Road Rage

September 22 was the worst night of driving we have had since we got here. About 6:00 pm (it is dark by then) we had to go to town. I do not like to drive here at night, see the blog post about driving Not Driving 55 Anymore.

At night time there is a lot of people who congregate on the road and just hang out. A lot of the drivers do not use their lights. Most of the bicycles do not have lights. A lot of drivers flash their lights with the misconception that flashing their lights give them the right of way. There is no standards for lights so you may have someone with red headlights and blue taillights, etc.. You have people walking in the middle of the road, somebody on motorcycle who decided to slow down to talk to someone who happen to be walking on the road, not to mention the dogs that are also on the road....so many hazards on a narrow two-way road. But, the government is in the middle of its road widening project so that is a welcome sign.

The parking in town was congested with delivery trucks, motorcycles, tricycles and bikes when we arrived. There was one spot and I went ahead and parked. As Flor was returning to the car, a driver pulled in behind us and tried to park behind us which would have blocked us in. (Parking here is wherever it is convenient for self without consideration of others.) So I started backing up at him forcing him to back up into the congested street. As a lot of drivers here can not back up well, this took some time for him to get out of my way. I (Flor) noticed the crowd watching the whole scene with interest. Backing out and maneuvering a vehicle in a tight spot is a piece of cake for us American drivers, unlike these Filipino drivers who have just learned to drive and doesn't quite know how to handle their vehicles well yet. On separate occasions we've watched some drivers trying to turn around and it is a pain watching them do this. Sometimes I am tempted to get out of the car and offer to do it for them. Anyway, that was the scene that day. Thankfully we got out of there without a hitch.

Then as we were headed home northbound, a teenage girl driving a motorcycle with 2 passengers, on the side of the south bound lane, popped her clutch, lost control of the motorcycle, and the front wheel of the motorcycle was under the front driver side wheel of our car. I stopped hard enough that the girls were not hurt (except for a scrape or two). JJ and Marlon screamed and we got out of the car to see what was going on. I noticed the teen-age girl driver and a man who was also on his motorcycle were arguing. Something happened right before we came onto the scene that made the girl lose control of her motorbike. They were blaming each other about who caused the wreck. I don't know how the guy could be blamed when the girl was driving the motorcycle. None of them wanted to talk to us so off we went. We were blessed that no one run into the back of us when I stopped, motorcycle drivers have a tendency to tailgate.

The sad part about the drivers here, when they violate a rule of the road (or even common sense stuff) they just smile and do not seem to care and that just proves that there really is no rule of the road here to follow except your own rule.

Then on September 29 we had stopped along the side of the road to go to a fiesta. This one is along the side of the road and people are in the road (that is a whole different issue). As we headed back to the car, a motorcycle came screaming by us, full throttle and the driver was actually screaming. About 30 seconds later we could hear a crashing sound from the direction the motorcycle was going (there was no sound of tires screeching as someone trying to stop). We headed in that direction to head home and sure enough the motorcycle driver had ran into the back of a stopped van. The motorcycle driver was laying on the road not moving, but breathing, and his motorcycle was scattered all over the place. I did check to make sure there was anything first aid we could do, but he was not bleeding. He did appear to have a broken leg and since he was not wearing a helmet probably head injury. Someone had called the police and fire department and Flor told the people not to move him.

We learned later that the driver was drunk and insisted that he drive home.

After driving here for almost 3 years the problem seems to be:

No driver education or training.

Fraudulently obtained drivers licenses.

No drivers licenses at all.

Not understanding how the equipment works.

Being able to start a vehicle does not make you a driver.

Very few traffic signs/control devices (stop signs, yield signs, etc).

Adhering to the control devices/rules of the road.

No road sense.

No traffic enforcement.

Philippines do have rules/laws of the road, very similar to the states. But with the corruption, ignoring of the laws and lack of enforcement, you have to be on the offensive and defensive at the same time.

This has lead to Mike having the road rage.