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In Malaysia it is a norm for drivers to point at each other for their own mistake, or blame it on certain group of people. How many times have you ever heard, “wah.. must be Penang driver”… “tudung driver”… “must be indian driver”… “gila ah beng car coming” etc. At the end of the day, we’re all Malaysian drivers and what make us unique, is our diversified culture not only what we share in our daily life and food, but also on the road.

With many years on the road of Malaysia, the worse ever are motorcycle riders. They don’t just disregard of their own safety, but also the safety of other road users. They love to beat the traffic light and if a car missed, the rider felt like a hero dodging from danger in the nick of time. How often you see motorcyclist swinging left and right in the middle of road, and when you zoom pass them making sure you don’t hit them, they give you the Universal Sign. Its not all bad, some are really considerate, and some have no choice due to the road condition, but many just ignore the usage of signal and looking around their surrounding, and hoping other vehicle on the road will look after them. Overall, they are just menace on the road, with many zooming more dangerously then any car driver that is high.

Bus and lorry, well they are another crazy lot of people, just squeezing in your lane without thinking twice. What in the world made the government think that BIG LONG buses is the solution to urban traffic congestion? If you drive along the city road without riders escorting you, one can easy pinpoint the cause of the jam. Big buses that is blocking not only one lane of the city road, but two lanes, then left the other inconsiderate cars that want to stop by the shoulder of the street to do some shopping, banking, etc. The mini bus was actually a very good mode of transportation, the problem with the mini was the attitude of the bus drivers. Well, even now the huge buses have the mini’s spirit. Like in many euro countries even in HK, they uses van, smaller buses, and tram to actually reduce the traffic. Guess by doing so, someone in the government can’t get extra pocket money

Cars.. well what can I say, most of the car drivers are idiots. I don’t blame the drivers directly, but the education they had from instructors and their own character. They are always big debate on who is the better driver, male or female. Overall, female are the worse driver and male are a better driver. Not being sexists, (after kena like the two xxxxxx MPs) there is a reason to it. Reaction to situation and car control has always been better for a male brain to operate, maybe male brain is more primitive and don’t really think and evaluate a situation for a long time to actually react. Not saying that female drivers are bad, hack some are even better than many male drivers, my mummy for example hehee.

I’ve seen many female drivers, turn the car without sign, without even looking. Once I say a lady, trying to turn into the busy junction in pudu, with many effort she could bring herself to turn into the lane, thanks to the city folks in KL for their kind attitude. She eventually turn into the right lane successfully with her eyes close and fist clinching on the steering wheel tightly. Ahhhh, so this is how you drive in KL.
Male drivers, some are just as bad and some are even worse. I don’t think they have balls to drive a car, even a small kelisa.

I guess I blame road education on the attitude and way vehicles are being driven in this country. In Italy, when a commercial vehicle is on the highway, they could not use the middle or the fast lane to overtake a slower vehicle in front of them, even there are no vehicles around. Those drivers found in violation, their licence is being revoke instantly. The many things Malaysian drivers do:

1) When turning into junction, like to swing out then swing into the corner (so dangerous for the cars that is moving forward)
2) Turning without signaling (yeah it’ll drain all the power in your car, duhh)
3) Try to beat traffic lights, go the opposite way, use emergency lane and all time favourites of Malaysians… cutting que
4) Hog the road, knowing they are going slow, and yet want to take the fast lane
5) Love to take the middle lane, even though going slower than the cars on the slow lane (guess they don’t understand what is the slow lane use for, maybe the instructor told them to do so)
6) Parking in anywhere easy for them, and don’t care for other car users, and also love to fight for parking space when other car has been waiting with signal for a long time.

There are so many more that I believe everyone have their own encounter, and before I end this blog.. the most awaited finding, which state in Malaysia need to becareful when driving? A lot of people will tell you Penang, well to your surprise folks, wrong… Johor? Wrong as well. The answer is Melaka. Sure Penang Island drivers and motorcyclist are renowned to be dangerous on the road, don’t care for other people on the road than themselves. What to do, they are like Singaporean drivers, small place to drive mah. Had this encounter that I was coming back to KL from Penang, a SUV, Peugot on the right lane (which was suppose for turning right only) squeezed into me and I had to brake hard for him to enter infront of me. Then suddenly, he was driving slowly, so I overtook him from the left and then turn back to the right as the left was slowing down, and infront of the SUV had a huge gap.. that SUV honk me!! WTF? Why would you honk me and suddenly drive dangerously close and fast behind me?? Damn kiasu… actually I don’t mine the motorcyclst, cause I know when I run into them they still have many more around.

Johore are all speed demon, just hantam (full throttle) only, maybe due to the small roads they have or very long straight road they have there. BUT MELAKA, ahhh they are the new breed of drivers in Malaysia. We went for our monthly outstation convoy, in Melaka town it was obvious that we were having a convoy having a nice time in our historical state. The cars there just love to swing into your lane without signal, without warning, without mercy. We nearly had a few near misses, and when honk, they just go as they own the road. So is this a new trend or just the attitude of Malaysian drivers, oh well, we shall see in a couple of years time

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 19th, 2007 at 2:27 pm and is filed under Driving Experience. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.