Adam has been driving for about 5 weeks now. Here is a picture of him in his car. It is a Cefiro and is actually pretty nice. The car comes equipped with a GPS system, which, depending on the day, is either his best friend of the bane of his existence. A few interesting things about driving in Singapore:
- You drive on the left side of the road. This is fairly easy to get used to - the challenge is when you are at a stoplight and there isn't any traffic to follow. Then you really have to think about which way to go while turning.
- Singapore uses an ERP system here. ERP stands for Electronic Road Pricing. Every car has a built-in card machine. You have to buy a card and add money to it, and then put it in the machine. Your card gets deducted money each time you pass under a "toll". It is also how you pay for public parking spaces.
- The ERP system is pretty sophisticated - charges actually differ depending on the time of day (more expensive during rush hour). Adam has seen people literally pulled over on the side of the road to wait until the time changes and the rate goes down. By "side of the road" I mean "in my lane" and by "pulled over" I mean "stopped randomly."
- The gear shift and turn signals and window wiper controls are all on the opposite side here, too. Adam has turned on the wipers many times while trying to signal for a turn.
- There aren't many traffic police cars here. Evidently the speed limit is enforced by speed cameras. The saucy minx on his GPS system helpfully points these out and also always announces when he is about to go over a "flyover" (overpass).
- Pretty much everyone backs into their parking spots. The parking spots are also very narrow. Parking is actually probably the biggest challenge Adam has encountered while driving here.
Some things that are not very popular among other drivers are:
- Using your turn signal
- Staying in your lane (lots of drifters)
Some things that evidently are very popular are:
- Honking at Adam
- Riding mopeds in between lanes
