Interesting facts about driving in the States

Six years ago, I had my first driving experience in the states. It was also in Arizona, didn't really have much fun because I did not have a driving license yet then. I was just playing around with my sec sch friend, Hsi Kang's car. Driving was so fun that immediately after I returned back to Singapore, I signed up for my driving lessons and obtained my driving license in less than six weeks. In the States, they are using the left hand drive which is different from Singapore where we are using the right hand side. Basically, it just means different sides where the steerling wheel is placed at. Because I drove illegally in the States, without a driving license, everything was abnormal when I started my first few driving lessons. Basically, I have to perform a mirror image. When the instructor told me to make a turn, instead of switching on the signal indicator, I hit on the wiper switch, always keeping to the wrong side of the road and turning into other people's lane, instead of keeping left, I kept right. But one thing that I am proud of, my parking skills are great. Haha, I practised hard in the States before mah. I think if he just sees my parking skills, he should have thought if I were one of those people who already had license revoked before. Anyway, I was so proud that I passed and got my driving license in less than six weeks.

Today, Arizona revisited after six years. I had my international driving permit with me. Everything seem so strange but interesting. There are stuffs that I did not realised six years ago (maybe they were not being implemented yet) and we do not practise them in Singapore.

The car I am using... Left hand drive. Now, look carefully at the device just under the mirror. That's the interesting stuff...


































This is detector. It is capable of detecting traffic lights, speed cameras and police patrol cars, giving out different types of beeps for each of them. It has a number display which will increase as the distance of the detected object gets nearer. This is only detector. There is another more powerful device called the radar jammer, which I don't have it in this car as it is actually illegal. For the radar jammer, basically it functions the same as this detector. However, after detecting the speed cameras, it will also send a signal out to jam the speed camera. Maybe I guess this why it is illegal, because of signal interference. Hmm.. do we have such devices in Singapore, so that we will know when to slow down? I think some of the Singapore cars may have them installed illegally.

In Arizona, people never park their cars using reverse parking. They park head-in. There are two reasons for this. Firstly, the people here drive recklessly. Hit-and-run in carparks are very common. When you get hit on the rear, it is easier to claim insurance because most of the time, you will not be at fault if the rear of your car got hit. (How it was assess by insurance companies la.) However, the more important reason is that there are a lot of cases of cars being stolen and towed all the way to sell in Mexico, Arizona being very near to Mexico. It is easier to jack up a car and tow it away from the front then the rear. That is why people park their car head-in.


































Stop sign. You have to stop seeing a stop sign over here, regardless there are vehicles or not. This is how it works over here. There are stop signs for both pedestrians and vehicles. Both have to stop, but whoever reached the juction first will get to proceed first. I think this is more common than zebra crossing bah.


































The yellow school bus, the biggest F**K on the road! There are two stop signs on each side of the bus (sorry, not captured in the picture), once the school bus stops for students to alight, the lights on the two stop signs will be on, and vehicles on both sides of the road have to stop!

Please obey the traffic rules. If not, you will get what I have got - First summon in the States. 50USD! Sigh, guess my luck has been super down recently (continuation from previous post).


































Some interesting car plates. Did it just ask me to "Get Lost!" Unfriendly. But this is not my car.

This is the car I am using. Stocking up for the next journey. It is always good to stock up extra petrol in your car, especially if you are travelling across states. You will really freaked out when you are running out of petrol and you can't even see a single soul along the way, not to talk about gas station.


































Also, beware of people riding horses on the road!

Hee, also something about air traffic that I noticed on my way here. This picture is taken on the plane. If you enlarged the picture, you will see a streamline of smoke. This is not a shooting star. It is a Fedex plane. Wow, have you all seen a neighbouring plane while travelling on a plane? It was so big and close... and fast. By the time I took out my camera, it already zoomed to a distant, which is why it is so tiny in the photo (just look at the smoke trail). Is this dangerous? Imagine, all it needs is a failure radar detection of an air turbulence that will happen at that point of time, by the control tower? Can't remember if there is any control towers nearby, I was in the middle of the journey.