Yup, it’s back to the office on a Tuesday evening with a new seat and a new view! Heh heh… Met up with 2 guys (unnamed) for a project discussion before they head off shopping for a bag. Hmm… that didn’t sound quite right, did it?

Today’s a slow day indeed. No pies, no puffs. Just good ol’ plain Tazo Chai Tea Latte with more foam, less milk and 4 pumps of Chai. Or so I thought. Sitted at the entrance was a lady with a MacBook Pro. Suddenly, I realised how good (I am resisting the use of the word “sexy”) a lady looks with a MacBook Pro! Really makes me feel like getting one.

Anyway, I was supposed to talk about my tea, ain’t I?

So, here’s a view from where I was seated. No, the lady wasn’t meant to be in the shot, but somehow, she ended up being in it. Serious.

Hmm… ladies with MacBook Pro do look good. Really good.

This is really an expired entry because all the gantries should be in full force by now. I wrote an entry previously about the extension of the ERP to more places in November and was wondering how effective it would be. At some point or another, I was wondering if the ERP charges could be pegged to a demand curve as did the COE with the quota system.

Till date, I was wondering if there is any mechanism that can effectively measure the prevailing speed from point A to point B before an ERP gantry. If this can be effectively done, then perhaps one novel way of pegging the ERP charges to the prevailing speed is to first measure the speed and then using the numerical speed (categoried or uncategoried) to determine the prevailing charges.

I would like to suggest the following formula to calculate a possible prevailing ERP charge:

ERP charge = $1.00 + [(X-Y)/10]*($0.50)

Seems complicated? It’s really easy. X is the value of the acceptable speed on expressways, which I believe is 40km/h. Y is the value of the current prevailing speed. So what [(X-Y)/10]*($0.50) means is that for every 10km/h that is below the acceptable speed of 40km/h, an additional $0.50 will be added to the flat ERP charge of $1.00.

Let’s take an example. Say, the current prevailing speed is 30km/h. So the prevailing ERP charge is

$1.00 + [(40-30)/10]*($0.50) = $1.00 + $0.50 = $1.50

So the next question is, how do we measure the prevailing speed? Well, if they could measure the speed of cars throttling at high speeds, they probably shouldn’t have too much problem measuring that of slower vehicles.

Honestly, I don’t think it is *the* solution, but I guess it’s something that really lets the drivers determine how much they want to pay and let them time themselves. A jam is a jam is a jam. Over time, drivers will learn to regulate their own timings. Of course, I am assuming similar behavior as I would expect in unsupervised learning, and whether it would really work depends on a lot more factors.

Hand in hand with the use of such formula could be a lower flat rate, and perhaps additional charges in steps of 5km/h or 10km/h; a longer morning/evening ERP timing since profits earnings collections from the gantries may potentially be affected - it’s a win-win situation where the government lets the people decide how much they want to pay (just like COE) while the people can stop complaining that the ERP doesn’t work (actually I am still not sure if this works).

But this *is* food for thoughts. What do you think?

I got this call yesterday morning from someone who was calling from some Global Travel agency. At the other end of the line was this lady who spoke Mandarin in a heavily Chinese slang that sorts of identifies herself as someone from China. No, I don’t have anything against people from China, it’s just that:

1. It’s a cold call
2. It’s a call at 11am (it’s not even lunch time yet)
3. She started off being a little too enthusiastic

After ensuring that she’s speaking to the correct person, she started rattling off, “你有去过香港迪斯尼乐园吗？” (translated: have you been to Hong Kong’s Disneyland?). This immediately rang all the bells and whistles sirens and “time share” started appearing all over my view.

I think I did the most dirty thing next. I pretended not to understand Mandarin. I spoke in English that I do not understand what she’s saying and if she could repeat it in English. For some reason, she couldn’t and after a few tries, she said “sony” (sic; she probably meant “sorry”) and hang up.

Well, I could have given up a fantastic offer to see HongKong’s Disneyland, or that the travel agency that she’s working in really had a good deal. However, with all the news going around about scams and all, and with my pockets hitting an all-time low, I probably can’t afford to go there anyway.

I hope whoever that got the offer have got a good deal. =)

The people at LTA should give themselves a pat on the back because there is now a smoother ride on CTE as motorists avoid higher ERP charges. The increment has caused motorists to think twice before heading for that gantry-laden expressway.

However, my personal opinion is that the motorists will just jam up other smaller roads, which may result in a review of road conditions at that road. Whether such review will spark off a decision to build an ERP gantry is something that I am not sure of.

Speaking of which, since they have already built an ERP along Dunearn Road towards the city just before the Singapore Chinese Girls’ School (SCGS), will they be building one along Adam Road just before Farrer Road? It’s quite jam there in the morning, especially when everyone rushes towards Buona Vista; or perhaps along Upper Bukit Timah Road oops! they already have one there.

Seriously, I don’t really think the ERP will help much because if you need to drive to a particular place via the expressway and that’s the most direct, then why bother taking other roads that’ll either jam or, that’ll create a huge detour for you? Or do you really have to wake up very early (like 5am)?

Are they encouraging more people to use public transport? However, the public transport system is in dismay - the peak hour trains are always jammed, the buses take 45 mins to come, and the taxies are usually nowhere in sight. By the way, I think someone mentioned that taxies are not supposed to be considered as public transport - is anyone able to verify this (statement)?

I was talking to a friend of mine once - if they seriously want to decrease jams, then they should really consider increasing the cost of *buying* a vehicle/car, not wait for people to buy cars and then start profitting from it. If the aim is to profit, then it is no longer about solving jams, it’s about economics. Of course, we have to, ahem, look at the bigger picture because it is not so simple. *

One last thing - the statement about traffic taking a few days to stabilize, in my personal opinion, usually means the people will forget about the $5 and start jamming up the expressways again.

TRAFFIC flow on the southbound Central Expressway (CTE) showed some signs of improvement on Monday, possibly because motorists tried to avoid paying the record $5 to use certain slip roads.

Motorists heading down the CTE from the Pan-Island Expressway in the morning paid a record $5 for using that route.

The increased charges at several Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) gantries kicked in on Monday as part of the third wide-scale ERP increase this year.

In particular, the gantry located at the PIE slip road to the CTE went up from $4.50 to $5 between 8.30am and 9am.

The Land Transport Authority said that traffic speeds on the CTE (southbound) showed some improvement on Monday and was ’smooth flowing’ during the ERP charging hours.

It added that traffic flow along alternative routes of Lornie Road, Thomson Road and Bendemeer Road also ‘remained satisfactory’.

ERP charges at Bendemeer Road and Thomson Road gantries also went up from $1.50 and $2 respectively from 8.30am to 9am.

On the Bukit Timah Expressway (BKE), the LTA said that a traffic incident affected traffic flow along a stretch where a new ERP gantry was in operation.

Traffic usually takes a few days to stabilie after a revision of ERP rates and commencement of new gantries, said LTA.

Article obtained from straitstimes.com on 6th November 2007.

* words in italics quoted from a very wise man