The right attitude on the roads: Try your best to avoid accidents!

Every day when I leave for work, I switch on to one of three of my regular radio station dials and listen to the traffic report. Apart from the usual areas that are hot spots for traffic congestion, there are occasionally a few needless traffic jams that were caused by onlookers and more directly by people who caused accidents on the roads.

Most of these accidents in fact can be avoided and should have been avoided, if only people adopt the right attitude on the roads.

In Malaysia, there is this 'my way / your way' syndrome that is taught by drivers and driving instructors to newbie drivers. Way here is a direct translation of the word in Chinese (all dialects) and BM, as no such word exists in the English dictionary. The closest would be "right of way", which still doesn't ride the idea home.

In essence, if you are on a particular lane, and someone cuts in, that person should not have done so as that is 'your way'. And usually, a driver would show their authority over their 'way' by not giving way. Be a bit lackadaisical in your driving and boom, another accident has occurred in an otherwise 4-lane highway, free of any jams until that bloody moment.

So why don't you stop caring about whose 'way' it was supposed to be and just try to mutually avoid banging into each other? Giving way to a car or two on your daily drive home will only set you back 5 to 10 minutes but at least, you would avoid being a casualty or a statistic in the accident numbers of the day. Plus, giving way would let the traffic flow more smoothly and slow-moving traffic is still better than stagnant traffic.

What? Familiarity breeds contempt? If you let one car pass, all the other cars will follow suit and you will be forever stuck in that junction? I doubt you believe that that will happen in reality. If everyone gave way, once you give way, someone is bound to give way to you to proceed into the lane. Someone just has to start the cycle. I try to start it every day. Personally, I feel that it is working, but that could just be the drugs talking.

I kid.

And as for those who cut queues, why endanger yourself and your passengers by getting in their way? They may be in a hurry due to an emergency, and if they are not, they'd have to face up to summonses by the officers in white or deal with the consequences when they get themselves into an accident while cutting queue.

And if you don't already know, if you get into an accident, you would be fined for reckless driving, regardless if your head is bandaged or not.

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Crud.. I just remembered that the holidays start tomorrow for Hari Raya Aidilfitri (Selamat hari raya, Malaysians!) and today's traffic would be.. horrendous.

Typical traffic jam scene in Malaysia - from theStar