Build To Impress

The Flyer
Universal Studios
A380
5 terminals
Casinos > IR....
Marina South development
F1 night race
Youth Olympics

As much as I'm proud of these achievements as a Singaporean, it did make me wonder what is the purpose of winning and building these projects.

To generate tourism? definitely!
To boast our strength as a nation? To impress the world?
To provide jobs? I doubt so..

Why do we need 2 Casinos in such a small country? How many casinos does Malaysia has? Do we really have to go one better?.. These are places that do nothing but harm..to my opinion.. one is already more than enough.. check out the number of cranes on site you are dead sure that they are trying to complete the project as soon as possible.

Whats happening to Sentosa? Whats happening to the environmentally friendly policy of the island. GONE!.. more developments. more modes of transports. car numbers are expected to increase. new connecting bridge. To attrach foreign investors i suppose...

Terminals 1.. Terminal 2.. Budget Terminal.. fair enough.. Terminal 3.. all right thats for A380.. plans for Terminal 4!! thats plain ridiculous.. is that a plan to get back the No.1 spot for being the best international airport in the world? lost to KL, bad loser? why cant they try improving on what they have and not keep on spending tax payers money to build more terminals. I seriously dont believe we need a Terminal 4. maybe the authorities just want to use up every inch of land they have.

Good on them for introducing The Flyer. ah ah.. I don't expect it to last. just not attractive enough. because everyone has it, doesnt mean we NEED to have it. 5 years.. Maintenance Fees will be more than Income.

F1.. impressive, fancy such a small country where traffic is becoming a problem can actually host a F1 race. good for the people. but can we actually handle the event. come to think of it. We, just won't take fail as an answer. what i can expect is, more overtime, less pay, good media reports. We are already not doing very well handling the ticket selling system. all right, is our first, excuse accepted. do we need to fix the CashCard reader on the racing cars? ERP till 10.30pm.

guess being a Foreign Minister wont be that easy in my country. we are continuing trying to impress others. I guess the culture has gotten into the citizens as well long time ago. PSLE, Os, As, Diploma, Degree. remember those days when ur uncles and aunties will call and ask you how well you have done. Thanks for the concern relatives!..

maybe is time to sit down and think how to provide benefits for our citizens, not continuing to trust foreigners, giving residency and benefits to them. population in Geylang will just keep on increasing. even the Tau Huay business is afraid and has shifted further away to avoid the stink.

I've learnt not to believe everything the media reports now. because only the good stuffs are reported. Singapore has certainly changed. Changed for the world.

Public Transport in Singapore > Cabs

Waited for 15 minutes before decided to call a cab for a trip back home from Raffles City Shopping Centre after dinner. 85% of the people that waited @ the taxi stand called for a cab.

Taxi Stand should be re-defined. it is not a location to wait for cabs. It is a location for called cabs to know where to pick up their passengers. Personally, I think it is rather unfair to the passengers for taxis "loitering" around the CBD area, not waiting to pick up passengers, but waiting to press that "$3.50" button on the screen in front of them. yes, as I found out yesterday, many cabs are able pick us 5-7 minutes after we made the cab call. Cabs who got played out did not even want to pick up passengers waiting @ the taxi stand. off they go to their pressing game again.

Both of us happily hopped on the cab after the call. extra charges $6.50. What? before I can figure out what other extra charges are there, the metre has already reach 3 bucks. thats already $9.50. your seats are not even warm yet. Uncle was all right, not the usual grumpy one, upon asking, $3 is an extra charge for services within the CBD from 5pm to 12 midnight. the W word came up again. WHAT!!!! and after 12, there's this midnight charge. i thought to myself: THIS IS HOME, TRULY.

Foreigners says that our cab fare is one of the cheapest in the world. Countries like Australia has the metre increasing like your heart rate. but here back home. Sorry guys, the heart is already pumped before you hop onto the cab.

Public Transport Planners: Is this scheme suppose to benefit taxi drivers or the passengers? is it suppose to encourage drivers to enter CBD area. CBD area should be somewhere accessible, not somewhere forcing passengers to make that call. or is it suppose to increase the use of buses and MRTs.

I guess we will never know the answer, I hope those people making the decisions know the real answers, I'm sure they will never be in our situation. cos they own big cars. Guess at the end of the day, We, the Citizens of Singapore just want to get home safely everyday. No reason is needed which makes your job here much easier.

to own a car, you need a COE
to take a cab, you need to pay EOC > Extra Ordinary Charges.
better stick back to trains and buses
"good" on you singapore, continue to impressed the outside world with casinos, terminals and airplanes. because no one knows the inside world YET! Congrats.

ERP Pricing in Singapore

Went back to Singapore for 3 weeks. Loads of changes. But one issue I can't support is the ERP pricing system in Singapore. Its getting out of hand isnt it? from a traffic engineering point of view.

Yes, I'm proud that we are the 1st country in the world to be able to utilise this system, but this does not mean we have to install it at almost every major road.

First of all, operating the system from 5.30pm to 10.30pm at CTE towards Bishan is ridiculous. Tolls are used for roads maintenance and also to divert traffic away from major roads during PEAK hours. yes peak hours, is quite sad to find out that the peak hours on that road is from 5.30 - 10.30pm (1.5 hours before midnight). Going for prata supper @ Jalan Kayu would cost me another extra dollar.

Second, peak hours does not start at 3.30pm. I find it a joke to find out that I would have to pass a gantry for my trip to Sim Lim Square at 3.30pm where traffic is still smooth. What angers me is that when I decide to make an extra trip to Plaza Singapura. "Beep" there goes another dollar!
I remember before we implemented the ERP system, we would have to buy "coupons" to enter the RESTRICTED AREAS! and gantries are set up to cordon off that particular restricted area to reduce the traffic. Its shit to find out that at current, there are restricted areas within restricted areas. *Bullcrap

third incident > saw a newly installed ERP gantry near Kallang MRT. That's where my family doctor is and the destination is approximately 7 minutes away from my HDB flat. Too add on to my anger, land uses for that vicinity are mainly residential. What is the main purpose of setting up a ERP at this location? to prevent residents from getting cars? I can imagine, next time, I would have to hear that irritating and costly "BEEP" sound when I visit my doctor and making a U-turn back home. Not to mention the ERP at Toa Payoh Lorong 8. Singapore is not a huge country, how can every area be a Restricted Area.

Owning a car in Singapore used to be expensive due to the COEs. I believe that is a very good idea of reducing the number of cars on roads. but nowadays, it seems that the authorities are reducing the price of cars and increasing the ongoing car costs. Really surprised that petrol prices are higher in Singapore than in Sydney. and Sydneysiders are already complaining and pressuring the petrol companies to lower their prices.

just plain pure ridiculous the way the ERP is being implemented.
is hard not to convince me that "they" are starting to be greedy. as usual, not fully taking care of their own people. maybe the money will be used to build Terminal 5 or to sponsor some overseas students from the North-Eastern part of this world. who knows?