Only in the Philippines

I have just finished watching Crash. Since most of the movie shows people driving around, I can't help but remember the weekend I spent in Subic.

Inside the former US naval base, traffic rules are strictly followed. Full stop intersections mean full stop. when it says first stop, first go, the next one to stop gives way to the one who stopped at the intersection first. And pedestrians stay inside the pedestrian lane.

It is only here in the Philippines where all good drivers inside the Subic Bay Freeport Zone transform into monsters of the road when they get out.

Those who give way to pedestrians in the economic zone appear to want to roll over pedestrians when they get outside.

While in most places change comes after time, in my country change happens as soon as you cross the border.

Onlookers, usiseros, uzi

Everyday I commute to and from my office. And everyday I meet heavy traffic during the so-called rush hour as everyone and anyone rushes to get to their destinations at the same hour - 7:00am - to arrive at, well, 8:00am or earlier.

Heavy traffic is caused by several circumstances. First among them is, well, because there is a lot of traffic going on. :) too many cars, too small streets. And yes, that is the second cause, small streets and a large number of vehicles.

The more occasional cause is heavy rain. Slippery roads result in slower moving traffic.

Another reason can be surmised from the phrase "slippery road," accidents. Accidental contact between two vehicles results in blockage of the streets making the already small street much more constricted.

And accident as a cause of heavy traffic leads us to the next cause of traffic almost always linked road accidents - the onlookers or usiseros or 'uzis' as we call them in our country.

Onlookers of road accidents are curious drivers who slow down to see what happened in "ground zero." They start as irate drivers who hate heavy traffic because they are late. They then, upon passing the scene of the crime, turn to curious onlookers, replacing those before them, driving slower to get a good look at what happened keeping the slow pace of traffic that begins to extend further back. And they don't even care to stop and help. They just look.

These irate-drivers-turned-onlookers-who-don't-care-to-help will be replaced by more irate-drivers-turned-onlookers-who-don't-care-to-help until the cars who figured in an accident or collision are removed from the street thus continuing the cycle of that particular slow moving traffic.

So, the next time you pass by a road accident and you are one-who-don't-care-to-help, please don't even care to look and drive on and spare the rest of us the agony of becoming one of you.

Rush hour traffic

Why is it that people know that the traffic is heavy during "rush hour" periods yet they still continue to join the many who ply the streets?

1. To be in the "in" crowd. To belong, you must be there for may lose the concept of the rush hour traffic if we let it die away.

2. Work place. All offices end work at 5:00pm. Why linger in the office when join can join the mob gathered in the streets and crammed in buses and trains?

3. Normalcy. Rush hour is normal. Why avoid it when everybody else are in it?

4. Economy. Most pubs, bars, restaurants, and places of ill-refute offer special promotions and reduced prices during "happy hour" which is another term for rush hour. Like the question in item number 2 - why spend your time in the office when you can spend it getting drunk?

5. Time table. Why go home later when you can go home now?

And once everyone is home they will say, "I had a rough day" when they have only spent a few hours in heavy stressful traffic.