When the smooth turns rough

Since late January this year, I’ve been commuting from home to Petaling Jaya via the LRT system. Hence, I was introduced to the early rush-hour scenario. One thing that caught my attention was the way commuters waited for the train.

In the ‘old days’, commuters were scattered throughout the platform. Nowadays, they just line up obediently. It seems to remind me of Japan. But, how effective is it in terms of the commuters’ disciplines? Let’s take a look at the scenarios that occurred whilst I was waiting for the train:

A train was due in a couple of minutes. People were lining up at where the train door should be positioned. Pregnant ladies and old folks were ‘excused’ and went straight in front to the platform edge. OK, nothing wrong with that. An advantage to them for being so.

The train approaches the platform. People were being distracted from whatever it is that they were doing; reading, text-messaging, day-dreaming. OK, normal reaction.

The train stops. Here’s where things start to go nuts:
1. Commuters from within the train had barely disembarked, already had the commuters-to-be from outside began to ram the entrance.

2. Despite the fact that commuters on the platform were walking in a line towards the train, psycho-maniacs arrived on the scene, cutting the line and overtaking those who have been queuing heading for the train, causing a bottleneck at the entrance.

3. The train car is packed to the neck. But, there are still those insisting on embarking the train, suffocating those already inside.

Such a procedure could have made travelling on the train smoother. But, when egoism conquers all, everything goes haywire.

Even though Malaysia is well developed, a large number of its nations still live in the third-world scenario.

As long as Malaysians are still conquered by the third-world scenario, as long as they are still be conquered by egoism, nothing in this country can go smoothly. Not only commuting trains and buses, but as well as driving. Because once idiots take to the road, no one can drive in comfort and peace.