How To Take It Easy On The Road

The festive season is a time for celebration and a time for fun – gatherings with family and friends, indulging in the delicacies, taking a break from the hustle and bustle of urban life; it’s basically a time to chill.

This Hari Raya break, some of us will be making long trips; I have a couple of friends who literally have to drive from one end of Peninsular to the other and join the thousands of others who will be on the roads at the same time. In an ideal situation, every vehicle on the road will move at the same speed and there will be no congestion or stop-go moments. But we know that situation doesn’t exist as we’ve seen in the traffic simulator.

So how do you save your sanity and keep your blood from boiling so that you will still be in the mood to celebrate? Besides that, how do you stay conscious and alive? Here are some useful pointers:

Plan Your Travel in Advance

Plan your travel time and allocate some time for congestion and pitstops (especially when you’re traveling with children or seniors). Moving slowly or idling in traffic sucks up fuel so make sure you start with a full tank.

Thankfully in this day and age, we have smartphone apps like PLUS, Waze and Google Maps to provide us live updates on the traffic situation ahead. Even if you don’t have any of these apps (which is unlikely) there is still the PLUS website to inform you, as long as you have mobile data connection and a web browser on your smartphone. But so as to be doubly safe, ALWAYS get your co-driver to check these apps or websites for you. Your attention should be on the road.

Stop To Rest

If you are driving a good distance, always allocate some time to chill or use the toilet. Bear in mind that with the high number of road users expected during the Hari Raya season, every rest stop will most certainly be crowded. So remember not to wait until your bladder can’t keep it in anymore before you stop.

Personally, I plan for one stop for every 2 hours of driving to stretch the legs and get the blood flowing as well as to have a toilet break just in case. It also breaks up the monotony for the children.

For example, on the PLUS Expressway (which is the most-used highway), there are 11 major rest and service areas each, in either direction. These have restrooms, petrol stations, eateries, ATMs etc.; there are smaller rest areas in between which offer more basic facilities.

The major rest areas on the PLUS Expressways are:

Northbound

Southbound Use Cruise Control

If your car is equipped with cruise control, make use of it if traffic is smooth. Then the throttle is one less thing to worry about. Better yet, if your car has adaptive cruise control (like a Ford), your drive will be even less stressful as all you need to do is set a speed and distance to the vehicle in front and let your car move accordingly, adjusting its speed according to the car in front and maintaining a safe distance.

Here’s a short video on how adaptive cruise control works (I personally rate this one of the most useful features in a car):

These pointers are of course subject to the actual situation you will be in come traveling time and should be adjusted to suit the situation. And as tempting as it may be, please stay off the emergency lane.

Safe travels.