Commuting Peeves

1. People who decided to turn on to the main road from a junction eventhough another car is coming at a considerable speed towards them, and then decide to accelerate at a leisurely pace. This often causes the other car having to brake hard and this will be automatically followed by a bagful of cusses from the other driver, usually directed towards the slow car's driver's innocent mother.

Proposed Mitigant: Apart from gently nudging them off the road (if you are driving a big 4x4 that is), change lanes or reduce speed immediately once you see a potential one. Usually driving an old model Datsun or Kancil. Makciks in big cars too.

2. People who got into packed LRTs wearing a big backpack and tried to find a nice spot to stand without bothering to take the bag off first and hold it. The offending backpack often smacked people's head (pity the short 'uns), or other commuters' books/magazines/boobs while the dumbass makes his way. Cue repeat when he tries to get off from his spot in the middle of the carriage.

Proposed Mitigant: Hold on to his backpack while he's trying to find that spot. He'll think the back's many straps got caught somewhere and will take it off his back to take a look. Repeat for fun.

3. Chinese schoolkids on LRTs in the evenings. I'm not being racist, but this is from my years of observation and the fact that strangely I seldom see Malay or Indian schoolkids on the trains I am on. They would stank to high heavens, which is bearable since in the evenings quite a lot of people smell after a long day, I can live with that. They would also talk in the loudest voice they can muster, eventhough the other party is just next to him. After work, I'd like to get some nice quiet time and most other commuters are quiet maybe for the same reasons, but with them around it's plain impossible. I do feel like smacking their heads with a big backpack at times.

Proposed mitigant: Noseplugs and Earplugs, or earphones. Make sure the volume is up to max.

4. People with BO who have no qualms about hanging on to the bars and let the whole car smell their armpits. Last week I had the misfortune to stand close to this fella with very bad BO, and it was in the morning. I cringe at the thought of him entering the same car as mine in the evenings. But I pity this petite girl standing in front of me, her face was directly in the line of fire, so to speak. I can tell she was tortured the whole journey. Perhaps she's now driving to work after the trauma she went through.

Proposed mitigant: Bring an extra aerosol deodorant and spray it on him. Hopefully he'll get the message and buy his own. Or he would just look for you every day so he can skimp on the deodorant and still not smell bad.

Such is the life of a commuter.