Passenger Seat Belts

It just doesn’t make sense to me why all the express buses are not equipped with seat belts for all passengers.

I, for one, would feel safer if the passanger seats are equipped with seat belts. I would put it on if it was available. I am sure many other passengers feel the same. As I am typing this blog on my Galaxy SII, I am sitting at the back most seat of the express bus. It really does feel like a real roller coaster. At least the roller coaster has the similar-to-seat-belt safety device.

I used to take the Plusliner buses between UTP and KL on Fridays and Sundays. But since the ETS train services began more than a year ago, I have stopped taking the bus because of the convenience of the electric training service. In addition to having more time to read and do useful things while in the train, I also get to meet people. For example I met several UTP colleagues in the train who I wouldn’t have met otherwise.

Anyway, since I started my attachment at a company in Penang, I have started taking the bus again. When I started in Penang, I started with taking the Airasia flights, but since I always decide last minute to buy the ticket, I end up spending about RM300 every weekend. With the express bus, I can buy the ticket on the spot. There are several buses running between Penang and KL every hour. It costs only about RM100 including cab fare or car park fee.

The problem with buses is that they drive very fast. Regardless which bus company I take, the situation is the same. In some instances, I felt like the bus was traveling well above 120 kph, hurtling through the busy highway. Going downhill after the tunnel just before Jelapang was extremely heart pounding. I’m not saying that I don’t drive fast, but a car is easier to maneuver and stop when the situation requires.

It’s difficult to tell bus companies to make their drivers drive slower following their highway-limit of 90kph. The police who enforce the traffic rules also don’t seem to bother. All buses in the country drive well above 100kph on the highway. I know because I drive on the highway between UTP and KL or Penang.

So at least if I have a seat belt to hold me to the seat in case of a minor accident, at the very least I will not be thrown out of the windows like what you have seen so many times happening on Malaysian roads. Many passengers lose their lives when the bus loses control. It would have been much less fatal if the passenger seat belts were made available and enforced, just like the passenger seat belts on cars. I hope most of you would agree.

That’s my 6 cents (sixth sense, get it!).
P/s: My first blog posted on mobile phone and while in a bus.

Me, me, me and only me

I have met all sorts of drivers doing all sorts of things that are neither in the official driver’s guide of Malaysia nor in the right brain of a considerate and selfless man.

Malaysians are easily swayed by the surrounding. Tun Mahathir said it. “Melayu mudah lupa” (Malays forget easily). I am saying, Melayu mudah terpengaruh, lalu lupa asal usul (Malays easily swayed, thus forgetting their roots).

Have you noticed the following?

1. When Malays speak in Malay language to Chinese (Malaysians), they use the word “gua” and “lu” instead of “saya” or “awak”. The whole tone of their Malay language adapt to the Chinese way of speaking Malay.
2. When Malays speak to Indians (Malaysians), their Malay language becomes Indian Malay, with slightly longer pronunciation of vowels. I can swear that their heads wobble a bit. “Mamak, rootti telur satu!”
3. When Malays speak to Indonesians, they speak Malaydonesian language. The language does not exist, but Malay folks go to that extreme to make their counterpart not feel awkward. I, too, when speaking to Indonesians automatically adjust my language to Malaydonesian. I can’t help it. It’s in my gene.

If you are not a Malay, then yes…fyi, that’s what we do. Accommodating others…we do it so often that it now becomes part of our self-instinct.

That’s what I call Malay hospitality. Or as the national airlines call it, MH is for Malaysian Hospitality. We give, and give and keep giving. There is no sign of abating.

From another perspective, you can say that we do not stand on our own two feet. We need other people to approve of what we are doing. Depends on how you see it.

If some other people still think that Malays are selfish, then I guess the only thing that we have left to do is to give our whole country away and live as foreigners in our own motherland. On that day, what we have given we will never get back.

No other people in the world are as accommodating as the Malays.

We Malays are easily affected by what goes on in our surrounding. Our accommodating attitudes are even affecting our other 1Malaysian brothers, Chinese and Indians. On the road, we follow the crowd, not the traffic laws.

Many don’t know what is right and what is wrong when it comes to driving. So we follow. It is so much ingrained in our culture that we instinctively believe that what the other guy does is the right one. So we follow.

We park on the roadside with yellow lines because there are many cars parked there.

We can stop anywhere on the road as long as we stay in the car. If the enforcement officer arrives on scene, we just drive away. We never think about the fact that the traffic congestion in the area is our doing. We are the cause of it. It’s always the other guy’s fault.

We park as close as possible to the entrance of a mosque or a museum or any public building, regardless whether or not the place is a designated parking bay. Typically the parking area is merely 10 meters away.

I would like to see cars parked right inside the mosque behind imam. Drive-in mosque? Drive-through museum? That’s an idea that might work very well in Malaysia.

We Malaysians are so very lazy to use our feet to walk even 20-30 meters. We would rather drive our car.

In the rain you will see many cars seemingly in trouble. That’s what the emergency lights (double blinking lights) are indicating, right? Wrong! Not on Malaysian roads. People turn on just any lights on their car at any time they please. Except when they are needed.

The emergency lights are for informing others to pay special attention to your vehicle (when it’s having problems).

We Malaysians use them to our individual advantage to make sure other drivers can see us in the rain, so that we don’t get hit from behind. It makes sense, but that’s not what it is designed for. It just creates more confusion to other drivers. We become very selfish individuals when we are behind the wheels…driving. We turn into a completely different person.

That’s not the end of it. Other drivers who know no better follow suit. Unfortunately, even when many people are doing something that is wrong, it does not make it right.

Headlights? This is the time when Malaysian drivers decide to be frugal of their battery utilization. Many do not turn on the lights even when visibility is very low. As long as they can see the road. My eyes are perfect. I don’t need the headlights.

Many do not think that maybe some other drivers cannot see them in that low-lighting condition. That’s the reason the motorcycle headlights are required to be kept on all the time. Remember why the regulation was revised? To make sure they are visible by other drivers.

Many Malaysian drivers perceive traffic rules as what seems to make sense to them, completely forgetting that rules are there so as to keep the general public safe and to optimize the whole traffic flow for all road users.

A few drivers hog the right lane as if it’s his grandfather’s private property. Driving at 110 kph might seem fast. But on a 110 kph highway, please stay on the left lane unless you are overtaking.

A few others merge into a road right in front of you as you are driving at 90kph. They just keep driving at 40 or 50kph and don’t even bother to speed up.

On a motorcycle, some parents feel the need to protect their head from injury by putting on the helmet. Very good citizen. But, they don’t make their young children riding pillion at the back put their helmet. We Malaysians are so selfish even when dealing with their own flesh and blood.

Now those are a lot of things that we are not making sense.

Don’t get me started on the left-lane culture. The right-most lane is designed for those going faster than the rest. It’s meant as a passing lane. This is true when there is hardly any car on the road.

When the number of cars starts to increase, the left lane becomes the fast lane.

When the left lane is starting to become congested, a new lane starts to appear…to the left of the left lane. Typically on the emergency lane.

In my opinion, the concept of emergency lane does not work in Malaysia because of the left-lane culture.

The emergency vehicles do not need to use the left lane when there is hardly any car on the road. They will need to use the emergency lane when the normal road lanes are congested. However, this is the time the left-lane culture congests the emergency lane, preventing the emergency lane from being used by the real user of the left lane.

The problem is that we do not think of others. We just want that guy in our shoes to get where he’s going fastest possible.

 

Me, me, me and only me

 

I have met all sorts of drivers doing all sorts of things that are neither in the official driver’s guide of Malaysia nor in the right brain of a considerate and selfless man.

 

Malaysians are easily swayed by the surrounding. Tun Mahathir said it. “Melayu mudah lupa” (Malays forget easily). I am saying, Melayu mudah terpengaruh, lalu lupa asal usul (Malays easily swayed, thus forgetting their roots).

 

Have you noticed the following?

1. When Malays speak in Malay language to Chinese (Malaysians), they use the word “gua” and “lu” instead of “saya” or “awak”. The whole tone of their Malay language adapt to the Chinese way of speaking Malay.

2. When Malays speak to Indians (Malaysians), their Malay language becomes Indian Malay, with slightly longer pronunciation of vowels. I can swear that their heads wobble a bit. “Mamak, rootti telur satu!”

3. When Malays speak to Indonesians, they speak Malaydonesian language. The language does not exist, but Malay folks go to that extreme to make their counterpart not feel awkward. I, too, when speaking to Indonesians automatically adjust my language to Malaydonesian. I can’t help it. It’s in my gene.

 

If you are not a Malay, then yes…fyi, that’s what we do. Accommodating others…we do it so often that it now becomes part of our self instinct.

 

That’s what I call Malay hospitality. Or as the national airlines call it, MH is for Malaysian Hospitality. We give, and give and keep giving. There is no sign of abating.

 

From another perspective, you can say that we do not stand on our own two feet. We need other people to approve of what we are doing. Depends on how you see it.

 

If some other people still think that Malays are selfish, then I guess the only thing that we have left to do is to give our whole country away and live as foreigners in our own motherland. On that day, what we have given we will never get back.

 

No other people in the world are as accommodating as the Malays.

 

We Malays are easily affected by what goes on in our surrounding. Our accommodating attitudes are even affecting our other 1Malaysian brothers, Chinese and Indians. On the road, we follow the crowd, not the traffic laws.

 

Many don’t know what is right and what is wrong when it comes to driving. So we follow. It is so much ingrained in our culture that we instinctively believe that what the other guy does is the right one. So we follow.

 

We park on the roadside with yellow lines because there are many cars parked there.

 

We can stop anywhere on the road as long as we stay in the car. If the enforcement officer arrives on scene, we just drive away. We never think about the fact that the traffic congestion in the area is our doing. We are the cause of it. It’s always the other guy’s fault.

 

We park as close as possible to the entrance of a mosque or a museum or any public building, regardless whether or not the place is a designated parking bay. Typically the parking area is merely 10 meters away.

 

I would like to see cars parked right inside the mosque behind imam. Drive-in mosque? Drive-through museum? That’s an idea that might work very well in Malaysia.

 

We Malaysians are so very lazy to use our feet to walk even 20-30 meters. We would rather drive our car.

 

In the rain you will see many cars seemingly in trouble. That’s what the emergency lights (double blinking lights) are indicating, right? Wrong! Not on Malaysian roads. People turn on just any lights on their car at any time they please. Except when they are needed.

 

The emergency lights are for informing others to pay special attention to your vehicle (when it’s having problems).

 

We Malaysians use them to our individual advantage to make sure other drivers can see us in the rain, so that we don’t get hit from behind. It makes sense, but that’s not what it is designed for. It just creates more confusion to other drivers. We become very selfish individuals when we are behind the wheels…driving. We turn into complete different people.

 

That’s not the end of it. Other drivers who know no better follow suits. Unfortunately, even when many people are doing something that is wrong, it does not make it right.

 

Headlights? This is the time when Malaysian drivers decide to be frugal of their battery utilization. Many do not turn on the lights even when visibility is very low. As long as they can see the road.

 

Many do not think that maybe some other drivers cannot see them in that lighting condition. That’s the reason the motorcycle headlights are required to be kept on all the time. Remember? To make sure they are visible by other drivers.

 

Many Malaysian drivers perceive traffic rules as what seems to make sense to them, completely forgetting that rules are there so as to keep the general public safe and optimize the whole traffic flow for all road users.

 

A few drivers hog the right lane as if it’s his grandfather’s private property. Driving at 110 kph might seem fast. But on a 110 kph highway, please stay on the left lane unless you are overtaking.

 

A few others merge into a road right in front of you as you are driving 90kph. They just keep driving at 60kph and don’t even bother to speed up.

 

On a motorcycle, some parents feel the need to protect their head from injury by putting on the helmet, without putting on the helmet for their young children riding pillion at the back. Selfish even with their own flesh and blood.

 

Now those are a lot of things that we are not making sense.

 

Don’t get me started on the left-lane culture. The right-most lane is designed for those going faster than the rest. It’s meant as a passing lane. This is true when there is hardly any car on the road.

 

When the number of cars starts to increase, the left lane becomes the fast lane.

 

When the left lane is starting to become congested, a new lane starts to appear…to the left of the left lane. Typically on the emergency lane.

 

In my opinion, the concept of emergency lane does not work in Malaysia because of the left-lane culture.

 

The emergency vehicles do not need to use the left lane when there is hardly any car on the road. They will need to use the emergency lane when the normal road lanes are congested. However, this is the time the left-lane culture congests the emergency lane, preventing the emergency lane from being used by the real user of the left lane.

 

The problem is that we do not think of others. We just want that guy in our shoes to get where he’s going fastest possible.

The new electric train for KL-Ipoh line

Every week I commute between Kuala Lumpur (KL) and Tronoh for work. My family is in KL, but because of work, I travel every Friday evening and either Sunday evening or early Monday morning, straight to work. Typical journey time: 2.5 hours.

I normally drive, but sometimes I take the public transport. Sometimes I take the express buses, but normally I would take the transit train between KL sentral and Batu Gajah, which is about 15 km from my office.

Intercity train transportation used to be not an option, but since the double-tracking project to upgrade the train line in the west coast of peninsular Malaysia completed (at least between KL and Ipoh anyway), train travel is very much better than it was before.

Thanks to Tun Dr Mahathir for envisioning it. The project itself costs a bom but I think it’s worth every cent.

Since last week I was considering to take leave on Friday this week. I don’t know why, but I felt like spending “puasa” with my family in KL a bit earlier. On the Sunday evening the week before, I went to Batu Gajah to buy some dates (kurma) for my sister-in-law who is currently studying in Korea, so I went to BG train station to check out the tickets. Her colleague just happened to visit her in Korea the following week.

Unfortunately, the ticket counter was closed. It only opens at 8:00 am until 6:00 pm Monday through Friday. It’s not open on weekends.

Well, fine. I wish the public transport in Malaysia were like that in Japan, but hey it’s much better today than a few years ago before I went to Japan for my PhD. Btw, that’s how I got to know a thing or two about “efficient public transportation”, while I was residing in Nara for 3.5 years.

So, on Monday afternoon this week, I decided to call KTM (the train company) phone booking center and made a booking for the train on Thursday evening and return to BG on Sunday evening. The operator informed me that the ticket must be collected by Thursday afternoon; a few hours before the scheduled train.

I used to buy train tickets through the onllne portal offered by KTM. It was not extremely efficient, but the website was convenient. I can just print the purchased tickets, without having to drive over 30km for the return trip between Tronoh and BG train station.

Even with my 12km/liter rather-fuel-efficient Honda accord which I brought back from Japan using student AP, that easily would cost me about RM1.85 /liter x (30 km / 12 km/liter) = RM4.60. Driving to the station is just not worth it. That’s why I always purchased online.

Unfortunately, currently KTM decided to upgrade their web portal so the online ticket is not available at least until the middle of September according to the website.

I just don’t understand why they have to close the online portal while doing the development. No other company in the world does that.

They should develop the new portal on a different platform while keeping the existing portal online. Only when the new portal completes then the migration should take place. That’s common sense.

It should not take more than a few hours to do the migration. Any IT guy should know that. I guess KTM is in the business of trains…not web portal. J That’s why they are taking more than a month to work on the upgrade, while I have to spend RM4.60 per trip to buy the ticket at the counter. It makes me wonder. This does not make sense. Only this part of this whole electric train story.

So, I had no choice but to drive again to the BG train station to collect the tickets that I had booked over the phone. During the lunch time today, I decided to drive from office to BG train station to get the ticket.

There were two ticket counters. Used to be just one counter. I normally go for the counter on the left. Today, the counter on the right has a sign that says “CURRENT BOOKING ONLY” in big black capital letters right next to the window. I had no idea that the new counter is meant for the KTM’s new ETS. I’m not really sure what the acronym stands for, but probably it’s Electric Train System.

I was surprised, but it was not a bad surprised. About a month before that, as I was getting off the KL-BG locomotive train at the BG station, I saw the new electric train making test rounds. I did not know when they were going to start operation.

So today as I was purchasing the ticket I thought, “they must have begun operation already”. I had no idea that the train was to begin operation this very day. I never bothered to ask.

Anyway, RM29 per trip for the new electric train is not much different from the RM21 second class ticket on the locomotive train which normally takes 2 hours and 45 minutes. Btw, the economy class ticket on the locomotive train is RM12 only. This ETS train will take 2 hours and 5 minutes according to the ticket attendant.

So I decided to buy the RM29 ticket for ETS. It would be my first time riding the ETS. There is only one type of ticket for the ETS train, unlike the 3-class tickets for the old locomotive trains.

At about 6:05 pm after work today, I left office with my car to the BG train station and parked the car at the station. As I went into the station, I saw a poster that announced ETS operation was to start operation on 12 August 2010. “Wow! I’m going to be riding the new electric train on the launching day. What a surprise.”

Now I’m in my 7A seat in coach A (the rear most car) at 8:44 pm blogging about my first ride on ETS. The screen shows the train speed is 142 km/hr, the normal cruising speed. I think it’s about to make the approach to the Kuala Lumpur station, one stop before the KL Sentral station….my destination.

Oopss my mistake…it’s just slowing down at the Batu Caves station. What? Batu Caves? Since when does this train pass by Batu Caves? Did I see wrong? I heard the Batu Caves line is now open…but this is a different line. Anyway, just a bit more to go before the KL Sentral.

The journey today was delayed by about 6-7 minutes. Two or three times the train stopped in the middle of the track. I was wondering why. At one of those unscheduled stops, the driver announced that they were waiting for some kind of right-of-way.

Okay, I’m gonna conclude now. In conclusion, I think KTM’s decision to upgrade its train fleet is a very good move. It would definitely encourage more usage of public transportation by the Malaysian population.

On the bright side, the train is a bit more informative. Proper announcement of the next station that it will stop, with automatic lady-voice announcement.

The TV screen by the exit door also displays the name of the station, the current time, as well as the current speed. The first time that I see it. I never saw the same thing in Japan.

We need to start being more like the Japanese, at least when it comes to the public transportation.

Tata…

“Hazard” in the rain

What about those drivers with the hazard lights flashing during the rain? What’s up with that?

Hazard lights are meant to be used only in emergency situations such as these.

1. If your car breaks down and you are forced to park on the shoulder.
2. If you are in an accident and your car is interrupting the flow of traffic.
3. Basically when you find that your car is in a position to be a potential danger to another car and you need to draw attention to it.

The way I see it, these people are either of these two types.

The first type are those who think that the flashing light would make their vehicle more visible in the rain. They do not realize that the hazard light causes confusions to other road users. These people apparently think that they are smarter than everybody else.

The second type of road users turn on their hazard lights during the rain because others also do it. They are basically copycats. By definition, they are the “one who imitates or adopts the behavior or practices of another”, without knowing the logic behind it.

Serial killer copycats have reasons for doing what they do, albeit all of them are mentally sick. These copycat road users just follow blindly.

These are very bad type of people. They are the ones who contribute to the statistics of copycats. The more we have these copycats on the road, the more likely others who don’t know any better to think that they are supposed to turn on the flashing hazard lights during the rain.

What do you think we should do to teach these people? Any ideas?

Next R&R 86 km

When you are about to skip Tapah R&R (short form for rest and revive or simply a rest area) along the North South Expressway (PLUS Highway), wouldn’t you like to know how far is the next R&R so you can decide whether you need to take a break at Tapah or you can still drive to the next R&R?

No! Not according to the people who decide where to put up the sign that says “if you skip this R&R, you will have to drive 86 km to get to the next one”. They decided that the best place to put up such signboards is about half a kilometer after the R&R, not before.

Next time you drive along the highway, notice the signboard after each R&R rest areas. All of them (Tapah, Ayer Keroh, Sungai Perak, Rawang, Gunung Semanggol, etc.) have the next R&R distance signage put up at about 500 meter after the R&R exit.

They prefer to mock the highway users with “Haw haw!  (read like Jimbo Muntz in the Simpsons) serves you right! You should have stopped, bro! Now you’re gonna have to drive another 86 km to get your lunch and/or petrol”.

For a frequent commuter between KL and Tronoh like me, I know that after Tapah on a southbound journey, the next Ulu Bernam R&R is about 64 km. For any other Mat and Din or Chin and Yap, they could potentially be left stranded along the highway for not stopping to refuel at Tapah.

What a bummer would that be! Could that have been avoided? You betcha!

You would think that such a big highway operator like Projek Lebuhraya Utara Selatan Berhad (PLUS) whose annual profit exceeds RM 1 billion, would have smart enough advisers to advise them on simple things like this. Apparently not.

Their advisers just advise on when to revise the toll rate (read: when to hike the toll rate). And how much to revise. If the government decides not to revise, they advise on how much the government needs to pay them as compensation.

Any other “strange” signboards you have seen lately?

“Not my problem!”

This morning I was very upset to see a young mother throwing trash (some small pieces of papers) our of her car window while her husband was driving.

What makes it even more shocking is that such a nice lady would do such a shameful act. Even more shocking is that it happened merely 2 seconds after the car left their rented house.

It made me curious about what kind of person would do such a shocking thing. After catching up with the car, I recognized the driver as one of the post graduate students from Pakistan currently studying at the university where I work.

I don’t really know how the people in Pakistan behaves, but I would think that they’d think twice about doing a similar thing if they were in Singapore or in the US or Europe.

Let us not worry about whether they are foreigners or Malaysians.

I have seen many instances where Malaysians just simply jettisoned their trash out of a moving vehicle. Men and women are the same in this aspect.

This one instance a couple of months ago, I saw a very nice family traveling along the North South Expressway in their luxury multi-purpose vehicle.

As the father was driving, the mother slowly rolls down the automatic window and mindlessly discarded some plastic wrappers out of the vehicle. The plastic wrapper haphazardly flew into the air and fell on the road shoulder.

This incident was apparently observed by the young children in the MPV’s back seat. What kind of lesson are they teaching their children? What are WE teaching our children?

I’ve lived in many different countries during my student years including in the USA, in Japan and in Australia. I would not even think about discarding my trash in public spaces except in designated trash cans.

My experience taught me that kind of responsibility or self-control. I would feel ashamed of myself if I were to do that. I teach my wife the same. I hope my young child, currently about 1 year and 8 months, would learn from my example to be mindful of his acts.

The way I see it, people’s behavior is directly associated with their upbringing. People in the third world countries tend to think only of themselves and their own private properties.

That is why the people of the third-world mentality do not care about the things outside of their fences. In fact, they would not hesitate to pick up a piece of garbage from their yard (or from inside of their vehicle)  and throw outside of the fence (outside of the vehicle).

Malaysian’s mentality is obviously that of the third world. And we dare think we can be a developed country in 2020?

People in the first world think more of the world around them. I don’t see Americans throw rubbish out of their moving vehicles. Not Australians either. Most of their homes are not fenced, so obviously they cannot throw rubbish out of their yard. There is no such thing.

The Japanese homes are fenced, but still the areas outside of the fence are very well-cared for. Not even a piece of garbage can be found.

I have seen many times at the Japanese university where I studied, the employees collected trash as they walked in the morning to their office in the university compound.

I was surprised at first. It was more surprising because the guy was wearing a suit. After seeing it many times, I realize that it is in their nature to be caring about the public places.

People do that because they care about their surroundings. Everyone does their bits to make the place cleaner and better as a whole.

In Malaysia (a third world country??), what happens outside of my fence is “not my problem”. Instead of doing our bits to make our surrounding a better place, we expect others (i.e. the city council) to do the job for us.

Labor is still cheap in Malaysia, so we might still afford to allocate so much money to pay for such services. But until when? We need to instill these responsibilities in the young generation so they can teach their children.

What happens in my house is my problem. What happens outside of my house is also my responsibility.

It takes one man to change the world. Let that be you. If all of us do our part, the world we live in would be a better place. My neighborhood would be a better place. Malaysia would be a better country to live in.

Let us do our bits.