Bad Drivers – Bedok South Avenue and East Coast Road

Another Singaporean who thinks he owns the road. Another Singaporean who thinks that no body else but he matters. Now, this guy obviously made a mistake. That’s fine, we all make mistakes. Was at the junction of Bedok South Avenue (near Temasek JC) and East Coast Road. He wanted to go to East Coast Road. There was no room to filter immediately (operative word is immediately – we let him through but his car could not move sideways).

The white car in front of me could not move yet due to on-coming traffic.

The problem is that the champion in the black Toyota thought nothing at all of holding back a whole queue of traffic behind him who incidentally were all in the right of way. He was in the wrong. Easiest thing for him to do was concede a mistake and take the next U-Turn. No… Instead we all had to enjoy Tschaikovsky’s 1812 overture in car honk major… not that it made a difference to Mr. Toyota.

Evidently, his life and his time is more important, far more important than anyone elses’.

I did check to see that he did not have a pregnant wife or anything before I blogged this and as the driver was in front of us, I realised that he was only “rushing” to the POSB to get some money or something. Perhaps he was in a hurry to TT some money to the Nigerian dude whose uncle left a big inheritance…

 

Bad Drivers – NTUC Fairprice Siglap

Enlarge the picture to appreciate. The NTUC Fairprice in Siglap has a limited amount of free parking for to up to 30 minutes for those shopping at NTUC Fairprice there.  As the turnover of parking is fairly high, I decided to wait for a shopper who had parked there to leave. Usually the wait is no more than 5 minutes or so.

Sure enough, within a couple of minutes of waiting, a shopper emerged to load the car and head on out.

But he couldn’t!

Why?

Coz a highly inconsiderate person thinking it was her divine right, parked her car, switched on the hazard lights and disappeared to where, I have no idea! Perhaps her grandfather-in-law owns NTUC Fairprice?

Anyway, needless to say, due to her well placed parking, neither the person who wanted to leave could leave nor I could park on that lot.

What was the driver thinking? That hazard lights make all crime legitimate? So, if you switched on your hazard lights and throttled someone to death in the car, it’ll be ok since the hazard lights were on?

 

Bad Drivers – Siglap Hill

You have to enlarge the picture to see this. I’m behind this SUV on a relatively small road called Siglap Hill turning out into Frankel Avenue. As you can see on the other side a car has just turned into Siglap Hill from Frankel Avenue.

What’s the problem? The car in front of me is stationary. Sure, his or her hazard lights are on…. but what is the person doing? Eating at the coffee shop at the corner of Siglap Hill and Frankel Avenue!

Of course, it does not matter that the vehicle is effectively blocking one whole lane and to make it even more dangerous, it’s at the corner of the streets.

But, of course, since it’s food, we’ll forgive any trespasses….

 

Bad Drivers – Kembangan

This is taken with my mobile phone so the quality is not so good. Hence, let me explain.

This is a little road leading out to Changi Road. In the morning rush hour, Changi Road is pretty crowded. As you can see, from this Road, only left turn is allowed but this guy shot straight across the double white line to get to the other side. What is highly irritating is that in order to commit this illegal act, this driver held my car along with 3 other cars behind me up.

In summary, this illegal driver, waited a good 3 minutes to commit an illegal act while holding a bunch of us traffic law abiding drivers up.

 

Accident

Am on leave today. Lots of friends in town. On my way back from a poh-piah lunch at an ex-colleague’s place, I saw this accident. Well, I didn’t actually see it happen but I saw the result of the accident. I was in my car so couldn’t take more pictures. Don’t know who was at fault but I saw an ambulance pull away… hope nobody was seriously hurt!

Junction of Pasir Panjang Road and Alexandra Road, it was.

 

More Bad Drivers

This was taken along Rail Mall. As you can see from the arrows, I was behind the Volvo moving forward in order to turn right onto the main road. There was another car behind me. The other side, the traffic moves in as shown by the arrow.

So what’s the car with the question mark doing? Trying to beat us three law-abiding, patient drivers by going through the middle thus creating a minor pandemonium in the middle.

Why?

 

Bad Drivers

The IMF meetings are irritating all drivers living in the east. Nicoll Highway is closed and we all have to struggle on the ECP while paying extra ERP charges. The government’s solution? Take public transportation.

I think they forget sometimes that they are civil servants working off our taxpayer’s money. But anyway, that’s another rant.

Anyway, we East Coasters have to struggle on the ECP and of course, obediently we grin smile and bear it as we are the land of a million smiles, are we not?

But this dude you see arrowed on the picture above had other ideas. Risking (our) life and (our) limb he fearlessly ploughed through the shoulder of the ECP with reckless abandon.

 

Rude Drivers

OK, this is a slight variation of bad drivers. If you enlarge the picture, on the right side of the tissue box, you can see the driver giving me his middle finger.

Why? I was trying to filter right, and as a good, law abiding Singaporean, I signalled my intention. Of course, in Singapore, that is the cue to speed up so the intended filterer will not be able to filter. I’m used to that. That’s driving in Singapore. That’s cool. But what he did was slow down after he sped up so I could not filter. Perhaps he had a bad day, didn’t like Indians or maybe he had a rare foot twitch condition whenever he drives by the General Hospital. Who knows?

So, in my poise and grace, I ever so gently flashed him (not even honked – I promise) which he took great offence to. So, I got the middle finger. Of course, being the prolific blogger, I had a camera and when he saw me take a photo of him, for some unknown reason, he got even more livid so more fingers ensued (well, actually more of the same finger) and he was obviously ranting to the dude in the passenger seat.

Poor feller.

 

Bad Drivers – Crossing Double White Line

 

Although I don't post many in this category, it's not for the lack of bad drivers but rather my inability to capture it on film. It's difficult to see a tailgator or a roadhogger or a serial non signaller on film. Even if I took a picture, it does not show the extent of bad driving unless I resort to video.

Side Note: I wonder why I still say film when all my pictures are digital. Need to re-set.

Anyway, this one was waiting to cross a double white line to shoot across the road and as a result, formed a backlog of cars behind him. Sigh. 

 

Bad Riders

I've filed this under the cateogory bad drivers but technically it should be bad riders. This is the overhead bridge that goes over the PIE near Bedok where I regularly exercise. This bridge is used by lots of people including kids. There is a clear sign saying "no cycling" and while I don't agree with all the rules in Singapore, this one I do.

Only a day before, I saw a cyclist, again cycling instead of pushing his bike doing the same and in the process hitting a kid with the handle of the bike. The cyclist got the deserved tongue lashing.

Singaporeans, sometimes ah… not say I want to say….