Saturday, November 20, 2010

Day to day driving experience

I've had some ups and downs with regards to the daily drive. I've mostly just driven to and from work, so most of my drives are in Singapore.

The other night, when I was turning into a highway (I think it was AYE & I did check that there wasn't any car behind me on my right + I indicated), a taxi all of a sudden came speeding behind me and told me off for him almost crashing into me. I must say that it was quite a nerve wrecking experience.

So over the past month, I've realised that what I have read in the driving theory test is quite a myth than reality because:
1 - many many many drivers do not indicate when changing lanes
2 - quite a number of drivers do tailgate
3 - am I the only one who follow the speed limit?

I'm curious to hear your thoughts on this or if you have any driving best practises to share - so please drop some comments on your experience :)

Some pictures at the checkpoints:

4 comments:

  1. hi erika, just my two cents worth about driving based on my experience.

    1) Cars that tail gate usually want to overtake you and are checking there are no cars behind them before they do overtake you. We will usually ask, "hey, why is this guys so close to me?" :)
    2) Beware of motorbikes that squeeze in between cars, also they are usually at our blind spot.
    3) Never give face to taxi drivers in Singapore, they think they own the roads. $ is the utmost priority on the taxi driver's mind so I stay far far away from them.
    4) Not every horn is about you. My wife always get agitated at any horn she hears and swears at hearing any. Just check what's going on and if everything's ok and just proceed with your driving.
    5) I angered a M'sian driver before for cutting into his lane. He drove beside me and all of them in the car stared at me and some of them were angered. I just drove very slowly so that they will just give up and overtake.

    By the way your blog is great! I am thinking of getting a JB property for my family's future so this is really helpful. But budget is a concern to me and many other singaporeans. My budget is RM500K-600k only. I just bought a 5 room flat when the new 5 year ruling on private housing took effect. So like some s'poreans, i should be renting out the HDB house to fund my JB property.

    Thanks for sharing your experiences.

    Suhaimi

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    Replies
    1. Hi Suahimi, thanks for reading my blog. Apologies for my late reply. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on driving experience as well. I do come across many bike riders as there are many of them commuting between SG & Johor everyday. Quite a no of them do not turn on their tail lights at night, which is very dangerous. I hope riders will pay more attention to their own safety.

      Have a look at the range of development in Nusajaya, you should be able to still buy property for 500k-600K in other developments such as Setia Eco Gardens, but not East Ledang.

      Good luck with your property hunt!

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  2. Hi Erika,
    Nice blog!

    However, I'm trying to find out roughly how much did you spent commuting from Nusajaya -> Singapore on a monthly basis? ERP, VEP, parking at Singapore, etc.

    I was trying to gauge how much should I put aside for commuting to Singapore from Johor. So far that I can calculate based on the infos that I got on the web is around 1k SGD (petrol not included). I hope I'm wrong.

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    Replies
    1. Hi Kapla, thanks for reading my blog. You can refer to my older post on toll charges. Depending on the time that you enter into Singapore, you may also have to take into account ERPs (8 am onwards). Carpark fees depend on location of your carpark. The monthly carpark fee for Asia Square for example is SGD450. Petrol is dependant on the type of car you drive, we top up every 2nd day to ensure that we have 3/4 tank full. Full tank top up for us is about RM100.

      All the best!
      Erika

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