Driving Singapore Style

[agi]

Merlin, very, very amusing.... a witty take on driving in Singapore.

I've visited Singapore every couple of years for the last 20 years or so, and have to say that on my last visit, I thought their driving was improving. Possibly put that down to the fact that now that I drive myself, maybe the bad driving tactics don't scare me as much as they did when I was a kid :

Parking in Australia is expensive; or, at least, I think so....can't say I noticed the price of parking in Singapore, so can't really compare.

[merlin69]

Having lived in the UK and spent lots of time in Paris, Rome, Barcelona, and Europe in general I have to say that while the driving is terrible in cities as compared to villages and small towns, and while European driving is pretty frantic, there is an absence of malice. Here in Singapore, there appears, and I stress the 'appears', to be a sense of malice, of stopping you from going where you want to go, of wanting to be ahead, even though everyone is going their own way...

[jpatokal]

I would have thought that cab drivers would have been the least offenders. I mean, think - the more people that overtake a cab, the longer it takes for the cab to arrive at it's destination, the larger the fee for the passenger.

In Singapore and every other country I know of, taxis are paid by distance traveled, not time taken, unless they get stuck in a jam and the waiting time meter kicks in. So unfortunately it is in the driver's short-term interest to drive like a lunatic, so he can get your to your destination faster and make more money with the next ride.