Taxi meters in private car

was reading an article on ERP on Yahoo news which was reprinted from Today's papers.

Any intelligent or logical person will be able to tell the amount of bullshit that came from the LTA.

Quoted from the article:
"From July 7, family life in Singapore should improve, at least for those who pass through traffic gantries. Businesses, too, will become more competitive as the cost of crossing these gantries goes up, leading to faster travel times, which should then lead to lower transport costs overall.

So said Land Transport Authority chief executive Yam Ah Mee in a recent media interview: "Faster travel times lead to overall lower transport costs and ultimately, help businesses to remain competitive. Congestion also adversely impacts family life, as people spend more time on the roads."

What i didn't know is that having more ERP and higher charges actually increases family life and businesses becomes more competitive

what i know is that my colleagues who drove actually waited till the erp timing's over to avoid the hefty charges and the jams too and businesses who are worth their salt will avoid the erp timing to do delivery etc and furthermore, the erp gantries are mostly active during peak hours except CBD areas; the timing when people knock off...

the second part by the writer actually makes sense:
"And if the authorities want you to switch to public transport, why do buses and taxis also have to pay ERP charges?

Last year, SBS Transit had to pay $2.9 million (same as the previous year) in ERP charges, $5.8 million in road taxes ($5.4 million previously) and absorbed almost $37 million in output GST (up from $28.5 million). Figures for ERP charges paid by taxis were unavailable. After all, the LTA claims that the ERP system is not a revenue—raising exercise."

why charge buses erp when the government knows that the cost will eventually pass on to the passengers? First theoretically, they reduces the amount of cars on the road and entices people to switch to public transport and second, thou it uses the roads but it's function is different from a private car.

i've always ask taxis drivers on why do gahment charges ERP on taxis, they mostly said the same thing "cause gahment only talk about money". Taxis forms part of the transportation network together with buses and trains. by having different charges levied on them, firstly, it raises the overheads of driving taxis and secondly, why would taxis rather roam about in the suburbs then driving into town? cause with the increase in the taxi charges, they got to pay everything upfront when they enter into town without the guarantee of getting passengers so mostly revert to waiting for calls. talk about LTA slapping themselves and everyone else.

by increasing the erp charges, they inadvertently raises the inflation and the cost of living when everything is going thru the roof now couple with GST, it's putting a strain of people's life.

The purpose of COE have lost it's objective. COE is meant to control the amount of cars entering the roads every year. On paper, it's stated at 3% but reality, ever since the election, it's off the scale when gahment said it will switch to usage based and that's why we've seen the huge increase in gantries and more are coming up.

The whole thing is a sham, car population increase by 7-8% since the election instead of the stated 3% and even thou transport minister said the optimal increase is 1.5%, this yr's not much changes too. it's all paying lips service to public. by not staying to the optimum 1.5%-3%, cars ownership will only increase which will lead to more erp gantries regardless whether it's peak hours or not. soon, erp will cover every nook and cranny of singapore and then to save cost of installing one, we will be installing taxi meters in our cars to charge us for usage of our own cars to save the trouble.

the state of singapore's public transport will only drive people who can afford car to drive instead of taking a bus. as i had lamented, mrt is the lifeline of any city and any city worth it's salt would have a highly integrated network of train station but not singapore, the investment in mrt have always peg on whether the station can generate profits but as an important infrastructure, it should be based on the whole line instead. thou the gahment have change it's stance now, we have lost a minimum of 5yrs of lead time to solve the problem. at the recent white paper by the transport minister, it's only in 2020 will we see an fully integrated network and the question is why only now then we see the potential problems? despite the praise lavish on MoT in wikipedia, if you have travel to major cities like HK, Taipei and even london, it really pales in comparision in the wait time, no of station per kilometer and efficiency.

up to now, the actions taken by LTA is not consistent with it's mission and objectives and it's policies are giving public confusing signals and intentions. Somebody got to take a stand within the ministry or the government will be paying a high price when the next election comes.

MM Lee says all it takes is 5yrs to unravel the whole jigsaw puzzle but the ruling government have to give people the reason for our continuing support instead of blind loyalty. They are paid millions to do it's job and if their performance is not up to the "millions" standard, who can they put the blame on?

The bucket to regret list

caught the show "the bucket list" when i was on a plane back from dubai. instead of a bucket list for me, i shall rename it as the "Things-to-be-done-else-i'll-regret-list" or in short "The Regret List"

simple isn't it. list the things u want to do/accomplish/dreams/goals in the Regret List and every time u look at it and if it's not strike off, u know that u'll regret, hahaha

I've pasted a "things that i love to do" list on my wardrobe last year but i think i'll change it to my "Regret List". After some thoughts and separating those To-Do that are realistic and those simply better stay at dreams like "want to win toto" hahahaha, things that thru drive and passion that are achievable, i came out wif these in no order of priority:

• Be a full time investor
• Learn photography
• Travel the world, at least 50 countries and 150 cities
• Buy a jumbo flat and fulfill the decor that is pasted on my wardrobe
• Relearn guitar to play my favourite songs like Luna Sea's Up to You with a fender stratocaster
• Go parachuting then progress to freefalling


we should all have list like this so that when we expire we know that we have already done all the things that we wanted to and we had live a life of no regrets. of course, the list is flexible and subject to changes when u find something that falls into or out of the regret category but it should not be taken as an excuse for not trying. why would we want to cheat ourselves? it's our life and our regrets,

hmmmm, maybe got to add "do not cheat on the list" hahahaha

Self inflicted mental block

Some say education ruins a intelligent mind and in some ways, it's true.

I was walking around suntec today and something strikes my mind.

For example, define vase (from internet):
# an open jar of glass or porcelain used as an ornament or to hold flowers. wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

# The vase (, , or) is an open container, often used to hold cut flowers. It can be made from a number of materials including ceramics and glass. The vase is often decorated and thus used to extend the beauty of its contents. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vase

so when we say vase, a mental pic of traditional vase will spring into our mind, those that we were taught since pre-school till adult hood were imprinted into our brain. by having a word to describe the container, we've mentally fix how a vase should be like. for eg, a container for rubbish is called dust bin so first thing that came into our mind is either those basket type or those plastic containers with a swinging cover etc but in this case, we're following the form (define by the word) more than the substance (the meaning of the word), we've forgot that vase can be any other form as long as it's a container that can hold flowers. so i can use a water bottle, a handbag or even a cpu casing as long that it's a container that can hold flowers.

so if we extrapolate the "vase" into other stuff, we'll start to break down the mental blocks and like we singaporeans like to say "think out of the box". our world will then be creative and spontaneous where anything goes.

that's why sometimes i like to read Ikea's catalogue, where a small vase can be used as a pencil holder etc it's mentally refreshing and challenging that it redefines what u think it is or what it used to mean.

so i say, let's break the vase and release ourself from the self inflicted mental block :)

Photography and me

I caught onto the photography bug and i think i'm gonna give in to it soon. As i love to travel, there's so much things to see and to take picture of. yeah, i'm not a pro photographer that waits for days just for the right weather conditions and lighting but damn, i just love taking photos.

There used to be a period where i'm caught between a videocam n a camera as i believe that a picture can't capture the continuous sights and the sound and u can't really remember what the hell really happens after many years have passed by. I think both has it merits and appeals differently.

i guess what makes photography so special is that it's the special moment in time freezed in a frame and a well taken one invokes so much emotions and in itself tells a story.

i saw a photography magazine today while browsing at popular bookshop. in it, a landscape of british countryside of endless fields but it's so well taken that the foreground shows bright reddish colour of flowers, mid-ground shows the greenfields while the background shows the bluish mountains. it's as if the whole spectrum of rainbow colours were capture and freeze in a moment of time. it was absolutely stunning!

set my sights on a nikon D80, a wide angle lens, a general lens,tripod, bag and flash and that is gonna cost me a month's nett pay. was hoping to take some basic photography lessons at the photographic society but the schedule clashes with my work :( nevertheless, it's on my To-Do-Else-I'll-Regret-List :)

wish me luck :)

God and Toto

Was chatting with colleagues who lamented that God created 10 commandments but man spoiled it with subsections.

was thinking about my relationship with God when I was queuing to buy Toto for the thursday 3mil draw. Some people said, one shouldn't gamble, like my sis who wouldn't even help me or my dad to buy 4D as it's not in-line nor appropriate with our religious belief. I started to think of the 10 rules but it didn't say one should not gamble.

The chances of winning toto is minute, like 1 in 4mil, why do ppl still buy? for hope, a chance to change? most importantly why do i favour toto more than 4D?

instead, it's a like a test of faith for me. keeping faith in God even thou daily situations and distractions always seem to break you. questions like is it a big lie concocted by the west to cheat you and give you false hope? is there any form of prove that God really existed? Is all the so called proof real or even if it is, is it only for the Jews than for the Chinese? So many questions, no answers...

faith.

the believe in buying toto even thou i know i won't win. if i do, great but if i don't, at least i tried and there's no lost in the end for the rewards if it does exists are greater than it doesn't.

faith is what keeping me going all this years. atheist might say it's all bullshit and faith is like false hope but i sincerely believe faith is the only true form of test to separate the believers from the non without God appearing for if He does, it's like a billionaire with many friends but who's gonna stick with you when u have nothing?

There's alot of things in the world that defies logic and logic is based on our understanding on how things work which is limited by our intelligence and observations. There's always a great debate on the unknown but i always believe that scientist are the last one u should trust because when they say "oops, they're wrong, we're fucked big time"


lastly, buy toto and when u do, "keep the faith"