Ped Xing. Please Yield.

Damn it!

Just when you think you’re day is going to be perfectly fine something happens...like a snap of a finger or a blink of the eye...it’s ruined.

So I’m going to let loose to calm me down.

This FX taxi almost rammed me over while crossing the pedestrian lane.

I just came from Galleria after lunchtime. I safely crossed the 1st half of ADB Avenue to the island. The 2nd half of the road has 3 lanes where traffic leads to one direction. The nearest lane closest to the island where I was standing was not moving and had quite a line. I saw that it was a stop ahead. The 2nd lane didn’t have a long line. In fact, 3 more cars can occupy the lane to my left but there were no cars approaching. Then there were PUVs parked in the 3rd lane. “Ok”. So I thought, “It’s safe to cross”.

Wrong!

Suddenly, as I was about to cross the 2nd lane, I noticed this FX from the line of the 1st lane maneuvering to the 2nd lane to get ahead. It was the 4th vehicle to my right. (I was still aware and alert while crossing even if I had checked before hand because you never know.)

I was way ahead of it because it just got into the 2nd lane while I was already halfway of it. There were also other pedestrians behind me (I was the first to cross) so I figured no need to run, it will stop to give way.

Wrong! Wrong! Wrong!

It was going way too fast considering there were pedestrians. It was like suddenly from it being in a full stop it had no breaks! It stepped on its gas as soon as it changed lanes. So I jumped quickly to the 3rd lane to avoid from getting slammed! Idiotically, the driver stepped on his breaks after I jumped! So I looked back and shot him an angry - “if looks can kill” – look. He stopped just exactly where I was! Ass****! He even had the nerve of being angry himself! I mean, what!? Was he blind or just plain stupid!? Where was he going in such a hurry while the traffic was still on a stop!? He was just a few meters away before he would stop again.

What’s equally worse is that another driver from one of the PUVs parked in the 3rd lane suggested that I should’ve let the FX hit me. It didn’t sound like an insult or that he was mocking me. I guess that was what he would’ve done if he were in my place. I mean for what? So the driver of the FX would learn his lesson? So he can earn out of physical injury and internal hemorrhage!? Never mind, thank you! I just ignored his comment.

Was it my mistake of crossing the pedestrian lane when I checked first if the road was clear to cross?

Pedestrian lanes are there for a reason. Cars must yield. Pedestrians should be given priority. I guess not applicable in this country! I’m sorry to say that I for one, at least once in my life, am guilty of unyielding. But normally, I do yield. So maybe what happened earlier was my karma. I believe in karma.

I hate it most when it’s a stop and you see it’s a "bumper to bumper" traffic and yet cars would still block the pedestrian lane. Hello!? The lanes should be free for pedestrians to cross!!! It shouldn’t be blocked while on a stop! It’s a simple road courtesy. A lot of drivers lack road courtesy.

In fairness to the other drivers out there, even some pedestrians don’t use the painted lines to cross. Hell, they will cross anytime, anywhere! They don’t even use the overpass. They prefer to run and do the whole “frogger scene”. The Frogger is a game, if you don’t know, where it must safely cross the busy highway, lane after lane, avoiding trucks and the like (the original game used snakes) to run-over it.

Since I’ve already mentioned about road courtesy and drivers without it. What’s up with a lot of Jeepney drivers making a stop in the MIDDLE OF THE ROAD TO LOAD AND UNLOAD PASSENGERS!? (The same goes with many bus drivers). They cause heavy traffic! The worst thing about it is that they don't mind! They don't care! Crab mentality! It’s really irritating! There are a lot of those in Sucat Road and shit I pass by that road all the time! My mom already asked one of the traffic enforcers one morning to do something about it. But to no avail, these traffic enforcers find themselves swaying their hands back and forth signaling to the cars, “Go, go!” But I expect more of that swaying of the hands or the sign of stop with the hand. They should enforce traffic rules for they are TRAFFIC ENFORCERS! Duh!

I also don’t get why these traffic enforcers allow, right under their noses, these drivers to clog the intersection right after the stop sign and it’s a green light? These are the Jeepneys queuing to load passengers on the shoulder but since other Jeepney drivers want to get ahead and load passengers for themselves, they occupy the middle lane of a 3-lane road, allowing only one lane for passing. To make it worse, cars from the right side of the intersection with the green light are allowed to turn making it even more congested. Chaos!

No wonder other countries see the Philippines as a Third World. It’s not just because of our economy but also because of the lack of discipline. They could just imagine monkeys driving a Mercedes Benz.

This sucks!

We complain a lot...too much actually. We are never satisfied. It has to be this way and ours only. No questions ask. It’s simple. All you have to do is listen, then follow.

The problem is even if we do listen, what goes on in our heads is beyond control of anyone else’s. We have our own worlds up there, and how we comprehend what was heard will all depend.

So that sucks for people communicating in different wave lengths. It’s utter confusion. Disastrous. Killer.

Well anyway, enough of my whining. I'm really bugging. The day isn’t over. It’s still up to me now how I would want it to end. Hope my mood will get back to its right track.


***image www.istockphoto.com