Traffic Woes

Prior to now, I've never driven during times when almost all roads are on mad rush on a daily basis. It's 'puasa' month now, as a result, schools and many employers allow their teachers/students/employees to go home earlier in the evening. So, everyone goes home at the same time.

The rush is crazy! It's everywhere - right within KL city (of course, no doubt), and all over PJ as well. One good example is the area around the few familiar LRT stations. Kelana Jaya station is as usual with its huge crowd, Taman Bahagia is located near a school and the road in front of it has massively congested at around 6 pm. Diverting to Taman Paramount isn't any better because one will still need to bypass either SMK Taman SEA or SS2. SS2 isn't that big, but the volume of cars are again, crazy! Plus the bad attitude of certain inconsiderate drivers, e.g. those who like to occupy yellow boxes or those who want others to occupy yellow boxes so that they can be more in front of the queue... - kiasu, anyone?



A random picture on an average day. This was on a considerably not that bad occasion. See how one-sided is the traffic.

Why am I complaining? Isn't the convenience of a car what I've wanted? The thing is, waiting for public transport (i.e. bus) isn't better than driving. I've taken the bus (and sometimes taxi) for more than 2 years, so I perfectly understand it. The irregularity is dreadful if you urgently need to arrive at your destined places on time.

Back to the roads, it is sad to note that many of our drivers who are otherwise nice and friendly to us, are transformed into monsters once behind the wheels.

Here are some of my observations throughout my 1 year on the local roads... A guy driving with a girl beside normally behaves very well while on the road. Hardly come across such guys honking impatiently or showing rude signs to other road users, no matter how stressful the road conditions are. Maybe... maybe it's .......... I don't know. But not when the car carries couple with heated arguments, or when "marriage is already an eye-opener".

Lady drivers are generally okay in terms of patience. But some are rude in that they like to shift lanes in dangerous manners. Trivia mistakes are not uncommon, so instead of trying to "bully" any female drivers, people should think twice. What if as a result of you forcing your way through, you caused mishap to yourself by causing your victim to crash into you? Some ladies of course are sheer bitchy on the road. Men or women, they're generally the same, actually. Just that the manner differs.

A number of worst-mannered drivers are solo drivers, perhaps due to no necessity to impress anyone in the car. Some are even 'heads of families' carrying a whole bunch of kids as in a family unit. What a good example to your kids by failing to behave like a reasonable road-user. Yes, it's sarcasm here. Dishearteningly, it's hard to believe how some usually kind-hearted uncles turn into demons when they drive.

With such crazy rush, which is contemplated to continue until the end of this month, it's no wonder many folks around me talked about not driving to work. It may possibly be linked to low blood glucose which makes it more challenging to concentrate throughout the entire slow and congested journey home. Driving on the roads of our beloved Malaysia..... the Malaysian driving (note: in general only)! We are in dire need to change our driving attitude.