Yesterday, I just got news from a friend that her friend just got into a motorbike accident, and has since passed away. I don’t exactly know her personally, although after seeing her obituary in the newspaper, I realised that I may have seen her a few times before. She’s still rather young too, with much of her life ahead of her.
It’s very sad to learn that a fellow biker has gone into passing, whether or not one has known the other. I guess it’s not so much of a friendship level, but more of a sense of belonging to the same interest. In this case, the same fondness for motorbikes, or the fact that we both ride motorbikes, be it for the passion or just as an affordable mode of transport.
It’s just very saddening all the same.
Everyone says the same thing, and I feel the same way too. It’s dangerous to ride a motorbike; in Singapore. I’m sure it’s the same case anywhere else in the world, but I guess it’s just more apparent here. The roads are just too crowded with all sorts of vehicles. Everyone is jostling for whatever space they can take. The military is fighting for land for training. The HDB wants to built more flats. Real estate develops are looking for land to build more luxurious condominiums. The industry wants more factory space while the public wants more shopping centres and amenities. The list goes on, but the available land doesn’t. Without land, the amount of roads cannot grow to accomodate the growing number of vehicle owners and users on the road.
The roads keep getting more and more congested. Everyone starts to get heated up, because they are late for work, or are stuck in a jam. Impatience starts to set in. They see a motorbike in front, and being impatient, they try to squeeze their big cars in. After all, the motorbike is so small and yet it’s taking up the entire width of the lane. The car owner feels that it’s unfair, since the motorbike owner pays only a fraction of the road tax he’s paying and yet the rider is taking up the entire lane. The driver tries to squeeze his big car, but misjudges the size and distance …
Sometimes, the drivers are just blind to what’s around them. Perhaps in their eyes, they only see the big stuff – other cars, buses and lorries. They conveniently miss the small but important stuff, the bikes. Sometimes, they are just plain lazy, and don’t bother to look at their blind spot. It always happens. The most popular crime? Too lazy to even bother to signal before a turn, or a lane change. It always happens. It’s as though it costs a hand and a foot just to flip the small stick like lever to activate the signal light. I can understand the lack of signal when there arn’t any other cars on the road, but that doesn’t discount a driver for failing to signal when there are other cars on the road. Like what happened to me yesterday. As I was heading home, I stopped at a T-junction to turn right as there was a taxi approaching. I can probably make it the turn, if I go slightly fast, but I wasn’t in any rush, and it won’t hurt by waiting for a few seconds more. I’m pretty sure that the taxi driver saw me, with my headlight on and right signal flashing. To my dismay, he slowed down and proceeded to make a left. It’s just so stupid! If he had signalled left, I would have seen it, and made the right turn, since he’ll have to slow down eventually, but no. The stupid a$$ driver was too lazy to signal, even when there’s another vehicle right in front of his vision. Unless of course, his field of vision is limited to 1 metre beyond his vehicle’s front bumper. then he shouldn’t be driving in the first place. Maybe I should just give him the benefit of the doubt. It was a Mercedes cab, and he was probably trying to cut costs, but purchasing the vehicle without a signal light. That probably saved him a good thousand dollars.
It can’t possibly get as silly as that. Sigh, the state of the drivers in our country.
