The Singapore Forum

Most days on the TPE there is some sort of nose to tail incident, causing most days a trip of up to an hour which takes me 10 mins to get home.

What sort of moron do you have to be to cause a nose to tail? Are both your eyes in your pockets? I dont mind the Singapore way of driving and most of the time the Kiasuness of it all is pretty amusing BUTyou have to be a complete moron to hit the car infront of you in Singapore. Its not as if cars drive particularly fast here. I'm not talking about a swerve and smash like we see with the motorcyclists but a plain old "run up the arse of the car infront of you'. Quite honestly people who do this should have their licences taken off them, its a daily occurence here which is riduculous as it is the most preventable accident around!!! Arrggghhh

I think there are two major factors in play here -

1 - the Kiasu bit which means that their eyes are looking everywhere but in front to ensure that they are not either missing out on making an extra tem metres or stopping someone else from doing the same.

2 - The reaction speed seems to be crap. Moving off from lights is a prime example of this - light goes green,wait for it, wait for it, git in the car in frnt wakes up, light goes amber, git moves off, light goes red, BFG beats head repeatedly on steering wheel.

F***ING WAKE UP!!!!!

Gits.

I think part of the problem is that everyone drives automatic cars with little engines. When you are sitting a traffic light with your foot on the brake, and the lights change, it takes a while to take your foot off the brake and push the accelerator - this also explains the creep creep creep at the lights. In a manual car you can keep your foot ready on the accelerator and can then press at the same time that you release the clutch

Oh, SoC, you are making a pretty wild assumption that people with manual transmissions can actually drive them properly I mean, you've ridden in the manual transmission taxis here, no?

Not really.. I don't know what the percentages are, but I would hazzard a guess that well over 90% of cars here (ex taxis) are automatic

Nose to tail accidents are caused by one thing and one thing alone. Driving too close to the car in front, so close that you don't have the time to stop when they do.

If you're eyes are in your pockets (?) then drive a bit further back.

If it does take so much time to move your big fat foot from one pedal to the other, drive further back.

If your general reaction speeds are slow, drive further back.

however, all of this driving further back is cancelled by some kiasu bastard who takes the space in front, making you drive further back again.....

As for traffic lights: BFG, the thing in the middle of the steering wheel is what you should be hitting, about 1-2 secs after the light has turned green. they wake up earlier and then you don't do any damamge to your head as you sail thru the lights.

More often than not, when I forced to brake hard to avoid hitting the car in front, it's because I've left a decent gap and a car in either inside or outside lane accelerates fast and jumps into the spot. Then he has to brake hard so he doesn't hit the bastard in front.

Seriously, where are the traffic police in this country. They should subcontract out traffic infringements. You'd make loads of money finind dangerous driving around here.

agree with you Baloo, although maybe not full time enforcement but serious crackdowns,, kind of like check stops.

I of course have seen some driving where they should just simply lose their license had they been caught

i think the cure to that pushing in front of cars is having me drive my Landcruiser with bloody big steel roobar in Singapore for a while... [smilie=gnigni.gif]

I want a Hummer here. And not the new smaller one. That'll cause them to move quick step. They also won't dart in front of you quite so fast either.

Oh to have Gordon the 1983 Land Yacht back again. I never had any problems when I had him!