A matter of patience

Male Singaporean drivers are a hasty lot.

Why the rush? So you might be late for your flight. Shouldn't you have left the office a little earlier? And how much time do you actually save by driving dangerously? I've got nothing against fast driving, mind, it's when it endangers other road users that I take great offense at.

Yesterday, I had the distinct displeasure of encountering a yellow Mitsubishi Evolution 7 while heading up the Rochor stretch towards the ECP. Throttle engaged and BOV screaming, it swung dangerously out to the rightmost lane, overtaking all lesser beings that dared take their own sweet time, cutting viciously into the queue for the east-bound ECP entrance ramp at the last possible moment.

And promptly got stuck behind a slow container truck.

As the cars streamed by on the Evo's left, its engine roared, clearly enraged at its embarrassing predicament. It nosed out dangerously, probing for an opening. Finally, an opportunity presented itself - the car behind me was a fraction of a second too slow - and the Evo muscled in. I cleared the top of the ramp with an extremely impatient yellow Evo 7 glued to my ass.

Tailgated by glaring white headlights and refusing to be pressured, I filtered swiftly to the second-fastest lane as I normally would, waiting for the fast-approaching car on the right to pass by before moving on. The Evo driver didn't bother to wait. He squeezed out from behind me into the fastest lane, causing the car behind to brake hard. And immediately ran up against a road-hogging Mitsubishi Spacewagon.

What the heck, I thought, and slipped in behind him.

You see, I actually like following behind impatient drivers, not too closely, of course. Since 1) they can do all the pressuring/road clearing up ahead, leaving me with a nicely clear ride behind, and 2) they'll get caught by the traffic police before I will.

The Evo pressured the unwavering Spacewagon for a few minutes, then took the next available gap on the left and weaved its way forward through the traffic. By the time I overtook the road-hogging Spacewagon, my dear road-clearer was nowhere to be seen. Oh well.

When two impatient drivers clash
.. sometimes, just sometimes, they both lose.


Cracked under pressure