Toughest Place to Be a Bus Driver

The Philippines may be one of the toughest place to be for a bus driver due to the fact that it is esurience that governs the people’s mindset considering a number of reasons: the narrow and poorly constructed streets, inefficient traffic management, a very large number of private and public vehicle; poor maintenance of buses and other public transportation that contributes to pollution and lack of discipline among riders and drivers.

Among these troublesome factors are the structure of the jeepneys in the Philippines since it came from soldier cars that were often used in travelling military equipments, it has an efficient engine that can travel for long hours, as said before it was used in the war so it was converted to be an everyday public transportation for the society, thus it is created for necessity rather than luxury, the problem with these converted cars, it has a relatively outdated windshield that is too inconvenient for the driver as they need to lean forward to have a good view of the traffic lights. An example situation of this is the windshield of a local jeepney is a small rectangular glass panel with signboards that bears its place of destination; Rogelio leans forward whenever he is at a road intersection to get a better view of the traffic lights.

Another is the loose implementation of road traffic rules in the Philippines, the traffic lights are often under repair or shut off due to incapacity to hold the signals at the right pace. And the drivers in the Philippines do not follow the one car spacing which requires cars to have a gap of 1 car from another car, for most, overtaking is crossing to the wrong side of the road to pass a vehicle in front; though overtaking is also moving into another lane or line of traffic either side of him to pass another vehicle. This unhealthy driving style often causes road accidents. An event where in Rogelio drove the car and left a safe distance from the car in front of him, a taxi driver cut his way through the space and overtook him. This shows that our country’s driver do not follow road safety precautions.

In addition, the increasing number of private and public transportation, the designated lanes for loading and unloading passengers is being implemented just so jeepneys avoid obstructing traffic flow. This practice might have been effective if not for the large number of vehicles that passes the main roads every day. A situation where in Rogelio had no choice but to unload passengers at the nearest possible spot that is unobstructed, regardless if that is not where the passengers really want to be dropped.

To solve the main causes of traffic disruption, additional traffic light post which are just high enough to be seen by a driver from his vehicle should be visible on both sides of the road intersection. local jeepney designs may be modified to increase the area of the windshield. Instead of the conventional jeepney windshield which is at 90 degrees angle, having it a little slanting will give the driver a better view of the traffic lights, the pedestrian, and the road.

Stricter implementation of traffic rules should be employed. The traffic management office should get more serious in monitoring the traffic violations and penalize the violators. Driving license should only be issued to drivers who are responsible and who have passed the basic driving skills test, psychological and drug tests.

The government must be serious about studying the current traffic situation in our country. It is not enough that they implement the rules to the fullest. It is about time that the number of private and public vehicles got regulated. Currently, it seems that vehicles which were bought ten years ago are still being used. As a result, there will be a continuous increase in the number of vehicles over the years, and the traffic situation will get worse. Vehicles which were acquired five years ago should no longer be fused.