OpinionsThe Way It IsPole-ish hazard

Pole-ish hazard

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PORTLAND, OREGON — Let’s work around the problem, people. Just relax, take your time to think of the different ways this thing could be done. I assure you, before the end of the day, we’re going to get this thing licked.

I’ve heard this said a thousand times when I was still working. It sounds so reassuring when I hear people say there’s a way around a problem because then, it’s as good as solved. It is not easy to find a way around a problem and when one is found, there likely would be issues regarding procedure and legalities and, depending on what the problem is, safety. But with open minds, everyone could relax sooner.

We all know that our streets and highways abound with problems. The chaotic traffic, for one, is a problem that, at least, some people are pretending to solve. That’s always a good thing, if we didn’t know any better.

Driving in this City of ours is a great risk not only for those driving, but for the insurance companies that insure the vehicles. To them, it may be the kind of risk that is unnecessary but it’s still okay, for a higher premium. The collision centers and body shops don’t mind this either, because when the likelihood of collisions is high, it means good business for them.

Even to a first timer in the City, it may seem that a body shop might be one of the best businesses to have (second to a funeral parlor, maybe) because, surely, Dumaguete drivers must be hitting each other all the time.

How can they not be, watching them speed along recklessly, always barely avoiding each other? Motorcyclists pass each other so closely, you’d swear their elbows touch.

I’ve discussed traffic with a former City official who was in the thick of things during his tenure, and he told me the root of the problem is the City’s lack of alternate routes.

So, the City knows what the root of the problem is. Knowing that would mean half of the problem already solved, or so we think.

Is Dumaguete halfway into solving its traffic problem? I could say let’s all be the judge here, and come up with an easy answer of, “Hell, no!”

And why would we say that? Because we have not seen any effort toward a real solution. If there was, what?

Oversized trucks still dangerously plow their way through narrow and thickly- populated city streets, slowing traffic flow down to a snail’s pace while being extremely hazardous objects that could instantly kill a pedestrian should they accidentally run over them.

Between these big trucks and the couple thousand tricycles in the City, it’s like running the gauntlet when you’re walking, driving, or crossing on a pedestrian lane in Dumaguete.

This is a man-made problem that didn’t so much start immediately as a hazard but has now become one. So, it is now safe to say that this is a man-made hazard. It may be one, but I think, in fairness, it is an unavoidable one, what with the absence of alternate routes, right? At least, the traffic situation is not one that was intentionally designed to be such.

But what if a hazard seemed intentional because in all obviousness, it could really have been avoided? We’ll see if we have some of those.

In recent years, I became more and more aware of the improvements they’ve done to the national highways that string the southern and northern towns of Negros Oriental.

I was surprised one year to find that the highways were new and had universal signs and markings, like the center lines or reflectorized pavement markers. They looked like the roads you’d see in the more developed countries and were certainly safer to drive on. It announced to the world that we had arrived.

Later, I heard that those reflectors just slowly disappeared–stolen, perhaps. I just know that those are expensive, 48 of which may cost up to P10,000 including the adhesive that’s used to keep them anchored to the pavement.

Those many years ago, they had not started their road widening project yet. That was something I would mostly see in later years.

Today, they are well into that project, and have, in fact, already widened some portions of the national highways in the north and in the south.

It’s such a wonderful project, one that is driven by a desire for progress.

Indeed, if there was one thing that could spur development, it would be a good system of paved roads to span barangays, towns, and cities.

Good roads promote SAFE travel and conveyance of goods, while REDUCING traffic deaths and injuries.

More than 40 years ago, driving to Bayawan (then a town), was not very enjoyable. About 75 percent of the road was unpaved, bumpy, and dusty on dry days, and muddy when it rained. Those conditions made for an unreasonably-long, uncomfortable, and taxing drive.

Today, I don’t mind driving there and back to Dumaguete. I even find it exciting most of the time. Just about a month ago, we were in Bayawan, and on our drive back to Dumaguete, we got to talking about what a difference wider highways made.

Even if most of the slow lanes were occupied by parked vehicles, there was still at least one lane that was clear. I commented that it was such a welcome change that there was now a second lane for slower vehicles.

I guess all that time, we just had not been paying much attention to the road because as soon as I said that, a tricycle swerved into our lane without warning.

I couldn’t understand it because I was sure there were two lanes, and there were no other vehicles ahead of us, parked or moving. I stopped, prompting the tricycle to stop as well. I was mad at the driver for being so reckless. He apologized, making me feel like I was too harsh, which, it turned out, was true. He said there was an electric pole in his lane, and he had to avoid it. We looked at the spot where he swerved and, like he said, there was this pole, almost in the middle of the lane.

The road was widened without moving the pole off the lane. They just cemented around the pole inside the lane. Jeez, if you ever drove on this road at night, without street lighting and with mediocre headlights, you’ll arrive at the hospital, for sure.

I have since driven around, here in Dumaguete, the neighboring towns and cities, and I have seen more incidence of road-widening without removing obstructions like BIG trees and poles.

Really? Wasn’t safety one of the reasons why these roads are now going to be widened in the first place?

I have taken a few pictures of roads widened with these hazards sprouting out from the second lane, waiting to claim hapless victims. (Unfortunately, I could not submit those photos along with this article. You can email me, and I’ll send them to you or, better yet, you can see for yourself when you are driving around.) Believe me, they are not elusive at all–they’re everywhere.

Who can be blamed for accidents that occur because of this intentional hazards? I bet it wouldn’t be the officials responsible for building them because they’d never own up to anything negative. They would only own up to something that gives them credit. This problem announces to the world that it was premature to say we had arrived.

Poles in the roadways are something I have not seen anywhere else–not even in some poorer countries in Africa or in Asia. They are uniquely ours.

I really wonder how their (government officials and contractors) minds work. Are they just so dumb that they were not able to think of safety when they were widening these roads? Why even dare start such an ambitious project if you don’t have the mettle to do it right? They are wasting money because if safety was never factored in, why have it at all? The purpose gets defeated even before the project starts.

Unlike the hazards that Dumaguete traffic creates, these poles are hazards that were intentionally created by man.

While doing their surveys, do you honestly think they didn’t see the poles and the trees? When they were pouring the cement, didn’t they see the poles and the trees? For crying out loud, they were pouring cement around them!

If their budget didn’t include the relocation of the poles, and the cutting of trees along the path of the road- widening project, then they should have just waited for additional allocation.

As it is, they are going to have to correct this blunder someday, and that would mean more money, more time, and maybe some lives already lost due to accidents.

The poles and those trees, well, they don’t care at all. They just wait there, always standing their ground as they claim their next victim. There’s only one thing we can be certain of–we cannot work our way around these obstructions, this problem. No, not this one, sorry. It must be redone. That would be the only way.

It’s just ludicrous the way it is. How far do we let it go before it’s the way it should be? Up to you, people.

_____________________________

Author’s email: [email protected]

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