Those of you never use public transportation, vans, buses, taxis, etc. here, may not have noticed what a phenomenon it is here, to drive like your accelerator is an on/off switch. In my early years here, I used to use all sorts of transportation and I was always amazed at what poor control people had with maintaining a constant speed on the open stretches of road. These days I have my own vehicles, but my wife has this syndrome and I must endure it for the times where she is driving. Thankfully that is rare, and she has only a minor case of it.

It is not only vehicles where this problem surfaces. I was in our tea shed the other day listening to the sounds of the valley, and I could hear a guy running his brush cutter. I could tell that this guy had an epic case of the on/off switch accelerator syndrome. I decided to count the number of high/low rev oscillations in a minute. I was astonished to discover that he was revving his little brush cutter twice a second.

I have put in a lot of time running brush cutters, and it is entirely possible to use them at a constant medium rpm in most conditions, some times you got to run them fast, but there never any need to go Braaap braaap braap braap braap like a mad man. It is as if he considered the weed cutting action emanated from the rapid squeezing of the trigger.

This is not a one-off observation. I have seen many people using their equipment in the same manner, with the same mad engine revving technique. Is there a school where they all learned this, or is this just another Asian custom that I will never understand?

Ever watched a Thai using a chain saw. They use it like a knife, backward and forward motion.

Funny buggers 55 I am yet to see one fella around here with a file to sharpen said saw they just go and buy a new chain.

And yes, throtle control is about the same as you mentioned.

I understand perfectly what you are talking about.

The lack of a natural cruise control their hand and feet.

Busses and win-bikes are okay, but the phenomen of that

on/off I encounter many many times in the vans.

 

Getting seasick on the road is possible here.

 

Just now, sherwood said:

Ever watched a Thai using a chain saw. They use it like a knife, backward and forward motion.

Still better then using like it is an axe.

Agree with the OP 100%.

  I often ask "she who must be obeyed"...why is that guy in front braking (while on an open highway) for apparently no reason 

  If he wants to slow down it doesn't seem to register that all he has to do is ease off the accelarator?

 

It works in co ordination with their brains which can be switched on and off at will!

Agree with the OP 100%.
  I often ask "she who must be obeyed"...why is that guy in front braking (while on an open highway) for apparently no reason 
  If he wants to slow down it doesn't seem to register that all he has to do is ease off the accelarator?
 

My wife’s answer to that question would be “up to him” as she’s very sabai sabia.


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14 hours ago, sherwood said:

Ever watched a Thai using a chain saw. They use it like a knife, backward and forward motion.

Funny buggers 55 I am yet to see one fella around here with a file to sharpen said saw they just go and buy a new chain.

And yes, throtle control is about the same as you mentioned.

It comes through being poorly trained in the first place. Bad handling of mechanical equipment is passed down from father to Son usually. But remember if when instructed to do anything properly Thai men , always know everything !! 

7 minutes ago, PatOngo said:

It works in co ordination with their brains which can be switched on and off at will!

Only the privileged few that have them

I've seen quite few of them turn the fridge off in the evening and back on in the morning. With salad in them!

 

Revving enables an enhanced degree of noise-making…which is, after all, the prime factor in getting people to notice and admire you.

 

 

14 hours ago, sherwood said:

Ever watched a Thai using a chain saw. They use it like a knife, backward and forward motion.

I was cutting some trees with my brother a few years back at his place in a suburb of St. Louis. He's a smart guy, an ER physician. He was doing that, too, but without the revving. I fixed that pretty quick. 

This amazed me when I came to Thailand (I know amazing Thailand what can I say?)

When I drive on a highway, I go at a pretty constant speed unless traffic forces me to slow down. In other countries you tend to end up driving in the same pack of cars. My brother in law used to drive me and I noticed (apart from him starting and stalling the car frequently from trying to move off in third gear), that he drives along like a bat out of hell for a few kilometres, weaving in and out of traffic, and then for no reason apparent to me, slows down and drives at about 50kph so that all the cars we passed, pass him again. Then something moves him to drive like a race car driver again. Then he will decide to drive on frontage road for a while.

In a stick shift he drives with his foot on and off the accelerator so that people in the rear of the car get seasick. In an auto trans he alternately puts his foot on the  throttle and then on the brake, again for no apparent reason.

I was tempted to ask him why he drove like that, but since I would get some meaningless garbage in reply I kept my mouth shut and found someone else to drive.

There is some method to their madness with brush cutters. They generally have no idea what is hidden in the brush so tend to rev then cut on the over run. Their theory seems to be less chance of causing damage if they happen to hit something. I agree that it is very annoying.

Sometimes when I'm behind a Thai driven car on a road which has a few bends in it, I start to lose the will to live. It's 40kph max and at every slight curve in the road, the brakes go on. Then when you get a long straight where you can overtake, they take off like a dragster.

 

Bit unrelated I know, but I cringe every time my wife peels an item of fruit, far from cutting towards her, controlling with the thumb, she cuts away inviting the severing of several digits. All Thais seem to do it that way, even the fruit sellers.

47 minutes ago, alanrchase said:

There is some method to their madness with brush cutters. They generally have no idea what is hidden in the brush so tend to rev then cut on the over run. Their theory seems to be less chance of causing damage if they happen to hit something. I agree that it is very annoying.

Their method is not helping them. It is better to proceed slowly when you can't see through the weeds. Their method gives them a 50% chance of revving up at the point of impact. Holding a steady speed does not mean you can't stop just as quick as while rapidly revving. And you save a ton of fuel and wear on your equipment

7000 accelerations an hour on the machine will add up to early breakdowns and no fewer collisions with hidden objects.

It’s about the noise- they’re often simple minded folk who find stimulation in constantly modulating the throttle to hear the exhaust. I’ve often seen these morons on a motorcycle head pointing down and backwards "looking "at the noise coming from the exhaust! 

19 hours ago, donim said:

Getting seasick on the road is possible here

Ain't that the truth. A friend of mine sent his car and driver (of 10 yrs) to pick me to go play golf. It took 3 holes of golf before my stomach calmed down. I got my wife to come pick me up.

5 hours ago, dotpoom said:

Agree with the OP 100%.

  I often ask "she who must be obeyed"...why is that guy in front braking (while on an open highway) for apparently no reason 

  If he wants to slow down it doesn't seem to register that all he has to do is ease off the accelarator?

Yip! The old testing the brakes kaprot.

As Ian Dury sang in "Blockheads" (link)

 

Premature ejaculation drivers
Their soft-top's got roll-bars  ????

I call it 'Binary Driving'....  the Taxi drivers in Singapore excel as such qualities to the point of making you feel nauseous... 

 

 

It's all to do with their miniscule brains overheating and tripping out for a few seconds

I took a van to swampy last week and the driver did this up/down thing too. I wondered why. 

 

When we got inside Bangkok I noticed that this was the only way anybody could drive. Speed up, then slow down. Typical stop and go traffic.

 

So it seems that he locked into that mode regardless of whether it was necessary.

1 hour ago, RocketDog said:

I took a van to swampy last week and the driver did this up/down thing too. I wondered why. 

 

When we got inside Bangkok I noticed that this was the only way anybody could drive. Speed up, then slow down. Typical stop and go traffic.

 

So it seems that he locked into that mode regardless of whether it was necessary.

Probably the only way he knows how to drive. Let's be honest, when Thais are taught something, they rarely question why they're told to do it especially if it comes from someone they consider to be in authority.

On 5/10/2019 at 2:09 AM, Pedrogaz said:

 and then on the brake, again for no apparent reason.

In a country where " brake failure " phenomena is rampant I'd call it a bit of a result being in a motor with functioning brakes even if he was annoying with the on/off accelerating/slowing down .. 

 

they drivers of the boats on the saen saeb klong in bangkok certainly do it, all the time.

 

the other puzzling thing is the driver's inability to consistently bring the boat smoothly along side the piers. they do this manoeuvre thousands of times, there is no tide, current or  much wind to affect them but invariably they need two or three goes to get the boat alongside the pier. strange indeed.

27 minutes ago, samsensam said:

 

they drivers of the boats on the saen saeb klong in bangkok certainly do it, all the time.

 

the other puzzling thing is the driver's inability to consistently bring the boat smoothly along side the piers. they do this manoeuvre thousands of times, there is no tide, current or  much wind to affect them but invariably they need two or three goes to get the boat alongside the pier. strange indeed.

I've got a neighbour who parks her car like that!

17 hours ago, VBF said:

Probably the only way he knows how to drive. Let's be honest, when Thais are taught something, they rarely question why they're told to do it especially if it comes from someone they consider to be in authority.

Spot on. I think this is why Thais were so reluctant for a long time to use their headlights (though they're getting better now). It was an old wives' tale (or uncle's or father's) handed down that headlights "damaged" your battery or used it up or shortened your vehicle's life.

 

Once in the 1980s, I was riding my motorbike through a construction zone in Pitsanuloke. Huge clouds of dust seriously reduced visibility. I switched on my headlight to be seen. Some clown came up alongside, yelling at me (at 30 km/hr), doing me the big favor of informing me my headlight was on. I nodded, switched it off and on. I yelled "I know, it's so I'm seen." He was having none of it, a totally foreign concept to him. He was persistent, and really increased the danger to us both on a loose surface with poor visibility. Delete this if it's too off topic.

I am slowly educating my Thai GF to back off on the accelerator in preference to using the brake coming into corners, and how to accelerate out of corners. She got her licence through a Thai driving instructor, enough said.