SEPTEMBER 16 — Every week I’m learning there are many things I take for granted.
That everybody loves (or at least knows) the Lord of the Rings trilogy — hardly, I forgot it’s more than 20 years ago.
That people wearing masks today do so because they’re concerned about Covid-19 — not necessarily, it seems more like a general hygiene thing.
That almost everyone (from the city) will get a driver’s licence right around or after they finish Form 5 — oops, this is anything but a foregone conclusion.
This is purely anecdotal, and I could be entirely wrong, but I suspect more and more young people just aren’t that keen on learning how to drive. I’ve lost count of the number of my students (usually in their early or mid-twenties) who tell me casually they’ll probably never get a licence. Or even if they do, it’ll be a long time from now.
At first, I found this decision weird.
Back during my secondary school days, most of us (especially guys) couldn’t wait to drive! I can’t recall a single classmate willfully rejecting the chance to get a licence.
I mean, this is a driver’s licence for God’s sake and not a decision to join a monastery or get a tattoo or study in Australia! Isn’t it a foregone conclusion that everyone living in the city (whose family can afford a car) should be able to drive?
Apparently, not. At least not nowadays.
Because I didn’t take into account, among many things, the changes in public transportation from the time I was a Form 5er till now.
Back in the 90s we only had buses and mini buses. The latter were the bosses of the highway, weaving in and out of lanes like they owned them. And that was essentially it. I mean, how many people took a cab to work on a regular basis in the 90s?
But today how different things are. We’ve got more buses, we’ve got LRT, we’ve got MRT, basically a network which covers almost every major commercial area of the Klang Valley.
And in the city, is there any key or central area not substantially accessible via cheap and mass public transportation? Even if a certain office block isn’t within walking distance from a train station there are always buses or, in the worst case scenario, a (hopefully) cheap Grab ride.
I even know an ex-colleague who half-jogged his way from the Taman Mutiara MRT station to his office in Taman Connaught (about two kilometres) every morning (assuming it wasn’t raining). He’d get to the office, take a shower and start work. A great habit, IMO.
In a sense, KL is becoming a little bit like Singapore in that driving has become redundant to many people. If your daily commuting need is to get from your place in the suburbs to the city centre you don’t strictly require a car, do you?
Even if you need to move around (like Sales folks or those in similar roles) there’s always Grab or sharing a ride with a colleague or, duh, a train or bus.
Another reason may be because getting a driver’s licence just takes too much time and is seen as a bother. Must attend an eight-hour class to sit for the closed paper MCQ exam. Must take half a dozen (or more?) driving lessons with that embarrassing “P” sign stuck on the car.
Must “encourage” the examiner to pass your driving exam (then again, with the e-testing initiative — shades of Gran Turismo? — who knows what may happen?).
Given the myriad commuting options, it’s hardly surprising many young people prefer to skip all this hassle.
Yet another issue is whether or not we still wish to encourage the younger generation to take up driving. Again, it was hardly a question in the past. But, given issues like urban density and environmental concerns, this may become an activist issue.
Or will it?
Nevertheless...
It doesn’t look like car sales are falling in the city, does it?
This is the irony faced by many urban centres, not least in Asia. Rising public transportation doesn’t appear to curb the number of cars on the road.
Maybe after a certain point people simply prefer to buy and drive cars instead of taking public transport “just because”. Maybe with families a private vehicle becomes indispensable. Maybe cars are a status symbol. Or maybe there are some workplaces which are simply inaccessible by train, bus and foot.
Whatever the case, it’s pretty clear that getting a driver’s licence has become a more personal decision than I initially thought. The decision truly can go either way.
Until maybe one day something happens which makes a driver’s licence either totally irresistible or completely repulsive? Who knows, eh?
* This is the personal opinion of the columnist.
