Singapore Expats

That is what I was told at a stop light recently by a local (apparently racist) Singaporean Chinese after I tapped on his window to tell him to use his indicators after he cut me off twice in his triangle car and admitting fault. He also mentioned he was an off duty police officer. Oh really??!

So here are the two topics, I have been here 6 years legally and pay taxes and have recently got in 2 traffic accidents on (motorbike) not by my fault after having none (car or bike) in 20 years, ever! I have driven across the United States twice.

1) Why are these idiots such bad drivers here??

and

2) Does it have anything with the piss attitude which I have felt the past year or two which these people possess?

Any insights or stories like this from anyone?

and do the local Chinese need a lesson in history?

If I didnt have a few good local friends here to keep me level headed this could have got ugly.

Eddie (43)
American / British

Wow, luckily you werent hurt! that's the first and most important thing. The next thing is there is NOTHING you can do about the behaviour of others out there, no matter how irrational, how stupid, how careless, how idiotic, how rude ... etc etc etc And regardless of our abhorrence to such behaviour, these people are still going to act the way they do, they are not going to change because we have a different life view from them. We are in a different country now and there are different rules of play here... use your frustrations on keeping yourself safe and finding happiness in life, don't exhaust the last bit of energy on idiots who will continue to act as idiots no matter how we react (even if we are in the right!)

Take care

sing07 wrote:That is what I was told at a stop light recently by a local (apparently racist) Singaporean Chinese after I tapped on his window to tell him to use his indicators after he cut me off twice in his triangle car and admitting fault. He also mentioned he was an off duty police officer. Oh really??!

So here are the two topics, I have been here 6 years legally and pay taxes and have recently got in 2 traffic accidents on (motorbike) not by my fault after having none (car or bike) in 20 years, ever! I have driven across the United States twice.
1) Why are these idiots such bad drivers here??

I think it is more complicated but to make things short you had just bad luck encountering a true idiot. Typical behaviour is a gecko syndrome - they pretend they are not there. Hardly anybody drives here according to any regulation but selfishness and egoism. A good thing is that local people are seldom aggressive. For the motorbikes I can highly recommend to install HID lights - I did it 3 months ago and the number of cars trying to push me out of my lane/road decreased noticeably. I used the horn maybe twice this week and it used to be like twice a day in peak periods .

Bottomless barrel . . .

sing07 wrote:That is what I was told at a stop light recently by a local (apparently racist) Singaporean Chinese after I tapped on his window to tell him to use his indicators after he cut me off twice in his triangle car and admitting fault. He also mentioned he was an off duty police officer. Oh really??!



So here are the two topics, I have been here 6 years legally and pay taxes and have recently got in 2 traffic accidents on (motorbike) not by my fault after having none (car or bike) in 20 years, ever! I have driven across the United States twice.

1) Why are these idiots such bad drivers here??

and

2) Does it have anything with the piss attitude which I have felt the past year or two which these people possess?

Any insights or stories like this from anyone?

and do the local Chinese need a lesson in history?



If I didnt have a few good local friends here to keep me level headed this could have got ugly.

Eddie (43)
American / British

Vaucluse, can I ask you where do you get all these beautiful "smileys" you use? Could use them to colour my office emails a bit.

sing07 wrote:That is what I was told at a stop light recently by a local (apparently racist) Singaporean Chinese after I tapped on his window to tell him to use his indicators after he cut me off twice in his triangle car and admitting fault. He also mentioned he was an off duty police officer. Oh really??!

Oh believe me, it's very ugly. It got ugly the moment you got out of your car. What were you thinking?! Sure, lots of assholian, bad drivers out there. Beep your horn, curse to yourself, whatever ~ but stay in your car. What a incredibly aggresive thing to do. For God sakes, this is not a 'Chinese' issue, it's a 'bad driving' issue. Here's an

insight

for you. Behave yourself, and stop blaming universal bad behavior a specific ethnic group.

sing07 wrote:That is what I was told at a stop light recently by a local (apparently racist) Singaporean Chinese after I tapped on his window to tell him to use his indicators after he cut me off twice in his triangle car and admitting fault. He also mentioned he was an off duty police officer. Oh really??!

So here are the two topics, I have been here 6 years legally and pay taxes and have recently got in 2 traffic accidents on (motorbike) not by my fault after having none (car or bike) in 20 years, ever! I have driven across the United States twice.

1) Why are these idiots such bad drivers here??

and

2) Does it have anything with the piss attitude which I have felt the past year or two which these people possess?

Any insights or stories like this from anyone?

and do the local Chinese need a lesson in history?

If I didnt have a few good local friends here to keep me level headed this could have got ugly.

Eddie (43)
American / British

Hey! sing07 ~ I take back what I said in my PM to you. Your post does not indicate you were on your motorbike when you confronted the driver who cut you off.

There are nutcases everywhere, when approaching be prepared for the worst, it's almost second nature for violent people out here to carry a weapon! Otherwise they will turn the other way, why they cannot just apologise to defuse the tension i don't know, I tend to apologise even if it's not my fault. Myopia appears to be wide spread.

hmm.. not sure what to say about this.

At least you don't get crazies following you home after you cut them off, and bashing you in your car as you arrive home, like what happened here in Melbourne over the last week due to road rage.

my 2c worth:

a) drive 5km slower than the speed limit - you'll get there just as fast
b) accept the way Singaporeans drive, you'll feel a lot more relaxed.
c) MYOB. You wont achieve anything. They will never admit they were in the wrong if you confront them, so why bother?

Review your traffic rules TS. By getting close enough to touch the vehicle you are already at fault. You should have stayed in your lane and not pass a vehicle in the same or in between lanes.

sing07 wrote:That is what I was told at a stop light recently by a local (apparently racist) Singaporean Chinese after I tapped on his window to tell him to use his indicators after he cut me off twice in his triangle car and admitting fault. He also mentioned he was an off duty police officer. Oh really??!

So here are the two topics, I have been here 6 years legally and pay taxes and have recently got in 2 traffic accidents on (motorbike) not by my fault after having none (car or bike) in 20 years, ever! I have driven across the United States twice.

1) Why are these idiots such bad drivers here??

and

2) Does it have anything with the piss attitude which I have felt the past year or two which these people possess?

Any insights or stories like this from anyone?

and do the local Chinese need a lesson in history?

If I didnt have a few good local friends here to keep me level headed this could have got ugly.

Eddie (43)
American / British

I ride a motorcycle daily here.

a) If you've had a wreck it is your fault no matter whose fault it actually is because you weren't practicing defensive driving. He 'cut you off'. Were you riding in his blind spot? I see a lot of that. SIPDE. Know it.

b) There are bad drivers here but there are bad drivers everywhere. One must learn the patterns. Singapore is a lot safer to ride in then Houston or Dallas, for example.

c) You rap on someone's window, you just don't know what might happen. In Houston, you might get a gun stuck in your face. Now, I have got off my bike and walked to the car behind me, asking him if he wants me to call the traffic police if he won't stop tailgating. I don't expect a nice reaction. What were you expecting? A bouquet of roses?

d) Get a really loud ass horn - works wonders.

Keep the shiny side up!

I'm on a bike, but the pedal variety and have encountered the same lunacy, but I also rode on the streets in Canada and had far more near-death experiences in a given time period.

I consider Sg much safer to ride in: that said there are still plenty of racists and mental-midgets populating the roadways - just like back home.

Totally agree that it is a universal problem. Unfortunately your comment about the Chinese needing a lesson in history is just as nasty as anything that was said to you (IMHO).

Take a quick peer into the mirror my friend and hopefully you can gain the proper perspective. It's never personal, even when it seems so...

Cheers,

Splatted wrote:
At least you don't get crazies following you home after you cut them off, and bashing you in your car as you arrive home, like what happened here in Melbourne over the last week due to road rage.

I've had the same in Melbourne when I was living there. Road Rage in Melbourne is a serious issue. Many Aussie men can't cope with a female looking sideways at them let alone tooting them or mouthing off at them. I've been followed, had my car boxed in etc by angry men on several occasions. It's extremely frightening and women drivers there must learn to accept that any kind of confrontation no matter how small could lead to physical injury. One should not even raise one's eyebrows...seriously!
My elderly mother had her car-keys removed from the ignition and hurled into nearby gardens when she was in her car on a main road, refusing to go around the vehicle in front which was illegaly parked there so that his passenger could race into the shops next to the road. She tooted at him to move and that's what happened to her. In the end she found her keys, drove off and the guy (with passenger) followed her so that she was forced to drive to the local cop shop to deter him. Such drivers get a warning only. Sad place....no proper policing of such hoons....

I can see how you get mad and physical ...the standard of driving here is disgraceful. but a little insight into the attitude nowadays may help. Singaporean drivers have been screwed. Some years ago they bought the story that ERP would maintain congestion free roads. It doesn't. WHile rubbing their hands at the concept of lower COE's and how much money they would save they didn;t put 2 and 2 together and realise that more cars means busier roads and traffic jams all over this lovely island and all the time. So they are frustrated that this place is turning into Bangkok style traffic jams and as an ANg mo you are part of the problem. Being spineless muppets with no "voice" just makes matters worse.
Added to which the Kiasu mentality and the amazing inability to understand that 4 drops of rain do not turn tarmac into ice and you might start to see why they get so wound up.

In my weekly get together with the boys and in one of many heated disscussions on the usual bankers, real estate, locals, driving, women bla bla an intersting concept came up.

So your walking on Orchard road ( for example) and theres a mad guy with a knife, waving his arms about in a really dangerous and threatening manner. He approaches you . Feeling brave you disarm him and knock him clean out of his flip flops in the process. A hero is born. ( it already happened i few years back i seem to recall)
So what if the madman is driving a car and in the process threatening your life or the lives of others. Are you justified in neutralising him??
A car can be weapon, it's mis use most definately life threatening.

As a biker you can make a car drivers life hell. Certainly in city traffic. Whats he going to do?, knock you off. You're a biker! you've fallen off before no doubt As a biker you can easily avoid idiots in cars just presume they are all idiots and you'll ride safer.

If you have to get physical ...make sure there's no witnesses or camera's

Strong Eagle wrote:
d) Get a really loud ass horn - works wonders.

I'd agree with SE . . . From what I see here it is usually motorcycles zipping in and out of lanes . . . you can't have it both ways. You are either part of the traffic stream, which means sitting in the centre of the lane and following the cars in front or you are not . . . in which case you are placing yourself out of the traffic stream.

You think Singapore is bad . .. try Kuala Lumpur.

I meant to ask, Sing07 . . . what history lesson would you like to teach the Chinese?

Now you are not only the guardian of traffic rules and regulations, but also self-appointed morals and history teacher. Nice job.

SE's horn idea is a treat. My wife recently bought a new car and we had a really loud 'FU@K OFF' horn installed. Works a treat.


Oh, in the Pm you sent me . . . why did you ask me if I am gay? Sorry, I'm not, but I could introduce to you to some gay friends I have who might be interested in having history lessons from a big tough man like you . . .