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.
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| Mike shaking his fist. |
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| Someone (not visiting us) parking their motorcycle behind our car in our driveway. |
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| Normal traffic. |
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| People walking in the road is common. |
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| Unusually clear road. |
Thank you for following.
