Dear TRS,
On 22 Apr 2014 at about 6pm, I was walking along Common Wealth Avenue. And notice a LTA officer standing beside the bus stop and taking pictures of vehicles that were illegally using the bus lane.
What was very disturbing was the officer was standing at a spot located about 100m away from a very major junction (intersection between Clementi Avenue 6 and Common Wealth Avenue West).
Upon closer examination, the solid bus lane starts about 30m after the filter lane, this would give a driver driving at 20km/hr a reaction time of less than 6 secs to filter into the adjacent lane right after he has made a turn out from a filter lane! Given the massive amount of cars in Singapore and a peak hour rush at 6pm, on a major road like Common Wealth Avenue, this is an extremely dangerous if not impossible feat. As drivers, there are times where you are unable to filter for > 1km (3mins at 20km/hr), let alone 30m.
I went to tell the officer off in the typical Singaporean slang :”Sir, you stand here, sure lots of cars kenna.” And he replied in a typical India slang:” What is kENna? I have to stand heRE because my laMPpost is heRE.” It sounds almost to me that he has been assigned to stand at a particular spot.
Realised it was no point talking to him, I walked off wondering if the government is so hard up for money that safety on the road is no longer important. I also wonder what is LTA criteria for hiring? Why is the job given to an Indian national? What is the pay for these people? Would displaced Singaporean PMET working as security guards get better pay in this LTA post?
One thing I am quite sure is, if a Singaporean is doing the job would be that he would not be giving summon to funeral buses and most likely had stand at a more reasonable spot and not RIGHT after a major junction. I hope this article would reach LTA and have some REAL answers and genuine changes instead of WAYANG and not face the actual problem.
I have attached picture of the officer, the lamppost and the maps for readers reference. (Click the image for a larger view)
SingaporLang
TRS Contributor
