The Malaysian Insider

One simple question: WHERE ARE THE TRAFFIC COPS?

The name of the game is corruption. They can conjure up the most expensive road safety and awareness campaigns and it will come to naught!

It's a two way street; when they are no givers, eventually there will be no takers.

ROAD-HOGGERS are the worst in Malaysia, especially on the Highways and expressways, one can easily see the left lane is always has less vehicles/traffic than the right lanes. It seems that we Malaysians, almost all are fast drivers ??? It is unknown whether the "road-hogging traffic offense" is make known to all drivers ?

The main reason for tailgating most of the time is the diver behind wants to overtake. Malaysian drivers have a habit of not keeping to the left lanes all the time. Keep left and stay on the correct lane will reduce tailgating.

Aiyaaa!! Want to know about annoying road habits in Malaysia pun must do a poll ka? What has the Transport Ministers been doing all these 52 years? Sleeping and makan gaji buta ka? If you ask my 12 yo son pun he can tell you what's wrong with Malaysian road.... Let me give you some point to consider.

1) No minister is interested in solving the problem. They are more interested in how to fleece the rakyat!
2) The minister is busy trying to solve his own problem than to think about the rakyat's well being!
3) The roadbuilders should focus more on maintenance, safety and upgrading the road than bothering themselves on how people drive.
Give me half of what Tiong King Sing gave OTK and I'll do a much better job than the minister of transport.....

How about those pesky roadhogs blocking the fast lane that is meant for overtaking and not holding back others in a long queue at the back? Their stupid reason is that they are already driving at the speed limit. How on earth did they pass their road test in the first place? Another irritant is allowing backhoe tractors to drive at their maximum speed of 40kph on the 80-110kph highways and at peak rush hour.

I've driven in US, Australia and New Zealand, and guess what? Apart from all the nice things about how considerate and civic-minded drivers in these countries are, I can tell you that they're more than that. They, for one, don't blare their horns at you the way people here do, and get this - absolutely no horns even when you are taking a long time to decide which way to turn at a junction. They just wait patiently by until you're done, and then they just move along - no lewd finger signs, no foul language, not even a stare but a knowing smile that you were in some sort of trouble deciding which way to go. Now think about what would happen to you in a similar situation here. Good luck!

"Road hoggers (keep to the left lane please) "
the most annoy thing that experienced when travelled on PLUS is road hogging, you always found the slow drivers drove at thier leisure speed in the middle lane instead of inner lane, appeal to PLUS to erect more "Jika tidak memotong sila ikut kiri" signboard, may be also design picture for those can't read.

To the 11.2% who felt that tailgating is annoying..

Please wake up you ugly Malaysians and stop blaming others because you are indeed the most annoying of the lot...

Just think of how inconsiderate you are when you are driving like a Sunday driver on the fast lane (as if your grandfather actually owns the road), blocking other drivers and slowing down the whole traffic, causing unnecessary traffic jams and even accidents....

10-15% of drivers should not be on the road. They are not those so calledf reckless drivers but those ever so careful ones who actually should not be put on the road yet.

They are those who need 2 feet of space on both side before they can pass.

There are also those who at traffic junction, go forward after the light has turned red blocking traffic from moving. This include commercial bus drivers.

Then there are those going on the left cutting out to the right hoping to cut in again to the left but get caught and block traffic on the right.

All the above are assholes who should not be allowed to drive.

The traffic guide by Lite FM is of little use unless drivers are guided n taught to follow proper driving rules. Here heavy traffic, there heavy traffic, what the heck? It is almost always caused by bad drivers.

Be a good and consciencious driver and the problem of tailgating will not happen and there will be less and unnecessary traffic congestion.

The KLCC and Ampang Park Traffic junctions and the Tun Razak, Semarak and Raja Muda junction area are the worse in K.L. What business has the Sultan Ismail and Tun Razak bypass? It is the idiotic idea of DBKL causing daily congestion in the Tun Razak end.

I have to agree with the top annoyances. I can't remember how many near accidents with morons who don't bother using their indicators. And those moronic drivers who I could swear their cars are just inches away from an accident by tailgating, why don't they be a little patient and allow the drivers to move away instead? I'm most pissed with tailgaters because one of them caused a car accident with me.

Dear illuminati,

Good question. ...... WHERE ARE THE TRAFFIC COPS? ......

But did you ever asked yourself where did the problem emerged in the first place. Speeding and crime are all the PDRM to blame. How can we solve all the issues then?

Speeding and tailgating are individuals behaviours like you and me. If we put all the resources on the roads, then how then are our PDRM do their main job in maintaining Law and Order. I saw a high percentage of PXX doing 150 km/hour on E1 and E2. My stereotype is that all the Penang drivers are gangsters just like you say all the PDRM failed in crime prevention. This is far from the truth.

How do we have the so-called high crime rate? This is the product of the Malaysian society. The parents do not care for their children. Maybe the schools were lax. The media failed us. The web cannot be controlled even with filter. The TV are rife with distortions and sensationalism.

Let's us solve crime and tailgating in the best possible way. The parents, you and me must teach the young people and guide them. This is the best way forward. Then the PDRM can concentrate on fighting more important issues like fraud, corruption and terrorism.

I feel sorry for a Chinese woman whose 20 years old son was killed by PDRM in an armed robbery. I feel sorry for a woman who mourned he Mat Rempit son who was killed in an accident. Actually, it is always deeper than sorry. I always hope that such a thing will never happened. If you are the type who always blame the others, then your children could be drug addicts, armed criminals, road rage criminals, Mat Rempits, snatch thieves, ... So the problem is never the PDRM. It is the society at large. The inconsiderate people are the culprits. Think about it and see what you can do here.

Funny that the tail-gaters and road-hoggers are probably each others' greatest annoyances.

It's all about context - if you're in a busy stretch of highway with loads of exit ramps, it's better to keep at the correct lanes rather than weaving left and right. Let's say it's a three lane highway, lanes 1 & 2 (from the left) are marked "Damansara Jaya(DJ)" while lane three is marked "KL" - even though the actual DJ exit isn't for another 1km, everybody should stay in this configuration so that - by the time you actually reach the exit - everybody who wants to go to DJ is already in the correct lane and doesn't have to cut across three lanes. Likewise, anyone who wants to go to KL won't be blocking people who are trying to exit into DJ.

This is common sense, yet impatient drivers will always bring out the "right-lane-for-overtaking-only" card and use that as an excuse to tail-gate someone on the right lane. For safety, the "road hog" - who might actually be headed to KL rather than the DJ exit, will move off to the left while the idiot tailgater is probably going to cut across three lanes at the last minute to get into DJ, causing everyone in the left lanes to slow down.

IN any case, if you need to tailgate somebody in an intra-city highway and drive as fast as you can, you'll probably save about 30 seconds of your journey in most cases, and the slower drivers will most probably end up right behind you at the next traffic light.

The only time I'd consider someone a road hog is if he's driving excessively slow on the right lane - let's say, 40km/h on a 70km/h speed zone, because you ARE slowing people down. And that's probably why the stick-to-the-correct-lane rule won't work in Malaysia, because some people seem to be only capable of driving at 40km/h.

Having said that, remember that this is all in context. If the roads are fairly empty, then by all means, keep left unless overtaking; it would only be polite and you probably won't cause a jam if you're not in the correct lane to go straight to KL.

But when a dude is driving on the right lane at the speed limit during rush hour, and then some idiot in a German car tailgates him, that's just stupid. Context is something which a lot of us Malaysian drivers just can't see...

It's not uncommon for one to develop road rage during the rush hour, and it's not hard to see why. Almost 20% of Malaysians I observe on the road have poor judgment, or are just plain ignorant and selfish road hoggers deprived of common sense. A road hogger is defined as:
*Someone who stops about 1 bloody car's length from the vehicle in front of him at traffic lights
*Insists to drive in the middle lane as long as he's following speed limit, even though vehicles are zooming by on his left on a highway that is clear of traffic
*Creeping at his own pace and keeping about three car's distance from the car in front of him in the middle/fast lane during rush hour
*Stops directly in the middle of the lane at junctions, blocking the flow of traffic who might be able to squeeze by to turn into the other entry of the junction. Or what's worse stopping directly in the middle of the lane AND three feet away from the vehicle in front of him and refuses to budge when a gentle horn is sound at him
And how do you educate a road hogger as common sense is something that just can't be taught?

Drivers not allowing overtaking tops my list of annoying Malaysian habit and I am surprised it is not listed at all.

I have only one thing to say, Malaysian drivers are almost all inconsiderate. If you use your indicator to make a left or right turn, the car at the back will surely accelerate to make it impossible for you to go in. And what happen when the traffic lights not functioning, all hell break loose, everyone will try to have a go at the same time, unlike in USA, I find it so easy to drive eventho when the traffic light not working, everybody will use the right of way, yield, that is everybody will take turn to go, depending who has the right of way, I doubt if we can ever have the courtesy to do it the right way here. So even if we have super hiway byway, our attitude remains the same, no courtesy when using the road. Semua kepala batu and besar kepala.

the lack of common courtesy among malaysian drivers is the main cause of annoyance for me. many rude people on the road. no signals, cutting queues, and beating the traffic lights is one thing but hogging the freakin' yellow box in the middle of peak hour just takes the cake - it causes major traffic jams as no one wants to give way.

most of the time i'm a patient guy. but it's hard to be on the malaysian streets. incompetence i can tolerate to some degree, but rude and kiasu drivers annoy me till no end.