Boy oh boy, you start off the day with a dread, the awakening
giant in you still longing for the sweet comforts of your dreamland.
As you slowly walk to your car, you ask yourself, "oh well, another day..." You get into the car, you start the ignition, wait a couple of minutes for the engine to warm up, turn on the radio to break
the din of silence and begin your drive.
Barely after the current boyband song ends, you hear the traffic
report.
"In Penang, Jalan Masjid Neger heading towards the city, traffic is slow."
"In KL, Jalan Loke Yew, slowwwwmovinggggg traffic..."
"Slow moving traffic on Jalan Sungai Besi, heading towards Jalan
Tun Razak."
Blah blah blah.
Now let me ask you, as a regular commute, as another statistic
on the ever increasing number of cars in Malaysia, how helpful is that piece of information?
Granted, traffic reports are helpful in informing you of traffic
conditions but it doesn't take a genius, a rocket scientist to tell
you that on EVERY WORKING DAY, MORNING TRAFFIC TO THE CITY IS HEAVY.
Likewise, on EVERY WORKING DAY, EVENING TRAFFIC AWAY FROM THE CITY IS
HEAVY.
So that's all it is. A simple 2 line law. Einstein once said,
everything should be simple, but no simpler, and there you have it. A
simple universal law that came out of common sense, a keen sense of
observation and exercising a little of your grey matter while stuck in traffic. No need for those very "informative" traffic reports. Why
heck, I could write a script for them to read every day.
On the other hand, traffic reports as dished out by our local radios could do a great service for us if there are unexpected, unusual
circumstances. Say, a part of KL has suddenly looked like Venice
overnight, thanks to "God's act". Now this little bit of info would do
good to lots of motorists to stay clear of the affected stretch.
Or imagine this scenario, a lorry carrying eggs turned over in Jalan Loke Yew. A hoard of housewives from all stratas of society are taking the first step in preparing great Malaysia omelettes (wonder why I suddenly have this craving for omelette), resulting in a massive traffic pile-up there. Worse still, lots of motorists, being the typical Malaysians that they are, either stop their cars/bikes to take a look or join in the party, or slow down to look for any "empat ekor numbers", just in case if there's any accidents. Hey, we wouldn't blame them for living a Malaysian dream right?
I know that some traffic reports do the above and warn us of
uncommon occurences but repeating the same thing over and over again
everyday is a waste of radio bandwidth, as well as downright irritating.
Hey, why haven't the car in front moved?