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.

I think the way Google Maps shows traffic information is probably the most convenient interface. Combined with location information, the map can automatically zoom in on your current location and show you traffic conditions around you. You can also easily browse over the areas where you plan to travel through.

Right now, Google Maps show colour coded roads that indicate the traffic condition. Simple and concise. There are just two problems with it, imho.

1. The accuracy of the information. I suppose the data being fed into Google Maps just isn’t accurate enough.
2. I’m sure if there is some description of what red, yellow and green means. I know, red is worse than yellow, which in turn is worse than green. But can we translate that into more definitive terms? Maybe even show the average travel speed on that stretch of road.

I’m sure all these will be very handy inputs to route planning, particularly when drive navigation is introduced for Google Maps in Singapore.

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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).

This Tap & Cross is actually to enable elderly pedestrians, with their privileged EZ-Link cards, to tap at the pedestrian crossing to get extended walk times at the crossing. In this way, the standard pedestrian crossing times can be shortened for to cater for the average adult, without holding up traffic unnecessarily unless an elderly pedestrian needs to cross the street.

What would be yet more interesting is for drivers to “buy” green time at traffic lights. Develop some mechanism such that a driver held up at a red light can tap, or in some other way commit to the transaction, to expedite changing to a green light. There may be a bunch of vehicles waiting at the red light, whoever feels the most urgency to turn it green to “pay”, turn the light green, and everyone at the junction then gets to cross. This might be useful on lesser used roads meeting up with a major road when the former gets very little green time.

We can even go further. Drivers cruising down the road could “pay” for a green wave so that the green light is always in his favour as far as is practicable. This would of course be a very useful functionality for emergency vehicles, something that I believe hasn’t been very widely deployed in Singapore (I keep seeing ambulances caught up in traffic junctions). Once you’ve got the infrastructure working for emergency vehicles, it could well extend to drivers to can afford to pay.

Yes, this is the age of consumerism: pay and pay for everything you want and wish for. We are already paying for the right to buy a car, I’m sure the rest of the ideas here are not horribly far-fetched.

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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.

My Honda Stream is officially rated for 7.1 l/100km. That translates to about 14 km/l, for those (including myself) more familiar with the other common metric. Impressive! It is actually better than the similar engine sized Honda Civic 1.8, which is rated for 7.2 l/100km.

You can check NEA’s Fuel Economy Labeling database.

I’ve learnt to never trust the manufacturer’s fuel economy specifications. They seem too optimistic than what is possible with real world driving conditions in Singapore. Many factors are important: driving conditions, engine oil, fuel, tyre pressure, vehicle load, driving pattern (the “heaviness” of the driver’s foot), etc.

But when a national standard for fuel economy labeling is mandated, I thought we would get something realistic for Singapore’s driving condition. The numbers that meet NEA’s blessings, however, still fall far short of the actual fuel economy that I can achieve with my driving.

7.1 l/100km for a Honda Stream is really pretty good, if only that is what I actually get on my car.

Nevertheless, a national standard for fuel economy labeling will make it much easier to make comparison between cars. It’s a good thing to have.

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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.

The curbs in Singapore are built too high. It is somebody’s smart idea that high curbs improve pedestrian safety, because it makes it more difficult for a car to accidentally mount a curb and collide with a pedestrian. I wonder if it has actually been shown statistically or otherwise that the high curbs do (or not) in fact make a significant difference in vehicle-pedestrian collision rate.

One thing for sure is that many other developed countries have gotten by with much lower curbs. (I don’t know about the vehicle-pedestrian collision rate in those countries of course.)

I wonder about the cost of all the damage caused to cars due to excessively high curbs.

Thankfully I still have touch-up paint. But my dainty paint brush has gone missing. So after giving the car a quick wash, I applied some touch-up paint using tissue paper. It touched-up area looks quite rough, but that is also partly because the plastic has really been scratched rough. It looks like it might need some hard polishing to smoothen out the area. I think I will save that for another time.

My Honda Stream is “stock”. No additional body kit or what not. But it already cannot clear many curbs. It must be so much more difficult for others who have add-on body kits.

Somebody should invent a mechanism to help determine whether the car will clear the curb height. It is going to be a pretty useful device.

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Four vehicles pictured here have been wheel clamped. Many more were seen elsewhere in the car park. The car park enforcement van was still around, with the officers busy wheel clamping more cars. I’m impressed by the size of their arsenal of wheel clamping devices. I just wonder how many wheel clamps they have altogether. How many cars can they handle?

This is at one of the car parks at NUS. This one is open to public parking, and sometimes it gets way over-crowded. There are times when it is so bad that every possible way to illegally park will be occupied. You can’t even illegally park, because there is simply no way to do so unless you want to obstruct traffic.

I hope not to get wheel clamped. Sometimes I have to illegally park too.

One thing I’ve noted of late (the last many months) is that parking in town has become a lot easier than before. Probably a sign that lesser people are spending time shopping or partying in town.

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I wonder why ban valet services? This HDB car park is perpetually overcrowded. I imagine it is a win-win-win situation. Drivers are happy. Valet service providers get to earn a few bucks. Ultimately HDB also benefits from more income from collecting more car park charges. So I’m puzzled why HDB doesn’t welcome valet services, so long as the valet services don’t do anything unfair like reserving or hogging lots.

Interestingly, the sign at the entrance of this car park at Holland Village reads: Use of Valet Services is NOT allowed in HDB car park. It seems like using the valet services is disallowed. But it is okay to provide valet services. Of course, I guess HDB’s reasoning is to get rid of the demand, and where there is no demand, the supply will go away. However, I’d think if they are going to bother with any enforcement at all, then just go for the suppliers.

The car park at Holland Village is bad. It’s not impossible to get a lot of course, it’s just that you need lots of patience. If I have to go to Holland Village for lunch, I make sure I arrive before 12 noon. Forget about driving to Holland Village on Friday evenings. There were a few more car parks previously, but they’ve all given way to the MRT construction works.

Why does HDB disallow valet services? I imagine as long as everyone still has a fair chance of getting any available lots, the valet services seem like a value add.

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Yeah. Parking Idiots is back as parkingidiotsg.blogspot.com. We get to air our parking grouses somewhere again! I would have preferred an Idiot Drivers blog site, because a good many of my driving grouses are with other drivers’ driving habits, not just about their parking skills. But alas, you’d have to take a picture right? How to take a picture while you’re driving? So okay then, from a practical point of view, I suppose we could just focus on parking idiots first for now. Please help make this site a success!

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I wonder what has happened with Parking Idiots blog? Some drivers just need to be shamed publicly. I thought this site was doing a great thing but it doesn’t seem to have had any activity in over a year.

Perhaps the recent festive season and holidaying has enabled me to travel around Singapore more frequently, so with more driving and more parking I get more opportunities to run into idiotic drivers. What some drivers do are just incomprehensible. Sometimes it seems like they’re out to frustrate other drivers than anything else.

Pictured here, a car “parallel parking” across two vertical parking lots. It is just simply ridiculous.

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