Dec 26 2008
The spirit of giving… and taking
Kuala Lumpur might be only a four hour drive away from Singapore, but it’s several worlds apart when it comes to the motoring experience.
Spending five days there last week really made me appreciate Singapore’s COE quota system. Because for once, I spent a lot of time driving in the heart of KL town, not just the free-flowing toll roads leading to the major destinations.
The traffic jams were horrendous, to put it mildly, and not just during peak hours too. On one stretch of road it took us 20 minutes to clear a traffic light just 30m ahead. This, at 11pm on a weekday.
Having too many cars on the road is the main problem; poorly laid out junctions plus often incomprehensible signs just make it worse.
Add kamikaze motorcyclists and scant regard for traffic regulations in general, and you have a recipe for utter mayhem.
Except it never really materialises, because Malaysian motorists in general have something their counterparts in Singapore could use a lot more of – the ability to give and take.
For all their recklessness, the motorcyclists have excellent situational awareness. They’re always looking out for other traffic, and seldom act like they have the God-given right to be in any particular place.
That’s only because they don’t want to die, you say? Perhaps, but even the car drivers are remarkably considerate.
They slow down to let you in at slip roads, give way instead of speed up when you signal to change lanes and don’t honk unnecessarily.
It’s as if everyone thinks, ‘We’re all in this together, so let’s make the best of it’. It makes driving so much less stressful than would otherwise be the case. And it’s an attitude many Singaporean motorists would do well to adopt.
