Zit Seng's Superwall

One of the worst things about driving in Singapore (and perhaps many other cities in the world) is getting stuck in traffic jams. It’ll be really nice if we could all somehow have detailed realtime traffic information about all the major roads in Singapore. The Traffic Watch announcements on radio doesn’t work out very well. You can’t get the information when you want it, because you have to depend on the deejay of your chosen radio station to read off the information. Checking on the Internet isn’t always very convenient, particularly when you are already on the road.

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That’s what I was thinking, ERP for pedestrian crossings, when I came across an article in the Straits Times a couple of days ago. Tap & Cross. Or perhaps Tap, Deduct, and Cross. Yet another interesting revenue generating mechanism for our LTA. Except that it won’t really work, of course, since pedestrians will just cross illegally without using a designated pedestrian crossing. Our pedestrians are often already preferring to jaywalk anyway (and there are times they really behave like the roads are meant for pedestrians).

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I have a suggestion to improve the Bus Service Standards formulated by our Public Transport Council: Include a benchmark that measures the number of times a bus is unable to pick up passengers from a bus stop when there are passengers wanting to board. Impose a fine based upon how badly a bus operator fails to meet the minimum standard.

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While waiting for my car the other day, I looked around the Kah Motor showroom and noticed the new fuel economy label stuck on the windscreens of all the cars. It’s the Mandatory Fuel Economy Labeling programme introduced by our National Environment Agency not too long ago, requiring all vehicles to undergo fuel economy testing, so that buyers can be better informed about the environmental impact of the vehicles they choose to drive.

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I’m here at Kah Motor again. It’s not actually the regular servicing, but rather a follow-up on a problem complaint because they failed to address it during the regular servicing appointment scheduled last week. There was something wrong with the door handle. The service advisor wasn’t listening, and fixed the wrong thing (which I had no complaint about). Car servicing is actually rather a hassle. Even if they provide shuttle rides to the MRT station, it doesn’t really make that much of a difference.

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IT shows are seeing record attendance and sales, condominiums are being snapped up, car prices are rising, and COE prices are surging forward. Aren’t we supposed to be in the midst of a economic crisis? The latest round of COE prices is showing a clear upward trend in prices. The big car category for example, rose from $200 in January to top out now at $16801.

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It would happen again sooner or later. The front of my Honda Stream bumper got nicked by a curb that was just slightly too high, and now there is a streak of black plastic revealed in the front left corner of the bumper. Unlike the previous incident which scratched mostly just the underside of the bumper, this time around the scratch is slightly more obvious from the front.

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$15 car wash? I was quite surprised that car wash has become so expensive. Over the weekend, I was at the car wash at one of the SPC petrol station. The attendant informed me that the car wash price was $13, without vacuuming. I was shocked. I thought it should have been $6. Perhaps I had heard wrong. While the car was being washed, I looked at the price list put up on the wall. $7 for a saloon car, without vacuuming. Hmm, even in this period of economic difficulties, car wash services can still up their prices!

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Ever since I started driving my current Honda Stream, I’ve never been able to get any fuel consumption reading below 9.0l/100km (at least not under “measurable distance in reasonable driving conditions”). But this is what I got recently: 7.9l/100km. I was really happy. It wasn’t even wholly smooth going highway driving conditions. There were some bits of city driving, although much of it was indeed on the highway.

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We all know that proper tire inflation is important. The big question is, what is the right tire pressure? Under-inflation leads to premature tire wear and increases rolling resistance (and hence decreased fuel efficiency). Over-inflation, on the other hand, may lead to decreased grip on the road. My Honda Stream has been running under-inflated for some time. At my last servicing, I had instructed the service centre to have my tires inflated to 250 KPa. I suspected the message didn’t get across.

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