situation, road users were simply not used to spending a few more moments to make the lives of other road users easy.
With the current traffic situation, abusive motorists can no longer stop in the travel lane for their passengers to embark or disembark. He can no longer park anywhere despite a reflectorized shining No Parking sign right in front of him. That's something new to him.
A speedster can no longer imagine that the busy city streets are his racetrack, otherwise, he gets to hit pedestrians who also are blind to using pedestrian lanes. He can say goodbye to racing against pedestrians who reluctantly cross pedestrian lanes because of speeding abusive drivers.
And businesses that use the sidewalks as their parking areas can hardly if they ever do, drive out of the sidewalks or drive into to park because of the bumper-to-bumper queue of vehicles that block their means of ingress of egress.
Yes, there are areas of concern around the city that need the full attention of the traffic office. And where are the Traffic Aides? Some observers, and road users, report that TAs are nowhere to be found, with the complaint that it took them maybe ten times longer to reach their destinations.
I'm not defending the traffic office but yes, TAs are fielded especially in areas where they are much needed. Maybe the right and perfect solution to the traffic problem is yet forthcoming but the traffic office is doing whatever it can to make road users' lives on the road easy and comfortable.
Now that we have a first-hand experience of how it is if road courtesy and discipline are wanting, shouldn't we, as road users, all do something to avoid that horrible traffic?
