Rules of the road

Rules are meant to be broken. So some people say. I won’t second that.
Rules are there for a reason, mainly: Order.

And so do sign lights in your vehicle. But here, those nasty little daredevils seem to think that sign lights are merely accessories. Instead of turning on their sign lights, which equip their motorcycle nicely, and which I believe are to be operated with minimum difficulty, they deliberate on making other road users as body-language readers.

Some of the language I manage to interpret: the hunching means he’s on to getting more speed, the leaning of body to the left (or right) means he would take the left (or right) lane – cutting you in front. Others are to random to generalized, and have to be taken on each particular occasion. But all in all, the message is clear: CAUTION! They may make sudden move without prior notice.

Sometimes, I just wanna whack them in the helmet and say: use your sign lights, for crying out loud! It’s for their own good: minimizing false interpretation and further accident.

Apart from the sign light episode, the one thing that makes me really want to murder them is the overtaking of the sidewalk. Sidewalks, just in case you don’t know, are for pedestrians. And just in case you don’t understand the meaning of the word “pedestrian”, well, to tell you shortly: it’s the people who walk. WALK.

In one moment, I remember vividly, I braved the mass of these rules-breaking machos, and walked head on into them. One of them shouted: “Are you going to commit suicide or something?” for which reply I gave him a menacing glare. If only look could kill.

Sometimes, they sound their honks on me. To that, I will look them through their glass-covered face and say: It’s MY way. You move over!

The roads in Jakarta follow the simple rule of ‘hukum rimba’. You win when you are the strongest (= the biggest). So the bus elbowing on the car, the car pushing the motorcycle over, and the motorcycle takes it out on the pedestrian. Poor us pedestrian who are at the bottom of the ring.

Perhaps, there will be time when pedestrians unite, creating a solid mass of walking human, and take over the road, armed with sheer determination not to be pushed over. Be sure, I'll be one speck of the mass.