Bizarre Drivers, All In A Day

Evening at SLE

I don’t know which is more hilarious.  The huge lorry with a speed limit sticker of 60km/h traveling at the speed limit of 90 km/h on the rightmost fast lane.  Or the taxi driver behind me kept on high-beaming asking – I suppose – the lorry in front of my car to move away.  We are not suppose to do more than 90 km/h anyway.  And I have no clue if lorries nowadays are allowed to do more than what their stickers behind indicate.  More hilariously, the electronic signal board above said: Heavy vehicles keep left.  The three of us followed each other for quite some time.  I moved off the fast lane because the lane on my right was finally empty.  The lorry driver must be angry because even after overtaking the slower vehicles, he still stayed onto the fast lane.  And the taxi driver must be furious that he could not speed.  Hence, the incessant high beaming.  People should learn to chill out.

Early Morning Prior to Entering CTE

OK.  This is common in Singapore.  But still, since I feel very passionate toward this, it is hence worth mentioning.  One driver cut into my lane, without signaling.  Later on, cut back to her lane, also without signaling.  I don’t know how other drivers can do this.  Personally I feel very uncomfortable not to signal before changing directions.  I am unsure if this is due to some being extremely self-centered.  If so, we have quite a lot of self-centered drivers in Singapore.

Early Morning on CTE

I have seen this on our highways before.  But what the ambulance did was quite uncommon.

The traffic was heavy.  But cars were still moving along.  From my rear mirror, I vaguely saw a blinking ambulance.  In fact, I saw two.  I quickly moved out of the fast lane like I always do and the drivers on the slower lane in general give way.  Because it is, after all, an emergency.  This red BMW was hogging the fast lane, moving quite slow indeed.  In fact, I on the slower lane managed to pull away from the ambulance.  The first ambulance grew impatience, moved onto the slower lane attempt to – I suppose – undertake.  Now, there was an ambulance on the fast lane still stuck behind the red BMW.  And there was another ambulance on my lane.  Which lane shall I move?  I moved back onto the fast lane and the two ambulances disappeared from my rear mirror soon after.  Still stuck behind the traffic.

There is a joke in Singapore.  It goes something like this.  If you need to go to a hospital fast, call a taxi instead.

Early Morning on ECP

Every working day, after dropping Cynthia off at the city center, I take a quiet highway to my office at the east.  Most of the time, it is a pleasant drive.  The traffic is smooth and thanks to the frequent police operations on ECP, most cars do try to keep to the speed limit.  More or less.  Once in a while, I do come across drivers who like to waver, reckless dashing in and out of gaps.  It’s no big deal.  But this morning, I have seen the most aggressive lane wavering from not one, but two cars racing on our highway, in broad daylight.  It was so aggressive that even the F1 stewards would frown.  I feel sad about this of course.  Give our highways some love and respect please!

Early Morning on a Quiet Road Near Expo

This morning, I took my car for a compulsory inspection.  On my way back to my office, at a quiet junction near Expo, I saw a right turning taxi nearly banged onto an incoming motorbike and an incoming taxi.  Lots of honking, of course.  I pity the biker.  It must be quite a scary moment.  Are we the impatience ones?  Or are we lacking the skill to judge the speed of the vehicles?  I think it is a bit of both.

Early Evening on ECP

Massive jam from my office to town.  It must have been an accident.  True enough.  Not just one, but two.  Both incidents were on the fast lane.  The cars involved were badly damaged.  Such a rather quiet highway going against the flow of traffic in this hour, it is hard to imagine accidents to occur.

While most drivers were moving patiently through the near standstill traffic, one white Lexus behind me together with another white car cut from lanes to lanes and finally sped away via the road shoulder.  In places like Malaysia, it is a common scene.  But here in Singapore, it is always unseen of.  Rather shocking, really.  No one drives on the road shoulder.  These youngsters looked like they were friends.  The other day, on the radio, the DJs reported that young drivers contribute more to road accidents in Singapore.  They tend to be more reckless and have this-won’t-happen-to-me attitude.  I sincerely hope that the DJs are wrong.

On a Happier Note

Today is Friday.  Next week I am on leave.  It was a crazy and busy day at work.  But our team had a drinking session at Harry’s (Changi), blessed by our boss who is on an overseas trip.  I left my bag in the bar.  Fortunately, this is Singapore.  My bag was safe and sound, stored away by the staffs awaiting for my return.  I took the opportunity to bring Cynthia to Changi and see where I work.  We had our dinner at Harry’s, watched the squash championship final on TV (I love to play squash), and listened to Class 95 on our way back.  It was “Viva Forever” on radio.  For just a brief moment, Spice Girls brought back good memory, erasing the stress I saw on the road today.