Motorbike Madness

Here in the village of Teluk Kumbar on the island of Penang there is a common site that I find quite shocking: adults riding motorbikes with children with no helmets.

If I had a digital camera I would sit by the road side and take pictures of this for a few hours until I had a few hundreds pictures then I would select the 4 best but unfortunately I was using film so I couldn't waste a few rolls just on this. I did not manage to capture any truly shocking pictures but this will give you some idea. I've seen 2 year olds standing holding onto the handle bars. If the adult were to stop suddenly, the kid would be thrown. I see people holding babies and as many as 4 kids and an adult on a single bike! I've seen some crazy stuff. When I get my digital camera, I will have the freedom to take hundreds of pictures and show you that one truly shocking picture.


I'm told there is a helmet law and that anyone riding a motorbike must wear one but half of the people I see on motorbikes here do not. I also see underage kids as young as 12 riding motorbikes. Obviously the motorbike laws are not strongly enforced. I also see teenagers drag racing down a long straight hill on motorbikes reaching speeds of 70-80 mph (110-130 kph or kpj as the signs say in Penang). There is a motorbike shop where they supe up there bikes for speed. I hear that a lot of teenagers get badly hurt or even killed on motorbikes here in Penang because they are so reckless.

After many months I've concluded that so many people break the law mainly because they are poor and they don't have a choice. The motorbike is their only form of transportation and they have 3 kids and when they have to visit Grandma, the 2 year old stands in the basket holding onto the handlebars, the 4 year old sits between mom and dad and the baby is held by mom sitting on the back. I've actually seen this! And none were wearing helmets. And I'm not making this next part up ... I saw them ride over a misshapen part of the road and lose control for a second. Nobody seemed shaken and it was business as usual.

On the day I arrived, the first thing I really noticed driving back to the house was how crazy the motorbikers were. They shared the lane with the cars and weaved in and out of traffic like maniacs. It was quite insane. At stop lights the cars would stop but the motorbikes would continue to the front and pile-up. When the light turned green, everybody starts moving in one mass of motorbikes and cars and slowly start to spread out.

After months of being here I've started to get used to it and I realize now that motorbikes are very convenient because there is very little parking space on this island. Traffic is bad as it is and motorbikes take up very little space compared to cars, trucks and busses. If everyone drove a car, there would be massive traffic jams everyday.

Here in Malaysia they like to have open drainage ditches on the side of the road instead of underground pipes like in USA. My guess is because it is cheaper to make and maintain but it seems to me that it is very dangerous. If you lose control and drive into one of these ditches, you could be severely hurt. Some of these ditches are quite deep.



There is one stretch of road where the buildings are right up against the road. There is no shoulder and there is a drainage ditch with the occasional cement bridge. During rush hour, traffic comes to a stop but the motorbikes continue a narrow path driving between the cars and the ditch. Crazy! But just part of life in Penang and people here are used to it.