PP, while I agree that the PC brigade in many countries has made life very controlled I am not sure I understand how that excuses the truly appalling driving here. Why is it that if I toot my horn to warn a driver that they are moving into me as they change lanes that I am given a mouthful as if I am doing something wrong. Why is it that if they did hit me the law would consider me equally culpable because I did not move out of the way!
Actually, the intent was to not excuse the behavior, just pointed out that it is not that different from elsewhere. Neither is the other pet peeve of this forum, the random walking and stopping patterns.
I personally like the 'flexible' countries where one can relax a bit when driving, it's not the end of the world and an item in the national news if you do something unexpected. Everybody does that, so everybody is also prepared to expect that and respond accordingly. And things work reasonably well despite all the hand waving. In a lot of the more 'organised' countries the drivers tend to be very inflexible and unprepared to unexpected things.
Can't claim to be an expert in law and such, but don't a number of traffic laws also have clauses that each party must take whatever action is necessary to avoid a collission even if they are not at fault?
In other countries where I have driven - and there have been a lot, drivers take on a collective responsiblity. You are required to look out for other drivers and as everyone (or at least a large percentage) do the quality of the driving is generally good. In Singapore the individual takes no responsibility and as they are never held to account there is a complete lack of awareness of other drivers on the road.
I wish I could agree with you, but what you call collective responsibility I tend to call stubbornly sticking to the rules and regulations. Maybe there are extreme examples (like Germany - just observe the drivers opening up a lane in, say, traffic lights if there is an ambulance or something that needs a priority passage through - ordnung!) but a lot of wannabe-Germans I see on the roads tend to be more focused on their rights than their responsibilities.
But the worst thing about Singapore driving is that there is no excuse - a very good and thorough driver education and licensing system, excellent roads and modern safe cars. I just do not understand it!
The concensus on this forum quite a few years ago was that the problem is that the cars are so expensive that people only get their first car at a relatively old age. In a lot of other countries, drivers start with all sorts of pieces of junk in the age of 18 (or younger) and than gradually upgrade to slightly better pieces of junk until after a number of iterations (and a lot of driving experience) they graduate to decent cars. If you don't get that exposure at a younger age (exposure to things like driving in snow also helps) and only start driving at, say, mid-30's or later, you never really develop a really good sense of traffic around you. Not so different from people getting their first ever motorbike in the 40's and leaving a handsome corpse all dressed in HD leathers for easy cleanup.
