Blinking idiots.

I am told that everywhere on Singapore's roads today, there were lots of blinking idiots (I call them "idiots" only because, until today, they would almost never deign to flash their vehicles' turn indicators while switching -- often abruptly -- lanes):

ST, Sept 15

So, the sad thing is that -- once again -- Singaporeans do not do the right thing because it is the right thing to do but because they fear some penalty or they blindly hew to the ""just follow lor" rule.

There is a vicious circle here. Motorists who signal early that they need to switch lanes find the trailing car on that lane actually speed up to close the gap just to thwart the intended lane change! So why signal? On the other hand, when traffic is crawling. many motorists here refuse to move into a slip road early but would wait till the very last moment, then signal and swerve in abruptly! So the practice of signalling one's intentions gets abused.

ST carried a Punchlines cartoon on the topic of boorish drivers:

(The cartoonist failed to realise he or she was using Singlish in the second panel. I have yet to see someone with headlights fitted on his head.)

Here's my small list of other idiotic drivers:
*Those who flash their high beam to tell you they are not letting you cut in even though you had signalled your intention to do so early and within a safe-distance gap;
* Those who turn on their super-bright fog lamps at night despite our roads being very well lit;
* Those in my condo who think they have the right to intrude into your lane, coming towards you. These idiots must have got "kopi licence".

kopi licence n. [Eng. licence]  A driving licence obtained by paying a small bribe to the examiner enough for him or her to buy coffee with: often used humorously to refer to a person who is a bad driver.

http://www.singlishdictionary.com/

Finally, I miss those good old days when we drove with car windows wound down. We would then signal our intention to make a turn or to switch lanes with the appropriate hand signal, in addition to using the flashing turn indicators. It was also the norm then to acknowledge with thanks -- by way of an open palm -- the driver who had graciously given way.

And I am sure no one in today's generation of drivers have any idea what this is!