There is no doubt that there have been tremendous improvements on the North Luzon Expressway (NLEX) since the Manila North Tollways Corporation took over its management and operations last February. Most of these improvements are on the infrastructure side like wider well-paved lanes, emergency phone stations and computerized operations, to name a few. On the safety aspect, however, there is still much to be desired.
Last Saturday night, I drove my family and my staff to Clark for a combined work and leisure trip but what I thought would be a smooth drive turned out to be a stressful one. During daytime, we probably don’t complain much about the hazards we see on the highway because we could easily spot and avoid them but at night, it could be scary.
As soon as I paid the
R42 fee on the open system section (Balintawak to Marilao), I noticed several trucks that had non-working taillights. Easily, I counted seven. Since everyone was still slowly gaining speed, it was easy to notice them and eventually overtake them. But what if you were running at 100kph or faster, these trucks could pose a danger since they may not be readily visible from a distance.
Whatever happened to the ban of vehicles that have defective tail lights or no tail lights at all? I remember some years back, the old NLEX had a campaign against vehicles on these and those without headlights were not allowed entry into the expressway.
As our one-hour trip progressed, we encountered more hazards on the road. While we were on the fast lane, a jeepney full of passengers and also without tail lights and signal light made a move to the fast lane (the leftmost lane) to overtake a van, unmindful of the faster vehicles just a few hundred meters behind him. Despite our flashed warning, the driver still proceeded with his slow overtake on the van forcing us to step on our brakes extra harder.
Then there were these two SUVics, the socalled Subic-released converted right-hand drive sport utes that hugged the fast lane even if they were just running at approximately 80kph. On separate instances, we signaled to them that we wanted to overtake but they would not give way despite our repeated flashing. One of them also had defective tail lights. Anyway, we were forced to overtake on the right side which we really hate to do because you take a lot of risks by doing so. I came across maybe another dozen or more of similarly ignorant or unmindful drivers who added to a stressful driving.
I am not sure if it was a coincidence but I did not see any highway monitoring patrols along the way which if they were doing their jobs would have counted more hazards than I did.
Last February, MNTC announced that it would come out with a handbook on road safety and courtesy and as of this writing, we read that the handbook had been launched and would be made available at a reasonable price. I bet not too many motorists would buy these books since it would be an additional expense on them. What the MNTC could have done was maybe to give free leaflets about safe and courteous driving on the highway as early as February. And maybe every month, they should have a campaign to promote a culture of safety to all users of NLEX. The costs of printing informative leaflets or flyers I guess would not be that much.
I also think that the directional signs for the exit points put up by the MNTC are not enough. They should probably learn from the South Luzon Expressway (SLEX) which has informative signs regarding the distances to exit points starting at two kilometers, then one kilometer and down to 500 and 300 meters. I almost missed the Angeles exit gate because it was dark and there were no distance advisories.
The NLEX’s unlighted stretch from Marilao to Dau or about 70 kms. should have reflective road, fence and edge markers at least for better visibility at night.
Going back to vehicles with no tail lights, if the MNTC had been strict with its ban on these vehicles, perhaps we would not see these highway hazards anymore. But again, the big trucks and buses, even if they have defective lights, are a big source of income for the MNTC since they pay more than the light vehicles.
As I exited in Angeles and paid
R142, I felt I was a victim of a highway robbery since the world-class highway that the NLEX was projected to be was still short of being one. 
