Driving in Singapore

My blog of life in Singapore would not be complete without a post on the driving situation here. This was undoubtedly the second biggest challenge I faced while trying to adjust to life here (the biggest one was the house and I'm still working on that one). It took me two months to get brave enough to even start driving. First of all, they drive on the left here. This alone would be bad enough, but then you have throw in a few other complications:

• Singapore drivers are extremely aggressive, impatient and inconsiderate. Living in Singapore sums it up well: "If you wish to change lanes, almost invariably the motorist behind you in that lane will go to any length to prevent this from happening." If another car wants in your lane, they will just come over into it and expect you to get out of their way. Merging or taking turns just doesn't happen. If you don't turn quickly enough at an intersection, they will just pass you and expect you not to hit them. And you have to watch for the other drivers who constantly drift from lane to lane without rhyme or reason or consideration for the fact that there might be another car there. In summary, it's pretty much a free for all.
• And then there are the motorcycles. Thousands of foreign workers come over on them from Malaysia and they don't follow any traffic laws whatsoever. There are hordes of them on the highways at rush hours. They drive in between the cars on the expressways and cut in and out of the cars at very high speeds (all while wearing flip flops), not paying any attention to cars changing lanes and oblivious to any risk of being smashed like a bug. And this does happen occasionally and I've heard it's not pretty. So when changing lanes it is imperative that you look out for any motorcycles zinging past because they do not seem to recognize turn signals.
• And to make it more complicated, roads in Singapore constantly change names at intersections, thus making it impossible to navigate with a map. And then in several areas of the city, the roads all have the same name with a number stuck at the end of it. So where we live, in the Woodlands, all of the streets are Woodlands Ave. 1, Woodlands Ave. 2, etc. all the way up into the 40s. This means that I can't remember the names of the roads and if somebody says, "it's on Woodlands 38," I have no idea where it is.
• And one more pet peeve of mine is the tendency for cars and buses to just stop in the middle of the road for any reason with complete disregard for the fact that they are blocking traffic. Taxis love to do this to pick up/drop off passengers. This happens in town as well as on the expressways. My worst driving experience was suddenly driving up on a bus stopped in the middle of the expressway, being unable to change lanes due to heavy traffic, and being stuck behind it in rush hour traffic in the dark for several minutes with traffic whooshing by us on both sides. I would have been there all night had the bus driver not come out and started directing traffic so I could get out. I was just waiting for someone to come hurtling into the back of my minivan and kill my two children!

When I moved to Manhattan, I drove around with the map in the phone book on my steering wheel and generally was able to find where ever I needed to go. Unfortunately, the detailed street map of Singapore is a whole book itself and isn't conducive to driving. My saving grace is "Charlene" (named by Anna), the lady in my GPS who tells me "in 500 meters turn right." I admit to getting frustrated with her when I come to a Y in the road and she says nothing (which seems to happen quite a bit), but if I pick the wrong way (which also happens quite a bit), she says "RECALCULATING" and eventually I get there and it is all because of her. I absolutely cannot imagine trying to navigate this city on the left side of the road without her. She is priceless.

But I would be remiss if I didn't mention that I have also learned that it is all relative. Compared to India and Malaysia, I am told that Singaporean driving is very civilized. In India (where Darrell recently traveled), for example, the roads don't even have lanes painted on them (talk about a free for all), lots of them are unpaved in the city, and then you have to watch out for the wandering cows. So I guess it's really all what you're used to! But then again, I'm not planning on driving in India anytime soon!