Zit Seng's Superwall » driving

Courtesy is for YOG too

Zit Seng — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 09:48:32 +0000

After so many years of courtesy campaign, it seems our Singapore 2010 YOG still needs to learn a thing or two. Have you seen the GIVE WAY signs on the roads and YOG buses? They scream “get out of my way”… much like the Mandatory Get Out Of My Way scheme for public buses. I know, we should all be proud to be the country selected to host the inaugural Youth Olympics Games. But can we not have some politeness? I wonder if the organizers have considered the kind of image they project?

It’s not like the YOG buses are emergency vehicles such as fire engines, ambulances or police cars. It’s just regular chartered transport to ferry people from place to place. Sure, they are guests to our country, but still, it’s not like they are VVIPs that everyone else needs to get out of their way.

I’m not saying I don’t want to give way. I probably will. I’m just asking if they could make the give way signs more friendly. See my suggestion. Just add a simple word. “Please”. It’s not going to take up any more space on the sign. If you ask nicely, perhaps more drivers will make way.

“Courtesy is for free. Courtesy is for you and me, and YOG…”

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Privileged Parking

Zit Seng — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 01:10:40 +0000

Here’s privileged parking for green motorists at this shopping centre on Orchard Road. If you have a hybrid, CNG, or electric car, you get to use one of the two green lots next to the lift lobby. It’s even more privileged than the single lot reserved for families with baby strollers. Yeap, the family lot is actually further away. Incentive to go green?

Interestingly, while the car park, at least on this floor, was almost full, these two green lots remained unoccupied. It seems like not many green motorists visit this place.

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Teach Pedestrians How To Walk

Zit Seng — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 02:44:04 +0000

After complaining about cyclists, the next is about pedestrians. Actually, by and large they are quite okay. Pedestrians are slow moving. Apart from the occasional inconsiderate people who walk in a sufficiently large group to obstruct an entire footpath, it’s not as if we really need to come up with rules or guidelines about how pedestrians should use their footpaths. That’s assuming, of course, they stick to their footpaths. I think, the trouble begins when they start using the roads.

Often times, I see pedestrians walking on roads. One of the possible reason is that the footpaths are interrupted repeatedly by driveways into private landed properties, and which sometimes are occupied by vehicles, thus causing inconvenience to pedestrians having to weave in and out around them. Or perhaps the footpaths are not straight enough, not level enough, not wide enough, etc. Never mind all that.

Some pedestrians, however, simply forget they are on a road or crossing a road. Or they take it for granted that motorized vehicles will give way to them. For example, the other day, while I was walking towards a traffic junction, coming to a stop because it was “red” for me, I saw a jogger zipping past me, in the same direction, right into the crossing. He didn’t even slow down, pause to look for traffic (yeah, perhaps you can argue that he could have surveyed the traffic before reaching the junction, but obviously he failed to do so in this case), but simply jogged across the junction as if the road wasn’t there. Then, it so happened that a pick-up truck came along, had to jam brakes, to avoid this jogger. He was startled for a second, but then simply continued to complete the crossing, without so much as to apologize for having caused panic to the driver.

Then just this morning, this time I was driving, a pedestrian wearing a pair of earphones, strolled in the middle of a road. First of all, I think all pedestrians should learn this basic thing: For goodness sake, you need your ears to hear traffic. Please don’t put on any earphones or headphones when you are near the road. So, anyway, obviously this pedestrian was oblivious to my car behind him. I got impatient after a while and gently-as-I-could sounded my horn. He turned around, startled, then gave the kind of unfriendly look as if you say “what’s your problem”. Hello, this is a road.

It’s particularly a problem on smaller roads, car parks, private estates, etc, where some (too many) pedestrians simply don’t care about the difference between footpaths and roads. It’s almost as if they’ve decided they belong on the road and deserve to share the road with motorized vehicles. Perhaps they are inspired by the cyclists’ fight to share the road.

I think, we need some pedestrian education.

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Alongside Cyclists

Zit Seng — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 03:24:35 +0000

I used to cycle around a lot, on the roads. That was over 10 years ago. I think I was a well-behaved cyclist, keeping to the side of the road, not getting in the way of motorized vehicles. Back then, the danger was with drivers not looking out for cyclists on the roads, not having awareness of their presence, not knowing how to react to their movements.

The last couple of months, the issue of cyclists has cropped up many times in our media. Should they be sharing footpaths with pedestrians, or should they share the roads with motorized vehicles?

On footpaths, cyclists could be a threat to pedestrians. On the roads, cyclists are threatened by fast-moving motorized vehicles. Everyone’s talking about how there could be a win-win situation. In Tampines, they’ve decided to share footpaths. Elsewhere, cyclists are expecting to share the roads.

I am fundamentally against the idea of cyclists on the roads. That’s why I’ve got to mention that I was a regular cyclist before. I’m also a driver. I think I have a balanced view from both sides, and I think, our cyclists have an attitude problem. Not all, but a fair representation of them. Alright, I’m not saying that drivers are not to blame, but I believe their attitudes towards cyclists have remained largely the same over the years. That’s not the same for cyclists.

Back when I was cycling, I was mindful of drivers. As dangerous as it might have been for cyclists, I think cyclists and motorized vehicles shared the roads quite well.

But today, it seems cyclists have decided that they have rights and are determined to claim their space on the roads. The attitudes have changed their riding habits. They are taking up whole lanes, cycling 2 abreast, taking up whole lanes on the rightmost or centre of a multi-line road, making turns from the wrong lanes, making brave attempts to overtake motorized vehicles only to slow down the vehicle they had just overtaken, etc.

It is just totally ridiculous. When I look at some of these cyclists ride, it shows that the cyclists actually do think they have an absolutely equal right to be on the road just like a motorcycle. Never mind that they are not licensed, they don’t pay road tax, they are not insured, and they are not equipped with safety gear. But they want to ride more wildly, albeit far far slower, than a motorcyclist.

Before we can have cyclists co-exist with pedestrians or motorized vehicles, cyclist must learn to be more friendly with the people whose space they want to share. At least, until we have a cycling lane, its either a footpath or a road.

Update: I later re-read what I wrote and realized my message didn’t quite come out the way I meant it. I am not fundamentally against cyclist on the road. But we need clear direction about where they belong and how they (and others, be it drivers or pedestrians, if applicable) should interact with others.

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Realtime Traffic Information

Zit Seng — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 07:13:09 +0000

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.

The accuracy of the information. I suppose the data being fed into Google Maps just isn’t accurate enough.
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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ERP for Pedestrian Crossings

Zit Seng — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 09:06:49 +0000

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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Fuel Economy Labeling in Singapore

Zit Seng — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 09:05:22 +0000

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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Bumping The Curb Again

Zit Seng — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 11:30:31 +0000

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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Today Is Wheel Clamp Day

Zit Seng — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 10:25:09 +0000

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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Why Ban Valet Services

Zit Seng — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 08:43:51 +0000

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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