It saddens me no end to see report after report of death and dismemberment on the most useless road in the country, Commonwealth Avenue.
It makes no sense... not here... to have a road that's sixteen lanes wide with no clear lane-segregation markers and no safety.
Simply put... for pedestrians and small vehicle users, this vast sea of concrete is a deadly place. It's impossible to cross on foot, and the pedestrian bridges are few and far between. Public utility vehicles, private cars and scooters, zip across several lanes to enter a U-turn slot, then merge right several lanes on the other side, all in one motion. Buses weave in and out of lane with impunity... the wide expanse of concrete encouraging drivers to push a little faster than they would on the narrower roads of the metro.
Let's face it... we don't have the manpower for active enforcement... what we need are better designed roads, with clear lane demarcation and maybe even islands separating the inner and outer lanes. No... not the "pop-up-in-the-middle-of-nowhere" islands and fences that Bayani Fernando tried to institute on EDSA, but honest-to-goodness continuous islands down the length of the avenue.
Not only for this road, but also for the Quezon Circle, which is also a very difficult place for pedestrians, cyclists and small vehicle operators to navigate.
All it takes is political will. Or maybe more well-known personages dying. But you and I know that the latter is the more likely trigger...
