This article first appeared in Digital Edge, The Edge Malaysia Weekly on July 5, 2021 - July 11, 2021
Lately, I’ve found myself wondering about probability; likelihood; chance.
Euro 2021 is going on right now. According to odds aggregator bettingodds.com, France is the country most likely to win the tournament. Its chances? About 22.2% at the time of writing. France is blessed with one of the most enviable talent pipelines in global football. And yet, it barely has a 20% chance of going all the way.
What about lobsters? Did you know your chances of netting a blue lobster on a day out in the ocean is about one in two million?
A yellow lobster, on the other hand, is a one in 30 million chance — an extraordinary number. You literally have a better chance of being hit by lightning (one in about 2.3 million) than catching a yellow lobster.
What if I told you, I have those odds beat?
It’s true. A couple of weeks ago, I witnessed one of the strangest, most incredible things I’ve ever seen in my life. I was driving in Mutiara Damansara when I came across an app-based delivery rider. And no, that wasn’t the incredible thing, in case you were wondering.
The only reason I even noticed him was because this particular individual had two handwritten messages on the back of his large, box-shaped delivery bag: “Doalah ku mudah rezeki” (Please pray that I make a good living) and “Selamat ku pergi, selamat ku pulang” (May I leave home safely, and return home safely).
I was struck by the sincerity of the messages. It was almost as if he wrote them as a reminder for the rest of us road users. Given the long hours he spends on the road, I imagine he is well aware of the increased risks he faces as a last-mile delivery rider.
The quotes were barely legible, as they were written pretty small to begin with. I tailed the rider over a particular traffic light-laden section of Mutiara Damansara, but only because I was curious to see what he’d written on his delivery bag.
It was a few seconds later when I had turned back to head to my office that I realised the rider had obeyed every single traffic light. I followed him through three traffic stops, and he stopped at each!
What were the odds? Should I have made a note of his number plate and bought a lottery ticket? I certainly did feel like I was struck by lightning, such was my shock at the realisation.
The whole thing was in stark contrast to what I had seen over the last 12 months. App-based delivery riders speed past red lights, ride on the wrong side of the road, and take shortcuts and turns that just boggle the mind.
This gentleman, however, had his eyes trained on the road ahead. He certainly was not fiddling with his phone. Meanwhile, he was being passed by multiple other app-based riders, all of whom were speeding past red lights like it was second nature to them.
In fact, one of the most amusing things I saw over the past year was a delivery rider riding on what was a clearly designated pedestrian sidewalk. He pulled up to the pedestrian crossing and then waited, on his bike, while the traffic light shone green for me.
He waited for the light to turn red, and then crossed on his motorcycle, after which he resumed riding on the other side, still using the pedestrian sidewalk. I suppose I should have been grateful he was following some law; just not the ones that applied to him.
This is not to say that flouting the traffic laws is uniquely limited to the pandemic. I’ve seen my fair share of delivery riders speeding past rush hour red lights with reckless abandon.
This is not limited to any one app by the way. I see this happening with just about every app on the market, dominant player or ambitious upstart.
Look, I think it’s great that these apps are out there in the market, helping to keep the economy moving along. But why do they (and the authorities, presumably) turn a blind eye to the obviously illegal and dangerous antics that these riders get up to?
I think it’s only fair that other users start forcing the issue with these apps, because the way their fleets use the road, it is only a matter of time before tragedy strikes. It’s not unreasonable to expect delivery riders to obey traffic laws, just as all road users must.
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