Jaywalking again

Published by the Visayan Daily Star Publications, Inc.

NINFA R. LEONARDIA Editor-in-Chief & President

CARLA P. GOMEZ Editor CHERYL CRUZ Desk Editor PATRICK PANGILINAN Busines Editor NIDA A. BUENAFE Sports Editor RENE GENOVE Bureau Chief, Dumaguete MAJA P. DELY Advertising Coordinator

CARLOS ANTONIO L. LEONARDIA Administrative Officer

Around this time last year the Bacolod City Traffic Management Unit and the Bacolod Traffic Authority embarked on an intensified campaign against jaywalking. During the first few days of the campaign, a few hundred violators were apprehended and they were made to choose from paying P100 in fines or rendering community service. We wondered then whether the authorities could sustain or better yet, expand this campaign to include all the major thoroughfares of the city but after a couple of months, the answer became pretty obvious. The area along the newly completed Bacolod North Terminal and flyover that has been allowed to become a new jaywalking hotspot pretty much summarizes how short-lived and ineffective that particular anti-jaywalking campaign had been.

Perhaps this year our traffic authorities would like to observe how the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority’s campaign against jaywalking fares to see if they can pick up some pointers should they decide to give it another try. Aside from continuing to apprehend offenders, the MMDA has put a renewed focus on stopping jaywalking by putting graphic warnings in various areas of Metro Manila as they try to discourage illegal crossing of streets because its “no jaywalking” signs do not seem to be delivering the message to the public. While MMDA Chair Francis Tolentino admits that eradicating jaywalking completely is almost impossible, he is still targeting a 15 percent reduction in pedestrian-related road accidents.

 In a bustling city where pedestrian lanes are practically invisible and pedestrians cross wherever and whenever they desire, a sustained and comprehensive campaign against jaywalking may seem like a tall order but it is becoming a necessity. We need more than a lackluster effort to apprehend violators and unmanned barricades that are supposed to give the impression that the city wants to stop jaywalking when they end up highlighting how easy it is to ignore implied or even written traffic rules because nobody enforces those rules anyway. Do the concerned officials want to try again, or have they already given up when it comes to jaywalking?*