Walk, Don't Run!

on Friday 4 July 2003
I don't know if this situation occurs to people everywhere or not, but there's seem to be a breed of people who took the phrase "Walk, but Don't Run" to heart when applied to road-crossing. Just this morning, as I was driving, three men were leisurely crossing the lane I was on and coming pretty fast. I had to break before I splatter them all over my windscreen. And here they were, strolling along as if nothing had happened, as if I wasn't even on the road!! It's like it's their right to cross anywhere they want and cars have to avoid them rather than the other way around. Course, if it were pretty ladies then it's a different story (*snicker*). It's like this road-crossing equivalent of TV Smith's KLCC (Kuala Lumpur 'Cycle Club).

And speaking of road problems, we Malaysians appear to be rather famous for our statistics on road accidents. Everyone complains about how fast some drivers go in Malaysia. But nobody seems to complain about how slow some of them goes. It's like, I'm on this lane, you all behind me must follow my pace. And this is on the fast lane. Anyone who've driven on Malaysian roads in urban areas (and who drives at least 60 km/h on average) must have met some drivers who, for some reason, drives from 30 to 50 km/h on the fast lane. Flashing and closing in on them won't even make them notice you. Sigh. I don't mind if drivers want to drive slowly, but please do so on the left lanes, don't hog the fast lanes where people want to go faster. It's actually safer if they drive slowly on the left, so the faster drivers don't have to keep overtaking them on the left. The same applies to highways too. But this time, it's those "law-abiding" idiots who fervently stick to the fast lane driving at the permitted maximum speed. Anyone else speeding has to overtake them on the left, cos those "smart" fellas just won't budge, no matter how much you flash them, making it that much more dangerous in high speeds.