Traffic In Penang

Days ago, I was attending my first official driving test in my whole life. I was way too nervous to do it. Unfortunately my nervousness let me down and I 'successfully' failed my test, which includes a combo pack part of hill climbing, parallel parking and the three-point turn (actually, I just been killed by the hill climbing part, but the rules mentioned that I am going to fail the whole pack unless I did all three skills successfully. In other words, fail one of the skills = fail the whole combo pack, fail hill climbing = no need to do parallel parking and three-point turn. How sadly, isn't it?), and the on-the-road drive part. Failing the first part is also because I am not used by the car provided in the test, whereby the gas pedal is loosen. Adding my nervousness equates total disaster. However the second part is when I was told to use a car, which I have never used this model before, to drive the examiner to hit the roads. The car has a stiff gear with a longer-than-usual gear stick that I cannot identify the position of the free gear (it's much easier to use the one in my practice car and my dad's car, but this one is really a tough cookie), don't even mention about the position of  the other gears. I admit that I am stupid enough to misunderstand the ways to use a handbrake and not knowing to lower my seat (it's quite high, and I felt damn uncomfortable even with the cool air conditioner is turned on). Also, with the nervousness taking over me, and you guessed it, another fail was obtained as I was in a very 'high' mode to do emergency brakes (which my mom and also the examiner does not like it) and cut other lanes when making a turn.

One of the only thing I feel relieved that the traffic conditions are quite good, as I am not tested at downtown Georgetown. Although I felt disappointed that I failed the test, but I am sure that passing this test would not mean I am a damn competent driver. Okay, I am not saying that people who passed the driving test recently are bad troublesome drivers that simply treat the road as it's his/her grandparents'. What I am saying here is that these drivers, though have passed the test, have not actually experience the real test in real life. This test is a harder one, with different scales of difficulty in different conditions. Unlike in Kuala Lumpur and the busier areas of the Klang Valley, where the roads have became parking spots when it reaches busy hours, Penang is not that serious in traffic jams. Say you are going to drive your car from your home to a street at downtown to buy some food for you and your family and then drive back home. The moment you start up the engine of your car, you have to watch out for vehicles to come across, sometimes hitting emergency brakes when a vehicle that came out of nowhere suddenly speeds across the road in front of your house. Then, you hit the roads, maybe witnessing motorcycle daredevils dancing on the road in a seemingly professional stunt motorcyclist way (maybe the sports ministry should consider the future of extreme sports, especially involving vehicles among Malaysians. These people may someday stun foreigners for their beautiful 'performing arts'). When you are on a T-junction where theoretically you should continue to drive and the vehicles at the exit of the road should be stopping for you, the reality sometimes turns out the opposite way, with some vehicle users just did a great job to break the law. When making a turn, you should always let the motorcyclist make his/her turn first if he/she gets too close to you before you do. I heard that knocking down a motorcyclist, whether purposely or not, and whether if it's actually the motorcyclist or you who caused the accident, will be required to pay the motorcyclist's medical fee, motorcycle maintenance fee and probably even 'personal fee', where the motorcyclist claim that he/she is hurt psychologically. After you are a stone's throw away from the destination, you have to find a parking spot, which requires some effort to do so. If the search for a parking spot fails, you may consider to park your car beside a parked car or on a yellow line/double yellow line, which is illegal to park. You have to supervise your car all the time to prevent the authority from fining you. After you bought the food, you drive to a junction. This time, you see many cars coming and you cannot make a turn into the road. Later, you are stucked in a mini traffic jam. You thought it is because the traffic light is too slow to show you the green light or there is an accident in front of you. Then, you see some cars trying to switch lanes in the jam, and you hear other drivers horning like hell. I think you may want to take a nap after coming back home.

That was it. The selfishness of some drivers in Penang is the main cause of the whole hullabaloo of the traffic jam and dangerous road scenes. I could not imagine how am I going to cope with these 'rules-are-meant-to-be-broken' outlaws if I were to pass my driving test and be driving on my way to my destination. Maybe I should really grip on those damn basic but crucial rules of driving before I hit the roads of Penang and meet these great drivers. For now, I think that I may not worry too much about this now. If any efficient solutions are available in the future to solve this problem once and for all, I bet it's not going to happen so soon and the process of implementation is going to be a very tough period for Penangites.