YOU know it’s the Christmas season when Metro Manila traffic comes to a standstill at almost any time of day. And it’s worse anywhere near a mall, big or small. This is how it has been since the start of December and it has progressively gotten worse since then,
There was a special “worseness” just when you thought things couldn’t get any worse — the first Friday of this month because everyone you knew seemed to be on his way to a company party. And then two days ago when the half-month salaries were released — and the Christmas bonuses as well — everyone just seemed to want to go out and buy things. Attribute that to the pent-up emotions that COVID-19 and inflation have combined to create — and my, have we really made sure we released them emotions!
Too bad malls are built smack in the center of the metropolitan area and not in some remote location that needs days to reach. Pile that on top of the fact that we have one of the worst public transportation and road networks among countries living under the illusion that they’re progressive/modern and what you have is the madness out on our streets this whole jolly month of December.
‘Remember to keep your festive air around you when you get stuck for an hour or two behind the wheel in the next two weeks. Maybe play Jose Mari Chan and sing along.’
It doesn’t take a foreigner to realize how crazy Metro Manila is; recently I met up, separately, with two from Davao and one from Iloilo and all they could do was shake their heads at the madness on the roads here in the NCR.
To give discredit where discredit is due, there’s madness too where they come from. In Iloilo, for example, a newly-opened flyover had to be closed because of the danger it posed to the commuting public when part of the flyover began sinking, apparently due to poor construction. Will anyone be held to account? Ha-ha.
But yes, it’s crazy here in Metro Manila and that’s why I, given a chance, would prefer to live elsewhere like Laguna where people are more normal, where traffic is more manageable, and where the air is definitely far cleaner.
What’s keeping me from moving for good are the poor road networks and poor public transport options. Commuting is hell for the ordinary folk, while driving is made more difficult because our road networks are a patchwork of projects that oftentimes are stymied by right of way disputes which in my book should be swiftly disposed of by special courts.
Oh, and there also are the road widening projects of the DPWH which only end up becoming parking lots because the DPWH did not coordinate with utility companies to move the power or telephone posts that are smack in the middle of the newly paved extra lanes. Crazy, yes?
My observations above have been true for years but there’s nothing like the festive Christmas season to make everything more stark for all of us, triggering complaints here and there and nothing more because soon we will return to less crazy times and we will tolerate everything again until the next Christmas season comes along.
Remember to keep your festive air around you when you get stuck for an hour or two behind the wheel in the next two weeks. Maybe play Jose Mari Chan and sing along.
And take the opportunity that Waze provides to explore new highways and byways; sometimes we all need a detour in our lives!
Holiday cheers to all, especially those behind the wheel!
