Mit Gas

Having a car in Kuala Lumpur is a necessity. Having said that, having a car in Kuala Lumpur is nowhere near as useful as one might think. If anyone has ever experienced Kuala Lumpur traffic jams, I'm sure one knows what I'm talking about. I'm not sure if the traffic here is extremely bad in comparison, but it still is bad nevertheless. Any situation where you would be better off with a bicycle than a car, is an extremely bad use of car for me.

The traffic problem is two-way; public transportation sucks 'cause the jams are huge (and to be honest, the whole system is under development), and the jams are huge cause public transportation is not used. Rise in gasoline prices has (surprisingly) added to this problem a great deal. One of the worst traffic jams I've ever experienced was the day prior to adjusting gasoline prices. People were queuing to gas stations like it was free money for free (practically it was) and sucked them dry. This was just one day's problem however.

The real problem at this moment, which is more persisting, is that rise in gasoline price caused demonstrations in the roads in Malaysia (as well as in other countries). If these demonstrations weren't hassle enough, police decided to set up road blocks to control the security threat these demonstrations posed to people. The Star is a rather objective newspaper in KL, you may wanna check it out to get a better view of the current situation (the picture in the article gives a very good impression how a traditional KL traffic jam looks like);

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/7/15/nation/21822758&sec=nation

Anyways, knowing that there are traffic jams in Kuala Lumpur is not very useful, but "the local tricks" are. After few months of driving around the city I've found out some very common useful tricks;

- Avoid the most direct routes. If you choose a longer road in distance, you get only about 50% or less of the cars than on the main roads, and can arrive from 15 minutes to even 1 hour earlier.
- Be rude. This is probably the main reason behind traffic jams anyway (or the city's road "design"...), but believe me, without being arrogant you will get the shortest stick. No matter how noble or polite you want to be on paper, it is easily forgotten when you're still stuck for the third hour in a normally fifteen minute trip.
- Avoid driving during the rain. I don't know if water is forming the extra cars or what, but for some funny reason the amount of cars in the roads during rain is at least tripled from normal. I guess Malaysians are made out of sugar.
- Abuse the jumpers. If you see a driver jumping in a queue, or using any other masterful traffic jumping/switching lanes tactic, and slowing down everyone else - copy that and do it for him or her. They usually regret their own rudeness, so you can freely exploit that more than often 'cause they let you in front of them more easily.
- Traffic light stop. Every single moped in KL are already going when they see the crossing traffic light turns to red, and soon theirs will be green. Thus, I don't understand why people still go during a yellow one. So be careful. But here's one trick to "pay back" if you're bored and the car behind you is annoying; look for a blinking green, stop, and you hear a horn. When the blinking green turns to yellow, press the pedal and leave the sucker standing stupidly with his red light. Works every time, but better be sure the driver is not fit for vengeance.

Seriously, I don't want to recommend rude, arrogant and plain awful driving to anyone since it is the major reason behind traffic jams. But the fact still is that a lot of people think "eye-for-an-eye" in the traffic, and you should too. Nice people always end up with nothing and thats the rule of (urban) jungle forever and ever. And always remember to blame either the government or the gas prices on bad traffic and your bad driving.