Tan Kin Lian's Blog: Congested Roads

Tuesday, November 06, 2007

Congested Roads

I had to meet someone for lunch at Holland Village and attend an afternoon conference at National University of Singapore.

As public transport was not convenient, I decided to drive to these two locations. It turned out to be a bad idea.

The roads to Holland Village was congested, due to many road works. I had trouble to find a parking space.

The journey from the university to my home took more than 1 hour. The traffic was heavy as it was after office hours. The traffic crawled at a slow pace for a long distance, due to a small accident in Farrer Road. It was stressful.

Lesson: It would have been better for me to take public transport.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...: Hi Mr Tan,

Actually, I think the problem is that our public transport system is not sufficiently integrated and quite a number of areas are still not satisfactorily supported by the public transport syatem.

You have pointed out Holland Road. Why don't you try the public transport at peak and non-peak for Upper Bukit Timah, East Coast, Hougang etc and comment.

Thkds.; November 07, 2007 11:35 AM
Anonymous said...: Hello Mr. Tan

I hope you take my comment in a lighter vein. :-)

I am a regular visitor to your wonderful site for purely financial reasons. I appreciate your efforts & understand it is your person site and the target audience is varied.

For last few weeks I have noticed you are kinda obsessed (if I may exaggerate :-)) with transport or public transport. Why?

Today's post about going thru holland village congestion. Are you seriously traveling for the first time in different parts of Singapore?

Anyways enough of transport already!!

Cheers
:-); November 07, 2007 12:46 PM
Tan Kin Lian said...: Someone asked in a lighter vein, "Mr Tan, why are you obsessed with public transport?"

Here is my reply.

Our roads are getting congested. We need to encourage more people to take public transport.

I wish to feedback to the authority to better integrate the system and improve the service (not just to make more profit).

I also wish to educate the public that public transport is a viable and better option.

I hope that this effort is useful.; November 07, 2007 4:02 PM
hongjun said...: Hi Mr Tan,

I would like to put across my most courteous and polite tone here in this post.

I sort of agree with the above "anonymous" writer on the current public transport situation in Singapore. The current public transport system is no where near acceptable standard. As compared to years ago, travelling is now a long and tiring process. Take for example, travelling on bus 74 from Buona Vista to Ang Mo Kio often takes more than 1.5 hrs during 6.15pm peak hour.

Perhaps one can choose to sit on 1st row at upper deck and observe how SBS Transit drivers drive. Often many times, drivers really annoyed commuters. Drivers sometimes slow down with no apparent reasons approaching traffic junctions or bus stops with no commuters calling for the bus. Sometimes I wonder are they driving slowly because they are given too much time to complete their journey and drivers drive slowly because of that.

Mr Tan, of course I do agree with you in promoting the public transport system. To be able to convince more people to travel using the public transport system, the public transport system needs to improve.

Regards
Loh Hon Chun; November 07, 2007 9:16 PM
Khiat Han Hwee Adrian said...: Keep your info coming, Mr Tan.

I enjoyed the postings. I feel that your blog need not be narrowly focused on Financial Issues only. Such comments are similar to my own blog.

Your topics on management, your family, public tspt, current affairs are equally interesting.; November 08, 2007 1:53 AM
Tan Kin Lian said...: Loh Hon Chun said that bus 74 takes 1.5 hours during peak hours to travel from Buona Vista to Ang Mo Kio.

Perhaps, a MRT train journey is better. There are 16 stops (Buona Vista to Jurong East and change to North South Line through Woodlands) and should take about 40 minutes.

You may have to add the time for the feeder bus, if your starting or ending point is not near a MRT station.

I prefer MRT to bus, even though it does involve a change.; November 08, 2007 9:36 AM
hongjun said...: Yes. I also do enjoy reading your other postings :)
Like investment.. we also "diversify" what we blog. haha..

hongjun; November 08, 2007 9:36 AM
hongjun said...: On a peak hour, both directions using the JE or Raffles route will end up needing me to stand throughout the journey.

Actually there's a "better" route. Take train from Buona Vista and alight at Raffles. Then transit to Marina Bay and the same train will reverse and travel towards Ang Mo Kio. In this way, there's a higher (but decreasing) chance of finding a seat for the 2nd half of the journey. The reason why I say "decreasing" chance is because the number of passengers using this "trick" is increasing day by day! Part of the reason could be frustration of having to squeeze with the ever increasing passengers during peak hour.

I should have taken a photo 1 year back and compare it with the current situation. It's really packed. Not sure if someone else shares the same sentiments with me.

hongjun; November 08, 2007 9:47 AM
Yong Kiat said...: The trains are packed, even at weekend and off-peak hours.

Even at 11 pm on a weekday from the city, the trains are still packed.

Some of the reasons:
- As the economy is getting better, more people have more money go out often.
- The Train Company has cut cost, increasing frequencies of the trains to make sure each trip is fully utilised.

On Fridays and eve of public holiday, train going to the city in the evening, is very packed. Expressways leading to the city are often jammed as well, especially from the western part of Singapore.
This is because, people do have programs after work, on the end of the 5-day working week.; November 08, 2007 11:56 PM
Thomas Phua's Blog said...: Maybe riding a motorcycle like me will be the next better solution.

But please do not tell the authority of such convenience that motorcyclist enjoy, sequeezing in between cars overtaking and reaching destination on time, always, except when it rains, it is a little wet.

- Thomas Phua; November 18, 2007 10:05 PM