On the road

Had been on the road for a while now. It takes some time to get used to driving on the right hand side of the road. In the first few times, I need constant reminder from my colleague to turn into the correct side of the road. Sometimes when I was looking for road signs or doing something else other than concentrating on driving, I tend to turn into the wrong side. Until today, sometimes I still use my left hand to shift gear and pull/release handbrake, only end up touching the door. However, I never have any problem with the signal & wiper because I'm used to driving European cars having the signal on the left hand side.

Occasionally, my colleague and I get into the wrong side of the car, especially when we were talking while walking to the car.

The car we get is a Ford Focus year 2007. My opinion? Not good enough...slow pickup, step on gas also don't want go...

This is my rented car. Because of cost cutting, my colleague and I have to share a car

Here in the States, what surprises me is the courteousness of the drivers. All this while on the road, I've never heard a single sound of honk. Whenever they see people crossing the road, car will stop to let pedestrian to cross first, and that is not even on a zebra crossing! In Malaysia, even if you're crossing on a zebra crossing, don't ever hope any vehicle will stop for you to cross.

Other than that is the STOP logo. Whenever you're at a junction with the STOP sign, you have to really stop, even though you're they only visible car at the junction. Yes, I saw people stopping even though there are no other car around, very obedient indeed.

On the freeway, you'll see that the lane on the left-most will have a diamond symbol. This is the carpool lane. You will see the definition of carpool displayed on the side of the freeway. "Carpool is 2 or more person in the car" or something like that. This carpool lane only apply during certain time of the day, which is the morning rush hour and the evening rush hour.

'Carpool lane' signboard

The cost of summonses for different types of road violations are sometimes seen displayed by the roadside. Speeding would cost you $336 and driving on the carpool lane (alone in the car) during rush hour would cost you $271. My question is, why use this kind of numbers and not whole number like $300 or $250 right? I'm curious...

Last but not least, on my way home from office I'll take a short drive through the freeway. Before entering the freeway, there'll be a traffic light, turning green only for a fraction of a second for one car to go. The drivers here actually follow the traffic light, going only one car at each time the light turned green. Here's a video taken and narrated by my colleague, edited by me: (it's on Google video, so might load a bit slower)