motoring madness

Driving on the roads in Singapore is stressful (no matter what vehicle you are in) and i'm sure everyone can think of an example of silly behaviour but the topic for my post today is merging lanes. *rant alert!*

Now, i think they don't teach this at driving school here, but overseas (like NZ ), merging lanes are common and the driver rationale behind it is simple: Merge like a zip. This means that cars should merge alternating between the left and right lanes, especially in heavy traffic. This is just common sense, but then we all know that common sense is an endangered species that is being euthanized daily by idiots everywhere.

So what happens here? People are kiasu, i.e. they are scared to lose, or they want to get 'there' (metaphorical destination) ahead of the other cars, or they just don't like to give way. Either way, they use their cars like battering rams, charging up ahead into the merged lane, even to the extent of driving on the shoulder, when it is not their turn to merge. In order to do so, they tailgate the car in front of them, so much so that at the merged lane, the car in the lane next to them have no place to go. Worse instances of this behaviour is when the driver appears totally oblivious to this and plows on straight ahead (full speed ahead! damn the icebergs!), now they could be pretending to be blur. Entertainment ensues when you get two of these idiots side by side (and you're behind them) and they both squeeze into the one lane, both pretend nothing is going on, and both scrape their fenders against each other. Karma!

/rant