Thursday, October 29, 2009

Air Traffic Control

Its amazing what you can find on the web these days.

Try this webite. You can listen to live conversation between the pilots and Air Traffic Controller.

Use together with this website, where you track the live location of all flight, you have your very own Flight Control on you PC.

Interesting, I was listening in to Hong Kong ATC. Mm... too bad Sinagapore is not covered by this website.

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Win Win for them and Lose Lose for You

Drop in public transport share in Singapore: survey
26 October 2009 1458 hrs (SST)


SINGAPORE: A transport survey in Singapore has shown that the public transport share has shrunk.

The survey of some 10,500 households revealed that despite efforts by the authorities to get more people on buses and trains, challenges still remain.

Singapore aims to boost the usage of public transport among its population to 70 per cent by 2020. But the Household Interview Travel Survey showed that the target is now harder to achieve.

The survey found that 59 per cent of respondents used public transport last year, down from 63 per cent in 2004.

During the same period, the number of daily public transport journeys went up by 16 per cent as Singapore's population grew. The number of car journeys increased by 31 per cent as the car population also grew.

The Land Transport Authority (LTA) explained that this behaviour could be due to a lack of major infrastructural improvements in public transport during that period.

Speaking at the Second World Roads Conference on Monday, Transport Minister Raymond Lim said that there are some positive signs.

He said: "Between 2004 and 2008, the number of train trips made each day rose 30 per cent, from 1.3 million to 1.7 million. Even though the public transport mode share island-wide has fallen, the mode share in the North-East corridor, served by the Northeast Line (NEL) which opened in 2003, has bucked the trend and shown significant improvement."

LTA said it will continue to make bus services more efficient and will be expanding the Mandatory Give-Way to Buses scheme in the next two years.

LTA said the expansion of normal bus lanes and full-day bus lanes have already improved bus speeds for services using the routes by between eight per cent and 13 per cent respectively.

From next year, LTA will also take over as the Bus Network Planner to further improve the overall connectivity of the bus network here.

An expert said reliability is key when convincing people to use public transport.

Professor Brian Collins, chief scientific advisor from UK's Department of Transport, said: "Making buses punctual, making trains punctual, and making them more frequent - refining that predictability of travel time is one of the issues that people really like. They will like to know when they are going to arrive, arrive safely and in comfort."

LTA said it will push through two key strategies under its Masterplan to make public transport more convenient. The strategies are to reduce the growth of vehicles on the road and double the existing rail network by 2020.

For now, the introduction of Electronic Road Pricing to more roads last year has improved the traffic conditions of affected roads.

LTA said there has been marked improvement in traffic speeds within the CBD, especially during evening peak hours. Traffic speeds there have been restored to the optimal range of 20-30 kilometres per hour, from 18 kilometres per hour previously.



Our Gahment is just ignoring the root cause and just want to make money. Period!

To ease traffic and to boost public transport rider-ship, they go for the simplest and best solution for themselves – RAISE THE ERP COST. Mind you, next they will raise the parking fee then the COE and then the road tax…. Win – win for them and too bad for you.

It’s easy to encourage public transport usage, just like Professor Brian Said, you just have to HAVE A EFFICIENT PUBLIC TRANSPORT SYSTEM.

More frequent buses and train, more punctual trains and I bet if you slash the fare by 50% your rider-ship will shoot up immediately.

I will suggest doing away with those bloody surcharges on taxi as well. Taxi driver here in Singapore are just too spoilt. I think we are the only countries in the world with such a complex taxi fares structure and ironically I feel our taxi services are one of the worst.

I also question the survey accuracy. Out of the 10000 households interviewed, how many are Foreigner? I doubt so as they most probably are renting room or stay in hostel. You may say less Singaporean are taking pubic transports but I can assure you that trains and buses are packed these days due to new immigrants and FT. Rider-ship is no where low my friend.

And did they question WHY less people are taking public transport now?

I can tell you, the only reason why will I consider getting my own ride is: THE PUBLIC TRANSPORT SYSTEM SUCKS.

1) Overcrowded
2) Expensive (Not value for money to be more correct)
3) Erratic timing
4) Long waiting time.
5) Stupid people eats and blast their f**K phone in there.

Monday, October 12, 2009

Grumpy me

I need a break!

I got to admit that I am addicted to traveling and if I don’t get my regular dose I will slip into a withdrawal symptom being grouchy and grumpy the whole day.

Why I like to travel? Well maybe because I hate this place?

Food sucks here. For good quality food you have to pay a premium.

Weather sucks. No need to explain.

Public transport sucks. No need to explain.

People? Kiasu and now ¼ of us are “foreign talents”.

Things here are overpriced and not much of a design.

I usually travel on the average of 4 times a year and normally I get into the travel drought between May and Oct. (YES this is exactly why I am grumpy now!) No a good period to travel due to the monsoon.

Just counting down to my Tokyo trip next month. Arghhh…..

Thursday, October 08, 2009

Bad day at work.

Somali pirates attack French military flagship
Yahoo News Wed Oct 7, 11:10 am ET

NAIROBI (AFP) – Somali pirates attempted to storm the French navy's 18,000 tonne flagship in the Indian Ocean after mistaking it for a cargo vessel, the French military said on Wednesday.

The crew of La Somme, a 160-metre (525-foot) command vessel and fuel tanker, easily saw off the brazen night-time assault by lightly armed fighters on two lightweight skiffs and captured five pirates, a spokesman said.

"The pirates, who because of the darkness took the French ship for a commercial vessel, were on board two vessels and opened fire with Kalashnikovs," Admiral Christophe Prazuck said in Paris.

La Somme is the French command vessel in the Indian Ocean, overseeing French air, sea and land forces fighting Somali pirates and hunting terrorists under the banner of the US-led Operation Enduring Freedom.

Officers on the ship have directed commando operations to free French hostages in the hands of Somali pirates.

The pirates tried to flee when they realised their mistake but were pursued by French forces who, after an hour-long chase, caught one of the skiffs, Prazuck said.

On it they found five men but no weapons, water or food as the pirates had apparently thrown all of the boat's contents overboard, the spokesman said……………



This is hilarious!

Talk about total screwed up….haha…

Tuesday, October 06, 2009

Wish list

I am bored.... thinking of what to get next. Shit no $$$ for all.