Post Hike Driving

It has been a week since the petrol price hike announcement. Actually, a little more than an entire week has passed. So is everybody adjusting? Trying to? A little?

People in general are actually making changes; some making big ones like fixing a new tank to go natural, or some making small ones, say in driving habits, for example. It is not just my imagination, as confirmed by colleagues and my sons, that the degree of politeness among KL drivers, and i am one, has risen tremendously since that fateful Wednesday.

Take for example my daily drive to work.

Just like any other self-respecting driver, I would be pressing on the accelerator the moment i hit the main road, braking at the very last minute, even though i am going down a fairly steep hill, just as the light is turning red at the Beringin-Setiamurni junction...yup, i too have asked the questions: what? amber? when? Amber is a colour?

Nowadays, though, i join other well-advised drivers and start to brake from as far away as possible. But this particular junction is busy as always, except that now it remains safe and accident-free even with the merah-hijau-kuning going caput... at least i think that's the main reason why they have not repaired it for so long, but there lies another tale!

Anyway, as i proceed further down where the road gets wider, where i used to have to slam on the brakes again to avoid running into people who think you can read their minds, i now actually see them flashing their signal lights way before they turn into the SC!

Moving further down the road, i would still find some drivers who cannot get rid of their queue-cutting habit, especially coming down the highway exit in front of the Science Center, where logically there should not be any queue since the road goes from one into three lanes within a distance of five meters, but really, these days, the number of such drivers has noticeably reduced. Surprisingly, logic is starting to prevail.

But the miracle of the new era of politeness is to be found under the bridge where one must turn right unless one is an equestrian or is a fan of those concerts by well known and not so well known foreign artistes. Where it has always been a case of "go first if you dare!", it is now obvious that people can at last tell the difference between right and left, and therefore, who has the right of way.

Driving further, the pedal-to-floor moment would come as soon as i clear the slip road and make it to the highway. I used to refer to it as the freeway because it is the only patch of highway that i can get in and out of without paying troll ...oops toll (pinjam kejap ya, Cak and Cak's friend who i also want to be friends with), but no longer. Current prices being what they are, even the word free should be banished from our Perbendaharaan Kata!

Still, there are no more pedal-to-floor moments, for me and apparently for other well-advised drivers too. We politely let others on our right go first, then, signal lights having been flashing for some time without being honked at by the driver of the car behind, make our way out of the slip road....yes, really, believe it or not!

Then, at the junction with the road that leads to either Mont Kiara or the other highway, no longer is there a two lane queue affecting people not making the turn, except for those humongous trucks who just cannot wait in line like everybody else. But that is exactly the point here. They will not be persuaded into politeness because they are not paying for the diesel that they guzzle. Anyway, let us hope that at least their towkays have become more polite, which i believe they have, if they are also driving on the roads that i have been observing.

Then of course, there is the interchange where i exit my not so free way to join the crowd that has just exited the NKVE at Duta (not the singer). Before that fateful Wednesday, this is the place where a mini grid lock would form for no apparent reason, or for as flimsy a reason as a biker stopping on the triangle to adjust his helmet. This is the place where complete strangers exchange the most negative gestures and salutes, but no longer.

Here, one has to slow down because it is the right time to gently apply the brakes as advised, since the curve is pretty sharp and what lies beyond is invisible. Then down the slope, where people have to decide whether they are going right or left, i can almost hear the one going from left to right ever so politely saying "you go first laaa..." to the one going from right to left, and the latter even more politely saying " you go first also caaan..." to the former! yes, really, even men drivers have become polite nowadays, but let's not go there now!

From this point on, it would be plain sailing to the office. I would no longer expect some young men in their gentuus and maivees cutting in right in front of me from the next lane, or some older drivers flashing their left signal lights but going right instead... and even if there is still the occasional queue-cutter, those humongous trucks excluded, i can generously say the car is not from these parts, or less generously say, as it would be obvious, that it is after all an SUV from south of the border.

May be later today i'll get my partner in crime to go for a drive just to show her i pun dah insaf, and that she no longer has to press on her imaginary brake pedal or check her blood pressure after our outing.

It truly is nice to have so many more polite and considerate drivers on the road these days, but rather sad that it takes a 40% hike to make us think of others. But hey, what others? it's our own pockets we are really thinking of, and that’s no sin!

Y'all drive slow now, y'hear?! And get there safe.