Traffic Rules 101 for motorcyclists
Atty. Jerome G. Neri
The Scrutineer
NEW on the endangered species list are good traffic policemen/enforcers who are out to help the motoring public. They have become so rare that when one is spotted, his picture goes viral over the Internet. Finally, after many months and weeks of pictures over the Internet of abusive traffic enforcers, a picture of a good policeman emerges, voluntarily helping a 75-year-old senior citizen fix his flat tire.
The good policeman is one P01 Mark Wilson Roa. His picture was posted on social media by the person he helped thanking him. The senior citizen was surprised that the young policeman did not ask for anything in return for his assistance. The picture of P01 Roa has now been shared a lot that it even caught the attention of a national car publication.
SIMPLE RULES. I would like to remind motorcycle riders of some simple traffic rules:
1. The double yellow line in the middle of the road is not a motorcycle lane, it actually means that you are not supposed to cross that line and think of it as an imaginary island.
2. The two parallel lines that cross the street right before a stoplight is not a motorcycle-only box. It actually is the pedestrian lane, which is where pedestrians cross the street, and blocking those lanes with your motorcycles is actually endangering the lives of pedestrians.
3. The right-most side of the road is not an overtaking lane, in fact, overtaking, by law, is allowed only on the left and not the right.
4. When an amber light on the right side of a car starts flashing, it does not mean he wants the motorcycle on the right side to go faster, it actually means the car is about to turn right, being on two wheels, it is wiser for the motorcycle to give way. The same thing applies on the left side.
5. Lastly, a motorcyclist who has figured in an accident with a car because he broke any of the aforementioned rules should not seek compensation from the car owner for the sole reason that the car has more wheels than his motorcycle. Whatever damage or injury the motorcyclist has suffered is a direct result of his stupidity and stupidity cannot be repaired by third parties.
HELL. The highway to hell is A.S. Fortuna St. You go to A.S. Fortuna from the Banilad Road, and when you reach L.H. Prime, you are in hell. Just as summer began, rehabilitation work on one end of A.S. Fortuna started. The project looked like it will be finished by the end of summer. But for some reason after demolishing the road and fixing half of it, the work has stopped. To make matters worse, the same thing is happening on the Cabangcalan road, which is an alternate route.
Probably not satisfied with the inconvenience caused by these two unfinished major road repairs, the government decided to demolish part of Hernan Cortes, which also is another alternate route to decongest A.S. Fortuna. Still not satisfied, they started demolishing another part of A.S. Fortuna near P. Remedio St. Common sense dictates that before another project is started, complete the first project first.
DRAINAGE PROBLEM. The way the culverts are arranged for installation at A.S. Fortuna and Hernan Cortes, it appears to me that the government plan to drain the flood waters in A.S. Fortuna depends on the Subangdaku River.
The problem with their grand plan is that everybody knows that the flooding problem in the Innodata area of Mandaue City happens when the Subangdaku River overflows. Again commonsense dictates that you cannot drain water to an overflowing river. This drainage plan is doomed to fail.
FAST LANE. Just based on the A.S. Fortuna fiasco it is clear that the Provincial Government and the Mandaue City Government have no common sense. They have become experts in inconveniencing the public. They are advocates of our President’s “daang matuwid.” What we were not told about “daang matuwid” is that this straight road is full of toll booths that waste time and collect money to be wasted.
What Cebu and our country needs is a “daang maiksi at matulin na auto” – a short road and a fast car. The problem is that a fast car needs a skilled driver, a trait which our present leaders do not possess.
