MOTORISTS will soon not have to worry about that dreaded beeping sound which indicates low or insufficient funds in their CashCard.
In fact, they will no longer even need a CashCard in their car to make ERP payments.
By around mid-year, a new service will allow drivers to pay electronic road pricing (ERP) charges when they settle their monthly credit card bill.
This development was part of the Land Transport Masterplan, which Transport Minister Raymond Lim launched yesterday.
With this change, we no longer need the cashcard. I wonder if it applies only to ERP gantries or all gantries.
CAR owners could get tens of thousands in hard cash when they scrap their vehicles, instead of a paper rebate that offsets taxes in the next car they buy.
Transport Minister Raymond Lim announced this measure on Sunday to make it easier for Singapore residents to give up their cars for public transport.
He was speaking at the launch of the Land Transport Masterplan, a 101-page paper encapsulating changes of the Land Transport Review which he announced in January.
'As I said when we launched the Land Transport Review, we will leave no stone unturned,' Mr Lim said. 'So this is one more stone that I'm turning up to have a look at it... to see if it can be done.
Will this make people give up driving? I don't think so. This is because it is already possible to convert the PARF paper value to cash, albeit at a discount.
This is the latest move by LTA to encourage drivers to switch to public transport. This is one of the carrots. I'm sure we'll see some sticks in the future.
SINGAPORE : Consumers are going to have pay more for their NETS CashCard come May, as it will include the cost of the CashCard as well.
They will have to fork out S$10 for a CashCard - comprising S$5 for the cost of the card and S$5 for the stored value amount.
Consumers can expect to see fewer blue CashCards costing S$7, which includes S$5 for stored value and S$2 for a refundable deposit. It is still available but only while stocks last.
First thing that came to my mind: should I go out and buy a new cashcard? My current card expires in 2010.
Is a cashcard really so expensive to manufacture? The ezlink card also costs $5. Even if so, why do these cards have a 5-year expiry date?
(SINGAPORE) New office buildings and shopping malls coming up in the central areas of Singapore - especially in new downtown Marina Bay - are likely to feel the full force of existing rules limiting the number of parking spots allowed for each building.
And with a whole slew of commercial buildings nearing completion over the next few years, a severe shortage of carpark lots is imminent. New 'white' sites, such as the Marina View land parcels, get just one carpark spot for every 425 sq m - or 4,575 sq ft - of commercial space. White sites can be developed into a combination of uses.
Developers are allowed to provide more spots, but at the expense of giving up office or retail space. As yields for commercial space are significantly higher than those for carpark lots, most will not do so.
One thing is certain: parking rates are going to go through the roof!
My guess is that the rates will be $1/15-minutes for the first two hours and $2/15-minutes subsequently. The idea is to allow short duration visitors and discourage long duration parking — drivers without season parking.
I wonder if motorbikes are allowed to park? More and more buildings are already disallowing motorbikes.
Pump prices are affected by many factors. A key component which makes up about 50 per cent of pump prices is the cost of petrol and diesel. This cost, known as wholesale fuel prices, is traded internationally at commodity markets and is not set by ExxonMobil. Like other internationally traded commodities, wholesale fuel prices are the result of the actions of thousands of buyers and sellers operating in a global marketplace to efficiently allocate available supplies for competing uses. The same applies to crude oil prices.
Our refinery in Singapore purchases over 90 per cent of the crude oil it processes from third parties and is subject to market fluctuations. Wholesale fuel prices, although a key component, are not the only determinant of retail pump prices. The other factors are taxes and duties which make up about 30 per cent of pump prices, and the remaining 20 per cent comes from land, operating costs and margins.
The breakdown of pump prices in a nutshell:
| Wholesale fuel price | 50% |
| Taxes and duties | 30% |
| Operating costs and margins | 20% |
Petrol excise duties (per litre), from Ministry of Finance, budget 2003:
| Premium petrol | $0.44 |
| Intermediate petrol | $0.41 |
| Regular petrol | $0.37 |
SHELL pump prices (per litre) as of 28 March 2008:
| Grade | List | 5% off | Before GST | Before duty |
| V-Power | $2.279 | $2.1651 | $2.0235 | $1.5835 |
| Formula 98 | $2.160 | $2.0520 | $1.9178 | $1.4778 |
| Formula 95 | $2.086 | $1.9817 | $1.8521 | $1.4421 |
| Formula 92 | $2.053 | $1.9504 | $1.8228 | $1.4528 |
| Diesel | $1.613 | $1.5324 | $1.4321 |
Most petrol companies have tie-up with specific credit card companies, giving their users an additional 5% discount. It is not known who pays for this.
NO MORE forms to fill at the roadside. No more queueing at inspection centres. And no more hunting for workshops which are willing to make third-party claims for you.
All you need to do the next time you are in a motor accident is to call your insurer.
It will do the rest for you, including sending a surveyor and, if needed, a tow truck - plus supplying a replacement vehicle where feasible.
The General Insurance Association (GIA) said yesterday that its 29 member companies expect to launch the 'one-stop' service in May.
The move is being introduced in another bid by the association to control motor insurance losses, which hit a five-year high of $103.2 million last year - a big jump over the $625,000 in 2006.
Previous efforts included setting up independent damage assessment centres and requiring motorists to fill accident statements at the site of accidents.
GIA president Derek Teo said yesterday that the losses can be attributed partly to motorists sending their accident-damaged vehicles straight to workshops - a practice that has often made it difficult for insurers to survey the damage until much later.
This, said Mr Teo, has led to contentious claims and litigation which drive costs up unnecessarily.
I have two ideas.
First, it's time to introduce an excess element to third-party claims. Let it be possible to pay lower premium by setting an excess level, say $1,000 to $10,000. The insured either pays upfront, pays in installment or just give a pledge. As the co-payer, he now has the incentive to make sure the other party make correct claims.
Second, increase the premium (a foregone conclusion), but increase the NCD too. This gives people incentive not to get into an accident. However, this may also increase the number of hit-and-run drivers.
If your car is between 30 and 35 years old, it may not qualify as a classic yet.
This is according to the Land Transport Authority's Classic Car Scheme, which was introduced in 2000.
But from March 24, owners of such cars can pay for a five-year COE first and then re-register the car as a classic when the car turns 35, before the five-year COE expires.
A classic car pays only 10% of the prevailing COE quota premium (PQP) and a flat $280 annual road tax. In exchange, the car can only be driven 28 times a year. It must also be inspected yearly.
Converting a car to the classic car scheme is a step that must be considered seriously, for it is irreversible.
There is also another scheme, called the vintage car scheme. It is identical to the classic car scheme, except that it applies to cars before 1940. The difference is that you don't have to pay import taxes (RF, ARF and excise duties) for them.
FROM April 15, roadside electronic signboards will help motorists in the built-up Marina Centre area zero in on available parking lots.
The Land Transport Authority's (LTA) parking guidance system will list the number of available lots in all major buildings in the area.
It is expected to cut down on the time drivers spend circling the area looking for parking.
This, in turn, should reduce traffic in the vicinity.
Whenever I'm in that area, I always wished for underground carpark connectors. Roadside signboards are much cheaper, though.
There's too much things going on the ground level: foot traffic, junctions, waiting cars and so on. What we need to do is to separate them.
First, no foot traffic. Buildings should be linked at the third level. This will allow faster traffic at junctions.
Second, no roadside waiting. Not even loading and unloading. You want to do so? Go into the building's underground boarding/alighting zone.
Third, faster carpark throughput. ERP gantries are able to scan cars going past at 100 km/h, yet cars need to come to a stop before the carpark gantry?
Melbourne will introduce a change to their public transport on 31 March. Passengers who arrive at their destinations before 7 am on weekdays will travel for free.
Personally, I think it's a great idea to vary the fare according to the demand. However, I don't think it'll work exactly the same way in Singapore.
First, don't expect free rides in Singapore. What will happen is that the transport companies will charge you "subsidized" rates for the off-peak period and normal rates for the peak periods.
Singapore buses start at 5:30 am or 6 am. Surprisingly, the buses at 6 am shift can be quite full, due to the lower working class — cleaners and such — making their way to work. From 6:30 am onwards, the buses will be full of students.
Train-wise, if you want people to take advantage of the early rides, you need feeder services to start earlier too.
A letter to ST proposed a pollution tax on petrol.
There is already have a tax on petrol. While it's not pollution tax per-se, it can be viewed as a fuel efficiency tax.
Also, cars older than three years old need to pass yearly inspection. This ensures that older cars remain within their operating specs. (Unfortunately, it seems easy enough to circumvent the inspection...)
Lastly, cars older than ten years pay higher road tax. This is a pollution tax, as the rationale is that older cars are worse than newer cars.
Some people suggested turning on hazard lights during heavy rain. LTA disagree, saying it's impossible to tell if the car is going to change lane. For me, hazard lights is for stationary, or going to be stationary, vehicles. If people use hazard lights while on the move, how do we tell if a vehicle is stationary?
Yesterday, I detoured 5 km to refuel. I had no choice, my tank was empty. Given the petrol price of $2/l and my FC of 22 km/l, I spent 45 cents to refuel. Since petrol stations are seldom directly on my usual routes, this shows that refueling has a cost to it. 5 km is much longer than usual. I usually need to detour just 1 to 2 km.
My vehicles have been giving me lower and lower fuel efficiency.
| Vehicle | FC |
| YBR | 37 km/l |
| CB400F | 22 km/l |
| MX-5 | 9.5 km/l |
The YBR used to give 43 km/l for a few tankful, but I was never able to repeat that. It then hovered around 40 km/l, but had dropped to 37 km/l now.
The CB400F used to give 25 km/l, but now it has dropped to 22 km/l.
The MX-5 used to give 9 km/l, but after changing the oxygen sensor, it is now giving 9.5 km/l. This is still very low — the manual gear MX-5 is supposed to be able to achieve 12 km/l for mixed driving.
It is important to know what causes the FC to increase, as it could be a symptom of engine problem.
The YBR only has two things that can affect FC: engine oil and tyres. I am using 15W-50, which isn't exactly fuel efficient. However, my records show that the FC dipped from 43 km/l to 40 km/l the moment I changed the tyres. So, main suspect: tyres. Perhaps it's time to tune the engine too.
For the CB400F, I think the reason is that I ride it too infrequently. I discovered that if I ride a bike frequently (like everyday), the FC is lower.
For the MX-5, I also suspect the tyres. That is why I have been wanting to change to a set of lighter 15" rims. I have done almost everything I could think of. I have just used injector cleaner fluid to clean the fuel injectors. Let's see if it makes a difference. The things left to do: check timing belt, doing a compression test.
I'm using 10W-40 semi-syn oil in my car right now. I didn't know what was the previous oil used, so I chose this as a compromise. My intention is to use 10W-30 oil in my next oil change, and finally 5W-30.
I want to use 5W oil because I seldom drive long distance. My usual commute is 20 minutes, and oil takes 10 minutes to warm up fully. Using 5W instead of 10W means that the oil follows better in the first 10 minutes.
I want to use 30 oil so that the car will be more fuel efficient. Ironically, it took me some time to find a 10W-40 oil, while 10W-30 oils were all over the place. 10W-40 was recommended for old cars. The 40 means thicker oil, which older cars "need" because they are "used" to it. Using thinner oil could lead to leaking valves and gaskets. However, later I read that 30 oil was fine too.
5W-30 is the lowest I'm willing to go for my old car. For new cars, I would have gone for 5W-20 oil. I was rather surprised when my brother sent his car for his 1000 km servicing and the dealership used 5W-40 oil. I wouldn't use 40 oil on a new car. It lowers fuel efficiency, but more importantly, if you use 40 oil for a long time, it may not be possible to go back to less viscous oil.
For my bikes, I'm using 15W-50 mineral oil. If you ask me, now I think it's a mistake. I wanted 15W-40, but it wasn't available. I will use something more fuel efficient, like 10W-40, then finally 5W-30.
I'm not particular about the brand, so any one works for me as long as the price is right.
I was on my way home on the PIE, on the second lane, behind a red Honda Fit. We were going about 80 km/h. I wanted to go to lane one, but there was a train of cars going at 90 km/h there. Just then, I heard a loud sound from behind. A Subaru then appeared on my right, realized lane one was "jammed" up, rev'ed up and weaved in-between me and the car in front, rev'ed up again, weaved to the third lane and finally weaved back to the second lane. I lost sight of him after that.
There were just 2 car lengths between me and the car in front, so this definitely counted as dangerous lane changing.
It is times like these that I wished I have a full-time video recorder in my car...
After checking that the hot book that I wanted was available at the Central Library, I dashed down from my office to borrow it. Time was of essence. Only two out of thirty-one copies were available; the other was at Woodlands library.
Bad timing. It was evening rush hour. However, there seemed more traffic than usual. I got to the library uneventfully. I usually park some distance away — free parking — but this time I parked within the Central Library. Time was of essence, remember?
I got the book.
Since the library charged a flat rate of $1.05 per entry for motorbike, I went nearby for dinner to "maximize" the parking usage.
When I came back, the carpark was full and there were cars waiting for lots. Shouldn't the gantry prevent cars from entering? One driver wound down his window and asked me what I parked my car! I told him I was riding.
When I left the carpark, I saw a queue of cars before the gantry, waiting to enter. So the gantry worked. Why were there cars waiting for lots in the carpark then? I suspect it was because some lots were reserved, for handicap or blocked, hence the gantry's count and the actual number were different.
It costs $2.05 per entry for cars after 5 pm. This is cheap. Across the road, Bugis Junction is also charging in the same ballpark — $2.14 per entry after 5 pm. Needless to say, both carparks are always full after, say, 6:15 pm. You want a place? Go early.
My next stop was Marina Square. The road there was packed. There was really more traffic than usual. I wonder why.
Marina Square doesn't charge motorbikes, which I like very much. Unfortunately, I usually do not have any reason to go there. Anyway, the carpark was full too. You could see cars parked illegally within the carpark. I don't have a problem with illegal parking as long as it doesn't block others. I checked and found that Marina Square charged $2.14 per entry after 5 pm.
Full carparks are a daily occurrence. On the way back, I saw a long queue of cars waiting to turn into Raffles City Shopping Centre. The queue had spilled to the main road, causing the rightmost lane to be useless. Raffles City charged $2.50 per entry after 5 pm. Yesterday, I waited about 5 minutes before I could get into Tampines Mall — this is considered fast already. It charges $1.60 per entry after 5 pm.
Many malls still have per-entry charge. Is it time to remove it? Per-entry charge encourages the driver to spend the entire evening there, even though he may want to be there for an hour only. The driver could be tempted into buying stuff the longer he is there, but this prevents other drivers — who are sure spenders (for the first hour, anyway) — from going into the mall in the first place!
In other words, you want to churn the parking lots. Instead of earning just $2 per lot per evening, you want to earn $4 or even $6 per lot!
I joined a friend for dinner at Changi Village yesterday. It was raining and I was riding, but it didn't deter me. I'm fine with riding in the rain as long as some conditions are fulfilled. We'll come to that in a while.
It was about 40 km from my office to Changi Village. I went by ECP, then Changi Coast Road. An arguably shorter route would be ECP to PIE to Loyang Avenue. On my YBR, it costed me about $2, given that petrol was $2/litre.
When I was on Changi Coast Road, I was in lane 2 (the left lane) and going at 70 km/h. Two buses and two trucks overtook me with ease. They must be 10 to 20 km/h faster than me! I was amazed. Now, my speedometer could be off, so I could be really going only 60 km/h. It was claimed that the speedometer for class 2B bikes were faster by 10%, but I doubted that.
When I arrived at my destination, I was wet all over. My raincoat wasn't effective at all. Either that or I don't know how to wear my raincoat!
First, water sips into through the collar. My whole chest gets wet. The severity depends on the rain, the duration of the ride and the speed I'm going. I still have not determined how exactly the water sips in.
As a rule-of-thumb, I can expect this if I ride above 60 km/h for ten minutes in moderately heavy rain.
Second, water sips in through the crotch of the raincoat's pants (it's a two-piece raincoat). Needless to say, this makes the crotch of my pants wet, making it look like I have urinary incontinence! Luckily, it isn't that obvious if I'm wearing dark colored jeans or pants. However, it is very uncomfortable.
I was perplexed how the rain managed to find its way there. A few months back, I accidentally folded the bottom of my raincoat and found water collected there. It finally struck me where the water came from — the water flowed down the raincoat and then into the crotch!
I now fold my raincoat to collect the water. It is not a cure, but it delays the inevitable. My pants still get wet after riding for ten minutes in moderately heavy rain.
The last thing has bothered me since day one. The water sips into my shoes, making me very uncomfortable. My solution is to wear slippers and change back to my shoes when I reach my destination. I have been wanting to buy rain boots for a long time, but so far I have not done it.
I hope to find a (cheap) solution to stay dry so that I can at least ride in peace when it's raining.
No car owner can run away from pumping air into their tyres. How often to do it? A good guide is once a month. To tell for sure, you need to measure how much air is left before you pump. I've done such a test. I found that the air can last for two months. To be safe, I overpump by 10%. It'll slowly drop to -5% in two months.
Another milestone: all petrol prices, including RON92, are now higher than $2! Let's not panic, RON92 is still below $2 after discount...
Petrol prices are still creeping up. I know what we'll see when petrol approaches $2.50 or $3 — petrol thieves! Petrol is quite easy to steal, actually.
Many people like to pump RON95, RON98 or even V-Power to give their vehicle that extra boost. Please, go and read up what RON means. Just use the lowest RON your car accepts. (Read the manual.)
Who hasn't seen this coming? I hope new car owners take running costs into account.
So far, when I drive into Orchard area, I don't care about the cost — I already know it's going to be expensive and yet I make the choice to go in. The other 95% of the time when I do care about the cost, I either don't go in, or ride in. Thankfully, there are still free or cheap parking for bikes.
I saw the yellow light switched to red from a far distance away. Far meaning further from the third traffic arrow. As I was going 60 – 70 km/h, I knew I couldn't make it in time and hence stopped. It took a while to stop; it was scary. When I almost came to a stop, I looked back to make sure no one was behind me. It was an empty road and people were prone to speeding. None. I applied the brakes to come to a full stop.
I stopped right on the line. At this point, a black car approached me from behind at a high speed. It didn't seem like it was slowing down! When it was about to reach me, it quickly filtered left and overtook me with just half a car's clearance. It went across the junction on clear red lights — the lights turned red when I came to a stop. It was a good thing the traffic on the perpendicular (minor) junction hadn't moved yet.
It's things like this that (i) make me want to record my trips, (ii) make me want to join the traffic police, (iii) show why we should never show leniency. The first caught attempt is often not the first attempt.
One thing worth noting is that I always press the brakes if there's no car behind me. This is to let the approaching cars see me clearly. If there's a car stopped behind me, I usually don't press the brakes.
I don't see many convertibles with their top down, even in good weather. Why do they buy convertibles? Of course, it could be the case that they are not driving top-down for mundane drives. But if that's the case, then they are using very little the feature that they paid a premium for. With the top-up, a convertible feels worse than a normal car — the tradeoffs are inherent for a convertible.
For me, as long as I'm sure I won't get stuck in a rain, I'll drive top-down. It's pretty cool in the morning until about 10 am. When it's hot, I turn on the air-con. The only time I need to think twice is from 11 am to 3 pm. If it's a short drive (20 minutes tops) and no jam, I'll do it. But I'll apply the sunblock lotion first. The evening is fine as long as the car's interior is kept cool beforehand.
It seems to be raining everyday. It was dry season the past two months, yet I didn't ride my CB400F much. Now I can't ride it anymore!
Taxis are now only allowed to stop at taxi stands in the CBD. Needless to say, this is not a popular move. Personally, I feel this should have been done using Singapore's pay-and-pay approach: if you want to board/alight outside of a taxi stand, pay $5 extra.
Using "market forces" has the advantage that LTA now has the "moral" upper hand. It's not that they don't allow, but that you can't afford it.
After observing a friend drive his new car:
My friend initially drove very well. Unfortunately, he reverted to p-plate driving style after hitting a kerb.
I paid my road tax without the radio license and I thought that was it. I just received a letter from MDS asking me to either pay up or to cancel my license. I wonder why it isn't automatic.
Update: I canceled the radio license, but MDS still wanted me to pay the partial amount from the radio license's due date until the date I canceled it. I appealed, of course. I wrote that it was obvious that I removed my radio set before I renewed my road tax.
MDS replied that they "would need you to forward to us supporting documents by 15/3/2008 to substantiate your claims that the radio set was removed from your vehicle since 1/1/2008, to enable us to further assess your case."
I don't have proof, of course — I removed the radio myself, leaving an ugly gap in my car while waiting for the case part to arrive. The case part is still not here and there's no invoice.
I'm not happy, to say the least. However, this will be my last payment for my radio license.
Remember your lane when you make a right turn and when you cross the traffic light!
When you make a right turn, if you're in lane 1, you should still be in lane 1 after the turn. There are some junctions where you turn from lane 1 to lane 2, but these are less common.
It may appear strange that you'll lose track of your lane after crossing a traffic light, but it can happen because some traffic junctions are not perfectly straight.
The bike beside mine in my MSCP had three parking fine tickets. The first was on 18/2 12:33 am, the second 21/2 11:40 pm, the third 23/2 8:56 pm. The timings show that you cannot predict when the parking wardens will do their inspection.
I took note of the tickets at 6:50 am this morning, so assuming the owner had not applied for season parking, the wardens had not come for 5 days!
The bike was very dusty, so it looked like the owner had not been around for a while. He shouldn't have parked at the season lot. It's $25 per ticket!
Update: I saw a new parking ticket on 2/3 4:26 pm. This is Sunday, so don't think parking wardens don't come on this day!
I have decided, for the good of my colleagues, to give up my chance in the season parking draw. (Out'ed drivers in the last round are automatically given a lot.)
There are two public mailing lists on the email server: a list of drivers and a list of managers. If you correlate the two, you'll notice 50% of the drivers are managers!
It's true that managers are more senior and higher paid, hence more likely to drive. However, it also looks like there is a hidden policy that managers are given season parking.
A friend of mine bought a new car. Let's see how much his car dealership earned from him.
| Paid | 76,711.50 | ||
| OMV | - | 21,205.00 | |
| Excise duty | - | 4,241.00 | 20% of OMV |
| RF | - | 140.00 | Registration fees, fixed |
| ARF | - | 23,325.50 | 110% of OMV |
| GST | - | 1,781.22 | 7% of OMV and excise duty |
| COE | - | 15,989.00 | |
| IU | - | 150.00 | |
| Dealer's profit | = | 9,879.78 |
The price paid excluded road tax and insurance.
The dealership put in a bid of $19,200 for the COE, so it was willing to earn a profit of $6.7k.
The dealer's profit is 12.9%. In Singapore, it is strange that more expensive cars have higher markup! It is not unusual to find even more expensive cars with markup of 20% to 30%! This is ridiculous, because even with lower percentage, the dealer is already earning more in absolute terms.
A high markup works against you when it comes to selling your car. It is usual for car dealers to lower a car model's markup over its lifetime. Suppose your car is 3 years old and you could sell it at 70% of the new car's price. However, a new car is only 85% of what you paid for, so you only get 60% of your original price!
Note that it is not always the car dealer's fault. Falling OMV and COE also contribute to high depreciation.
Is scrapping against the kerb on the first day of collecting your car embarassing? Perhaps. But if someone does laugh, he is probably not a car owner. Car owners will feel the pain, because it reminds them of their first accident.
I only get to ride my CB400F once a week. That's way too few times. I resolve to ride it more often this year.
Current timetable (most often):
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| To office | YBR | MX-5 | YBR | CB400F | MX-5 | YBR | YBR |
| To home | YBR | MX-5 | CB400F | YBR | MX-5 | YBR | YBR |
I don't like to drive the MX-5 on Friday because I dread looking for a parking space on Friday!
Proposed new timetable:
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| To office | YBR | YBR | CB400F | MX-5 | YBR | CB400F | YBR |
| To home | YBR | CB400F | YBR | MX-5 | CB400F | YBR | YBR |
I'm not able to ride the CB400F on weekends for two reasons. First, I'm too cheap to put three $0.65 coupons per weekend. Second, if I need to run errands, I need the YBR for its box. The lack of storage on the CB400F also means no raincoat.
I used to be able to ride the CB400F on weekends cos I used to live closer to my office. Want to swap bikes? It's just 8 km and 10 minutes away. Now it's 15 km and 20-25 minutes away.
This new schedule means that I will be under-utilizing my MX-5! I'm trading one problem for another! It is not as bad as I still drive the MX-5 on weekends sometimes — as long as I'm sure parking isn't a problem.
Once I get my season parking back in April, I will be able to drive the MX-5 more often:
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| To office | YBR | MX-5 | CB400F | YBR | MX-5 | CB400F | YBR |
| To home | YBR | CB400F | MX-5 | YBR | CB400F | MX-5 | YBR |
The load will be distributed more evenly among the three vehicles.
This morning, a ST1100 silently and effortlessly overtook me when he lane changed into my lane — with ample safety distance. I was struck by the bike and the rider's riding attire. The blue ST1100 was very sleek with its integrated designed side boxes and its presence on the road was very imposing. The rider was wearing gloves and a riding jacket — a rare scene locally.
The closest I can approach the ST1100 is if I buy the Majesty 400. I will consider the Majesty 400, but not the ST1100. I don't go touring, so I can't justify the ST1100. Even if I go touring — this would be a rare event — the Majesty 400 would be good enough for me.
It is a dream of mine to tour Malaysia's countryside. I wonder when I will actually do it. I'm not into food, so the purpose of my trip is mainly to take in the sights and relax.
What's the biggest problem? Language. In Malaysia, it's essential to know Malay. Don't expect anyone to know even rudimentary English. On the other hand, I don't know Malay at all.
The second problem is food. I'm a semi-vegetarian, so together with language problem, it may be difficult to find food I can eat. But I'm not a true vegetarian, so it's fine with me as long as there is no meat — I don't need a real vegetarian outlet.
The third is safety. I'm not too worried about robbery, but I do worry about theft.
As for timing, I'm not planning to do it on a weekend. I think I'll rather take 2 days leave and do it on weekdays.
It was on my mind to get a pair of riding gloves for a long time, but I never got around to it. I finally did it today when I ride out to buy a ticket for the $10-million Toto draw.
Riding gloves are all so ugly. There are none in all black. Then there are weird hard plastics on the gloves — for better protection for the back of the palm perhaps — but they are so ugly!
I didn't wear a riding jacket too, mainly due to the hot weather. I'm planning to wearing a normal jacket more often, though.
I reached my MSCP carpark around 5:30 pm yesterday — I usually leave before 5 pm if I were driving, but I don't usually come home straightaway. I had just finished fixing up the headlights and was ready to leave when my brother drove into the carpark.
Since it was still early, we decided to go take a look at the rims/tyre shop recommended to me. The Subaru showroom was also on the same road, so we planned to go there as well. The final destination was a hawker centre down the same stretch of road, but in opposition territory.
My tyres are near bald. Should I change to a new 16" tyres or should I change to 15" rims/tyres? The shop quoted me $680 (net) for 16" Michelin PP2 and $810 for 15" rims + Michelin PP2 tyres. I have been undecided for a long time. One problem is storage: where am I going to store the 16" rims? Thus, I may change just the tyres after all.
I'm trying to find out the rim offset of my brother's car. If it's compatible with mine, we can swap rims! (He's also looking at 15" sports rims.)
I read that the Michelin PP2 tyres are quiet. I like that. Quiet is good.
We later went to the Subaru showroom. We tried out the R1 and R2 — I'm obsessed with the R1. I tried out the rear seats of the R1 for the first time and I was disappointed it had so little clearance. 5 cm longer would be perfect.
My car's headlights were pretty dim. I always thought it was because the bulbs were old. I took them out a few days ago and discovered they had a blue cover on them — to give off white light. No wonder they were so dim!
Now that I have removed the blue covers, the headlights are much brighter. I got to admit that white lights look better! *grin*
Maybe I'll put back the blue covers when I get the Philips Xtreme Power bulb. It's supposed to be 80% brighter than standard bulbs. However, it's also much more expensive — $72 a pair vs $12 for normal ones. I'll live with yellow light for now.
I sat in my brother's car once again. I was driving out of the carpark when he drove in. I was going back to JB. I SMS'ed him if he wanted to go back. He originally said he was too busy, but you never know. He said okay, and he offered to drive back.
Despite my best effort, I could not help but comment on his driving:
At one right-turn only lane, he claimed it was not necessary and showed me that the entire queue of 6 to 8 cars didn't signal as well.
How about my driving? Turned out that I sucked too. Ha ha ha. I drove my brother and father to dinner, as my father said I was more familiar with the road. I usually don't get to drive when my brother is around. However, I can defend most of my driving.
At one time, I kept very close to a pickup at one point. However, that was after I did a quick lane change. I had let off the accelerator and my foot was on the brake. So it was totally safe.
When a car tailgated me, I sped up. I do this when there's only one lane or I am not able to give way. I think this is courtesy. Of course I don't go to very high speed, just slightly over the road's speed limit. My father was wondering why I drove at such a "high" speed over curvy roads. The car overtook me at a bend — he was very impatient. I was outside and he was inside. I wanted to give him more space, so I delayed my turning. It looked like I couldn't turn in time, but I could. The car made a wide turning (due to his speed?), so he came very close to me. That's his problem.
At another point, when I was turning left into a left filter lane, I could see a car going across the junction. However, when I was in the left filter lane converging into the road, I couldn't see it in my right side mirror, so I thought the road was clear. I lane changed. The car then appeared beside me! I stopped my lane change. I was rapidly coming to the end of the filter lane and it was kerbed. I was going to hit either one! Luckily, the car overtook me quickly and I was able to turn out after it. This was a close shave.
A friend asked me, after reading my entry on my brother's poor driving skills, if it were necessary to signal in a turn-only lane. His reasoning was that it was so obvious.
Well, the turn signal is not for you nor the cars behind you. It's for other road users as well as pedestrians. They may not know it's a turn-only lane and do not expect you to turn.
This morning, I had to brake very near the car in front — I almost knocked into his bumper! I usually don't make such a mistake, so it got me wondering why I didn't slow down earlier. It then dawned to me: the car's brake lights were not working!
I had already observed that the car in front of me was close to the car in front of it — it was a long queue of cars — but since the car didn't slow down (by the brake light), I thought the queue was moving. I was surprised to find myself approaching the car faster than usual.
So two lessons: one, we take cues from other road users. Two, look ahead.
My brother bought a new car, so I calculated how much his car dealership earned from him.
| Paid | 60,084.50 | ||
| OMV | - | 16,615.00 | |
| Excise duty | - | 3,323.00 | 20% of OMV |
| RF | - | 140.00 | Registration fees, fixed |
| ARF | - | 18,276.50 | 110% of OMV |
| GST | - | 1,395.66 | 7% of OMV and excise duty |
| COE | - | 14,052.00 | |
| IU | - | 150.00 | |
| Dealer's profit | = | 6,132.34 |
10% is the norm for an entry-level car. The dealership put in a bid of $18,300 for the COE, so it was willing to earn just $1.9k!
Note that the price paid excluded road tax and insurance.
If you grow up in the '80s, you'll remember Robotech. However, don't mention the name before old school anime fans, they'll go postal on you! This is because Robotech is actually stitched from three separate animes: Macross, Southern Cross and Mospeada. I'm thankful for Robotech for introducing me to these three anime, but that's as far as I'm willing to associate with it. I prefer to watch the three animes as they are.
In Mospeada, a motley crew of seven people made a journey from South America, where the lead character crashed, to North America, where the enemy base was. Four of them rode Mospeada, a motorcycle that could transform into the rider's armour.
I often wondered where I first got the inspiration to ride, and I wondered if the seed wasn't first planted by this show. This was because Mospeada showed the crew riding carefree and going on a journey filled with adventure.
When I ride my CB400F, I get the same carefree feeling as I watched the crew riding their Mospeadas. I feel I'm ready to go on an adventure.
You can't lend out your bike cos the insurance covers just one rider and one named sub-rider. If you do, your license will be revoked together with the rider's.
A car is different. Anyone with a valid driving license is allowed to drive any car — as long as the car has valid insurance cover. This doesn't mean it is safe to lend other people your car. What if something goes wrong? Who pays for what? There is a big grey area that isn't covered.
Thus, I came up with this agreement from hell.
I, ___________________________, IC no. __________________, (the borrower) would like to borrow the vehicle no. __________, vehicle model ___________________ (the vehicle) from ___________________________, IC no. __________________, (the owner) for a duration of _____ hours starting from ______________ (date), ________ (time).
I declare that I have a valid class 3 driving license during the above mentioned duration. I acknowledge that the named vehicle's mileage when I got it is ______________ (km) .
I agree to the following terms and conditions:
If I am unable to pay up within a period of 5 days, the owner will go after my estate, then the guarantor, then the guarantor's estate.
| ______________ | ______________ | ______________ | |
| Name | |||
| NRIC | |||
| (The borrower) | (The guarantor) | (The owner) |
If you sign this, I'll hand over the keys. No questions asked.
Note that I'm only lending out the car for a short duration, in terms of hours. I'm not renting the car out. I don't even ask for the petrol to be reimbursed as I expect only short trips of less than 100 km.
A normal sedan car's footprint, if replaced by a bus, can hold 16 passengers! Thus, a car should be charged the equivalent of 16 passengers. Note that I do not count the safety distance, because in jams, the cars are bumper to bumper.
A motorbike only has a footprint of 2 bus passengers, so it should be charged twice as much. This assumes the best case where two bikes are side by side.
Yesterday, I had to use my cashcard on three occasions. First, I entered the city. It was green light all the way to my destination — usually I remove it at the first red light. I was so afraid I would forget that I kept murmuring to myself when I was looking for a parking lot at my destination. I forgot to take out my cashcard twice last month. It was a miracle it wasn't taken.
The second time, I had to cross a ERP gantry. I removed it on the first red light after I exited the expressway.
The third time, after I exited from a carpark. This one was trivial. I just stopped by the side of the road and remove the cashcard. This carpark's ERP reader couldn't detect my bike, no matter how I shifted the bike front and back, left and right — on a slope some more! Luckily, I was riding the YBR.
It's time to have a GIRO-based IU to make life easier for motorcyclists.
Update: I just realized that the theft might just shift to the IU itself! While it may be harder to steal the IU, it can be done with the right tools and it costs more to replace!
I cover my car when I park at my office's open air carpark. I feel prolonged exposure to the sun will cause the paint and the interior to fade. Also, I don't want any bird dropping on the cloth-top! This is also why I prefer not to park under trees.
I used to worry people would steal the cover — it costed $65 — but I thought it was unlikely as it was for a small car. I looked around for a few weeks before I found this size. The usual size is M or L, for normal sedans (M) and SUVs (L).
I only cover the car in my office. I don't do it outside even when I park under the sun. There are three reasons. Firstly, it takes a few minutes to fold and unfold the cover. Secondly, it's the regular exposure that hurts, not irregular ones. Thirdly, I wait for the engine to cool off before I cover the car. To help with this, I leave the bonnet open for 10 to 15 minutes.
The cover was packed into a very small size when I bought it. I have never been able to pack it back to the same size. The best I could do was 1.5x its packed size. To achieve this, I need to pack very carefully to make sure no air is trapped on every folding. But usually to save time, I just pack the cover to thrice its packed size. This takes up approximately 20% of the boot space. If I am in a hurry and I just throw the cover into the boot, it can fill up the entire boot! That's how small my boot is.
Last Friday marked the last day I sent my brother to work. He got his car the next day and he will be driving to work today onwards.
Yesterday, I chanced upon him when he parked at the carpark. I just woke up from my "afternoon" nap (it was 8 pm) and looked out of my window to take a look at the carpark. I told my brother repeatedly that if he come home late, he'll have to park at the top floor, so I looked out to see that I was right. (He said I was wrong the day before; so I was.)
I saw this car trying to perpendicular park, but doing a bad job at it. He went into the lot very slowly. Finally, he went in and out of the lot twice or thrice, but there was no visible improvement. His car was still slanted in the lot and very close to the car on the right.
Hmm, that looked like a new driver. Could it be my brother? (He has newest car in the carpark.) The color matched — from what I could tell under the subdued lighting. The car number? I couldn't tell for sure, but it seemed to match. 95% confidence. I called my brother. It was really him! Ha!
Since I haven't had dinner, I joined him and we went to the Central for dinner. My brother was gracious enough to offer to let me drive (unlike me, ha ha). I didn't take it up — I don't like to drive a car I'm unfamiliar with at night.
It was a short drive, but as usual, my brother drove quite badly.
He turned directly into lane 2 instead of lane 3 (the leftmost lane) when turning out of the carpark. No big deal when there are no cars, but this indicates willingness to take shortcut if the situation permits. I could see a car approaching very fast in lane 2, and my brother still took his own sweet time to turn out. And then he took an extremely long time to lane change to lane 1 (we wanted to make a right turn), so much so that the car behind him honked him lightly.
It was green light at the junction, but was it safe to turn right? The cars opposite the junction that were trying to turn right were blocking the view of cars going straight. Was it truly safe? I would have waited, but my brother turned anyway. The pedestrian lights were still blinking. I asked him if he checked the pedestrian crossing? It is very dangerous to turn and then find you have to stop before the pedestrian crossing, because you will be blocking the traffic then.
He also turned into the wrong lane.
At the next junction, he did not signal when he wanted to make a right turn. I asked him why. He said the lane was a right turn only lane, so there was no need to signal. I wondered why driving lessons were so quickly forgotten.
One thing that absolutely categorized my brother as a newbie driver was that he like to stop way before the car in front. In one instance, when he approached a taxi that was stopped before a red traffic light, the traffic light turned green at that instant so the taxi would move off, yet my brother braked almost to a stop two car lengths away from the taxi. I asked him why? He said the taxi was stationary. Well, it would have moved off by the time you reached him. Slow down, sure, but stop?
Why am I so critical of sloppy driving? I only make these remarks to new drivers, because I wonder why they "forget" their driving lessons so quickly. I believe in having a lot of margin on the road. The more margin you have, the less likely an accident will happen. If you don't have any margin, just one oversight (by you or others) will cause an accident. When you have enough margin, you need perhaps a combination of 3 to 4 things to go wrong at the same time to have an accident. The driving school teaches a very conservative method of driving, which gives a lot of margin. Somehow, new drivers like to give very little margin to look like seasoned drivers.
Anyway, on the way back, I said it looked like I wouldn't be welcome back on his car, so I better make all the comments I could!
So I have lived without season parking at my office for two months. Do I need it? No. But do I miss it? Sure.
With or without the season parking, I only drive once or twice (usually) a week. There are several reasons. First, I have two other bikes to ride — I can only find time to ride my CB400F once a week! Second, I need to go to office early to get a good lot and leave before 5 pm to minimize the parking charges ($2 flat after 5 pm). Third, it's very expensive to drive the car anywhere else (parking kills), so I try not to drive if I am running errands. So, twice a week.
I'm reimbursed up to $75 per month for office parking, so it works out fine; it costs $9 to $12 per day. (I pay a little from my own pocket, that's fine with me.)
What's so good about season parking then? The difference is, I can leave the car in the office and ride the CB400F back; I keep the CB400F in office to save on HDB season parking. Now, to ride the CB400F back, I must ride the YBR to work and then swap bikes. (It's free to park bikes in my office.) Since I can't pair the car with the CB400F, it restricts when I can drive and when I can ride the CB400F. Very irritating.
March is time for the next round of balloting. People who got shafted in the last balloting (ie, me) are guaranteed a lot. Even so, low usage drivers are encouraged to give up their lot and claim the $75 instead. This isn't realistic. $75 just allows you to drive 6 to 8 days. Even a low usage driver normally drives 10 to 13 days. I requested the claim to be increased to $100, but I was rejected.
Do they think I'll give up my lot? I hope they are not holding their breath.
I discovered a natural way to keep the car interior cool in the evening. This allows me to drive top-down comfortably in the evening. The trick is simply not to let the heat build up in the first place by winding the windows down when I park the car. This is okay because I cover the car with a car cover and leave nothing — nothing at all — inside the car. The boot can only be opened using the car key.
The main problem is, the car cover has been blown away by strong winds a couple of times. And I need to remove the car cover before it rains. The cover is not entirely water-proof and leaks in a few places.
Before this, it was very uncomfortable to drive without air-con in the evenings. It took a few hours to dissipate the heat, so the interior continued to be hot until 9 pm.
This time really huat liao. The changes to ERP are more extensive than I thought.
The five "neighbourhood" gantries to activate on the 7th of April are morning ERPs, from 7:30 am to 9:30 am. No surprises here.
The first major change is in July. The five new Singapore River Line gantries (as LTA calls them) operates from 5 pm to 8 pm on weekdays and 10 am to 8 pm on Saturdays. This is hardly surprising. What is surprising is the timing for the existing CBD ERP to be changed to 7 am to 8 pm on weekdays. This is an hour longer than before. The Orchard Cordon ERPs are also changed to 10 am to 8 pm on weekdays. This is two hours earlier than before.
Commonwealth Avenue, Jalan Bukit Merah, Alexandra Road AYE (westbound) near Alexandra Road, PIE (westbound) near Eunos will have morning ERPs. Serangoon Road will have evening ERP. No details yet.
It is official that the peak period is until 8 pm. Bus lanes are until that time, same for taxi peak hour charges.
A 19-year old chap managed to kill two of his passengers when he inconsiderately drove his Lancer into a ditch on old Upper Thomson road.
These young drivers are giving new car owners a hard time. The insurance for new car owners will go up, but the high accident rate will remain because these drivers are often driving their parent's car.
It has been noted that the Feburary COE price may drop due to anticipation of the 10% decrease in ARF in March. Good point, I didn't think of that.
I expect the COE to increase in March. The buyers are already willing to pay a certain amount. The reduction in ARF will attract new buyers. To fend them off, the current buyers have to increase their COE bid — by 10%.
The COE will then taper off as the new buyers are more price sensitive.
I expect the COE to increase again next April when the COE quota is reduced. This remains to be seen because the demand may have softened due to the higher usage cost.
I only hope that in August 2011, when it's time to renew my COE, it still remains affordable. Will I renew if the COE is $20k? Most likely. $30k? I have to think about it. $40k? I really have to think about it.
The new direction seems to encourage people to switch to public transport, rather than just shuffling cars around. LTA announced major improvements to the public transport too. And unlike last time, the changes may actually work:
The first two are really self-inflicted. Why were the bus and train (especially train) services reduced during peak hours in the first place? Not very customer oriented.
Bus routes were removed when they duplicated train routes. However, bus routes never exactly duplicate train routes. Bus routes have more stops and hence are more convenient, although slower.
This Mr Lim (the transport minister) sure took his own sweet time to announce the changes to the transport system. It took him three times to finish saying everything. Finally, the changes for car ownership and usage are out:
Reduction of ARF has two effect. First, new cars will be cheaper by 10%. Second, it'll be harder to sell older cars due to their higher paper value. Will cars really be cheaper by 10%? I doubt so. I suspect the 10% savings will be diverted to the COE, if the demand remains the same. It has been noted online that the 10% cut translates to only 5% savings, because LTA returns you 50% of ARF at the end of ten years.
When the COE quota is reduced in April next year, COE may go up once more. Hence, the best time to buy a car is from March 2008 to April 2009. However, maybe next year there will be another cut in ARF.
The road tax discount is a very nice gesture to existing car owners. At least it reduces their pain since the new measures reduce their car value in one way or another. It is extremely helpful to me cos I'm paying 150% road tax (>= 15 year old car).
The changes to the ERP rates are long overdue. $0.50 is a joke. Will you detour for $0.50? I don't think so. $2 is a better detriment. Increments of $1 is also more effective, given that LTA revise new rates at quarter intervals.
The new gantries are a killer. The 5 gantries that have been constructed will be turned on April 7th: the gantries at Upper Bukit Timah Road, Toa Payoh Lorong 6, Upper Boon Keng Road, Geylang Bahru and Kallang Bahru. When the LTA announced these last September, it said they will only be turned on when traffic condition deteriorates. This lasted only 7 months...
There will be five new gantries on roads along the Singapore River area on July 7th. These are at Eu Tong Sen Street, New Bridge Road, South Bridge Road and both sides of Fullerton Road. This is the first time there are gantries inside the CBD.
There will be six more gantries at Commonwealth Avenue, Jalan Bukit Merah, Alexandra Road, AYE (westbound) near Alexandra Road, PIE (westbound) near Eunosand and Serangoon Road on November 3rd. I wonder if these gantries are towards the city or away from it.
The ERP has been raised from $0.50 to $1 at some gantries at certain times. It's not surprising. $0.50 is totally ineffective. Would you detour for $0.50? I don't think so.
What is telling is the increase in price for the 7 am to 7:30 am slot at the CTE braddell gantry. People are going to work earlier. Will we see ERP starting before 7 am? That would be a first!
Suppose you're a passenger in a car and the driver got into an accident. Do you have to pay? What if you're the one who asked him to drive you somewhere?
Personally, I think the driver has the sole responsibility. If the driver asks me to pay, the friendship ends immediately.
Here's a scary thought: how long can you hold onto your car if you're not working? Will you give it up?
Even if you don't drive it, a car still easily uses up $400 to $700.
So there are people who spend $500 to $1000 on taxi fares per month and now they think it's more worth it to buy a car.
Bad news for them:
I got the impression some of them took 10-year loan to keep the running cost similar to taking a taxi. I wonder if they realized what it meant: it's a 10-year committment!
Yet another fatal high speed collision/accident. It's usual to hear calls to raise the minimum driving age. It's true that young blood craves speed. Also, they don't know the consequence of speeding.
However, I disagree with increasing the minimum age. I'll say we should let insurance take care of it. Increase the premiums for young drivers!
What about youngsters driving their parents' car? Make it compulsary to name drivers under 25.
With higher running costs, more people are now interested in carpooling. I like carpooling, but it requires a lot of committment for both the driver and the passengers. It's not easy to pull off.
This is a bad time to get a car. There are so many adverse changes to driving:
It is usual to include the car installment as part of the car's running cost. What if a person has fully paid for the car? In this case, it is then usual to use the car's depreciation in place of the installment.
I don't agree with this. It's not money out of the pocket, so you shouldn't count it as part of the running cost.
So I let my brother drive my car today. Just a short distance, from our home to Toa Payoh Hub, where we had our breakfast. Guess what? A ton of mistakes.
First, he didn't do any pre-ride checks. No checking of side and rear mirrors. At least he checked the gear was neutral before starting the engine.
Second, he navigated the HDB carpark slopes badly. Wide turning. Failed his crank course!
The next one was the most dangerous. When turning out, he failed to position the car properly. The car looked like it was going to turn right when we wanted to turn left. It was difficult to turn out because the cars were going very fast and there were many pedestrians (there was a school nearby).
It was a 3-lane road. I knew he would be confused if I told him to turn into lane 3, so I told him the leftmost lane. When I saw a car stopping before the junction, I told him it was safe to turn out as it was blocking lane 3 for us. He turned out into lane 2 directly and said he couldn't turn into lane 3 because a taxi was there. I was shocked. "What are you doing? I said the leftmost lane! Leftmost!" He then said he thought lane 3 was the rightmost lane. I never even said lane 3, I said the leftmost lane!
My brother doesn't understand relative instructions. The last time when I told him to change lane "before the bus", he told it to mean "in front of the bus". No, before the bus means behind the bus. It's from our point of view, not absolute positioning. Shall I mention we nearly collide with the bus?
Finally, he controlled the clutch very poorly. The car jerked every time he changed gears.
Thankfully, it was over soon.
My brother claimed he was not used to the car. He said the last time, he handled the Civic much better on the second day. That was because there was no one around to criticize him, I told him. Poor means poor.
It's only the third week of the year and I already got fined!
Yesterday, I went to Kallang Leisure Park. It was described by a friend as "a place where birds don't lay eggs". Still got fined.
I should have realized it when I see all the bikes have parking coupons on them. I usually take note of such things, but this time I thought no parking attendents would come to this place because it was remote and deserted. Apparently not.
I tried two rounds of Daytona, once with manual transmission and once with auto transmission. The first round was disastrous. It was too easy to crash, so you need to change gears very often. It was difficult to determine when to change gear due to lack of feedback. Usually you change gear by the engine sound. Auto transmission was easier because now you just need to floor the accelerator and slow down before the curves. Still, I was lousy.
The world's cheapest car: Tata Nano at US$2,500. Some specs:
How much would it cost if it were sold in Singapore? The OMV should be about S$4,000. Base cost is $9,440 (after Customs duty and ARF). If COE were $15,000, the car would cost S$24,440 before the dealer's profit.
This car reminded me a lot of the Subaru R2. Just a sidenote, I'm infatuated with the Subaru R1. If only it were cheaper.
A friend told me that his Kah Motor Sales Engineer told him that you need to earn $3k/month to qualify for a 0% down-payment 10 year old $75k car loan at 2.38% interest.
The installment works out to be $773.75/month, or 25.8% of your pay. I think banks are more lenient than that: 30 to 35% should be fine.
Before you sign on a 7 or 10 year car loan, think very carefully if you will ever consider early redemption. If you do, it's better to opt for 3 or 5 year loan. The interest for car loans is calculated upfront. If you redeem early, you'll get back some interest rebate according to the rules of 78. This is always unfair to you.
LTA used to control the car ownership using COE since 1990. It then added on ERP to control the car usage in 1998.
Controlling car through car ownership vs car usage, what's the difference?
If car ownership is restricted due to quota, then COE will increase due to supply-and-demand. So, it's very expensive to own a car. But once you have it, you'll enjoy good traffic conditions and easy parking.
With car usage control, you have many cars, just not many on the road at any one time. However, parking is always a problem.
I posted this on one of the car forums:
You have to ask the people, not the Government. A car is one of 5Cs. You don't hear about it much these days, but owning a car used to be a target in the 90s. The other 'C' that has been devalued is the credit card.
When ERP was implemented in 1998, the drivers then were screwed over too. They paid sky-high COE and they still had to pay ERP? Same as us now, in 2008. We were comfortable with the existing ERP and now LTA wants to up the rates and put up more gantries?
While more ERP is bad for the existing drivers, would-be drivers will take it into account whether it's worth buying a car or not. My gut feeling tells me that people will still buy without much consideration, then bitch about how expensive it is to drive -- forgetting that it's ERP that makes it "cheap" enough to buy the car in the first place. (Unlike many others, I agree with Mr Lim here.)
Also, it's not like LTA is not trying to improve the public transport. After the circle line is up, I suspect the ERP rates will go up even further to discourage car usage. And a lot more bus lanes will be added to improve the bus operations. So, nothing but worse driving experience in the coming years. But I'm sure you'll still stick to driving.
LTA has already announced 5 new gantries in November last year. ST reported them once again now that they are near completion and this caused another round of complaints. What's the big deal now? It's the same gantries.
I came across a blog entry advocating people not to be pillion riders. I can understand where he comes from. He is targetting young Malay guys who could only afford to ride and bringing their girlfriends around without giving sufficient care to safety.
I think it's age related; you're more daring when young. It's not due to courage, but immaturity. I regretted not considering riding in my early 20s, but I also thought that if I had done so, maybe I wouldn't have been here already!
I find it hard to convince people to take up riding. I also found it hard to get pillion riders — guys and girls. They think riding is unsafe. Sure, it is. That's why riding safely is important. Then they say you can only do so much because other people may bang into you. Well, looking out for others is a part of riding safely.
People who don't dare to be pillioned no doubt value their lives. They also don't trust me, the rider, to keep them safe. They missed a very important thing: that I also value my life.