Motor cycles in the Lion City

I'm surprised that motorcycles are allowed to whiz around cars on highways in a normally well disciplined Singapore.

If its Jakarta, or Bangkok or Taiwan, I can expect the millions of motorbikes on the road each day to do what they like. But not Singapore.

In Singapore, they are less numerous yet they post a much greater hazard on highways. They ride on road shoulders or islands, they weave in between lanes often within inches from the sides of cars going at 90 or more kph. No wonder there's been so many fatal accidents involving motor bikes in Singapore. But what is the government doing about it?

Not a lot from what I can see.

Other than those weaving in and out of traffic and lanes, there are also those who ride too slowly especially before exits, trying to conserve their brake pads and slowing down to a crawl - relative to other traffic speeds - about 50 or more meters from the exit. This causes cars who are going a lot faster to keep overtaking them all the way to the narrow divide where they must exit. Dangerous is a modest description. Don't the motor cyclists even think?

I believe we should give motor cyclists the same road space as cars. But from what I've seen these last few months, it is them who do not want to be given those privileges; it is them who prefer to use those extra surface of roads between lanes just so they can get to their destinations a bit sooner than cars. I can remember once when I was trying to filter left, my left wing mirror was clear but when I took a 2nd look just before moving into the left lane, I saw something emerge from the corner of my eyes. To my horror, a motorbike had been on my blind spot for those few seconds I glanced at the wing mirror!

Hopefully it won't take too many more fatalities for Singapore's bike riders to learn to behave in a more responsible manner on its roads.