Malaysians: Bad Ass Drivers

You don't need a genius to tell you if Malaysians are terrible drivers on the roads. We have beautiful roads, wide enough for our needs and plenty of ways to get around to destinations around town. Even as we strive to be a better country, to achieve a developed nation status, most of us have underdeveloped mentality when it comes to driving. All the morality and well-mannered behaviour flies out the window the moment we hold the steering wheel as if the car suddenly took control of us and we start driving like an unruly animal.

I wish to highlight three common bad behaviours:

1. Switching lanes to go faster
2. Jumping lanes/queues
3. VIP/Ambulance tagging
   

I would like to refer the first one to a comment from my friend whom I visited just last week. Just after going to PC Fair, we thought that it would be a smooth journey back to Damansara. I thought I knew the roads in KL darn well so I didn't care which road I might end up when I exited KLCC. SO I exited at Jalan Pinang. After taking some wrong turns, ending up nearly in Wangsa Maju before finally ending up in the right direction. We got trapped in a traffic jam just when we travelled a distance after a toll.

The jam started there and was nearly continous all the way up to Jalan Pahang but there were breaks of smooth flowing traffic which lasted a while before we got trapped in another bumper to bumper traffic. I can't begin to describe the feeling. Was it agonizing, tormenting, terrible? To get stuck in miles of bumper to bumper traffic to PWTC from Jalan Ampang was terrible even before people ended work. My friend told me that the real problem is people don't want to stay in their lanes and they keeping switching lanes to cut time. If it wasn't for his observation, I will hardly notice it maybe because I'm guilty of it as well.

Observing traffic from where the jam started until it ended, it turned out that he was right after all. In fact, if it wasn't for those jumping queues and switching lanes, I don't think the jam wouldn't be so bad. Many people thought that by switching into a faster lane would actually make you go faster but what about the people behind you, they would have to slow down because you just switched into their lane. Mind you, this is what happens if one person switches lane. Let's factor it by 20-50 times when 20-50 cars start doing the same thing on a busy road in KL, cars behind would then stop and then move and then stop before coming to a stop when sometimes 2 or more cars decided to switch lanes. Even, when their intention is to get to a faster lane, people who are now in the fast lane would become slower suddenly and then the slower lane becomes faster and then people start switching back to their original lanes again. What a vicious cycle....

IN medical terms, if a situation arises like that in any blood vessel, it's call a thrombosis. So here, on the roads it's like a thrombosis and then an emboli. (An emboli is a dislodged thrombus.)

All this from Jalan Ampang up to PWTC, Jalan Pahang. Even with all the traffic notifications on the electronic billboards, it wouldn't make much of a difference if people start behaving like that on the road.

Sometimes, I wander if Malaysians are bad drivers due to the busy metropolitan area in KL. But what about bigger metropolis or Megalopolis like Seoul, Beijing. Are there drivers like that?? My friend from New Zealand told me that over there nobody would practice this form of driving. I thought..."Sure, there are more cows than people there" IF they were living here in KL, would there transform to be us? That's the million-dollar question....

One very favourite spot where drivers love jumping queues, is at the Chan Sow Lin roundabout. IF you were somehow there between 7.30 and 8.30 be ready for one of the worst jam of the day. Bad road planning is one of the reasons. Five lanes try to squeeze into a three lane area, made worse by people who jump queues especially those coming from the Sungai Besi airport. Its actually a daily affair to be stuck in a jam there, sometimes that stretch takes about 30 minutes to move 500 m. These "jump queuers" will start coming from the side and go out into the main road going to Jalan Istana as if going there but actually taking a detour to squeeze through a space at the left lane. The situation becomes worse when buses and lorries follow suit so that all the "bullied" legitimate cars behind them would have to stop and let them pass. Sometimes, drivers take the opportunity to tag along them, because it's an opening or rather a shortcut from the big thrombosis (jam) behind them.

VIP tagging is also a favourite among Malaysian drivers. It is common to see VIPs or ambulance making an open path for them even during jams. VIP taggers by my definition are drivers who trail a convoy or an ambulance so that they will bypass all the jam. If you have seen one, suddenly from behind, lots of motorists will join the convoy or ambulance from behind and happily make their way through the jam. Though some may find this as OK, but personally, I find it unethical. What about the people who have to wait behind or had to move to the side because they were giving way??

So there you go...bad behaviours on the road. I'm guilty of the first 2. I think naturally anyone would be guilty of the first of second one but for the third. I think it's a rising phenomenon.