I am from JB (hidup JDT!!). How we end up
living here is when both my parents decided to move from Singapore to JB when
my brother was born.
My father is Singaporean and my mom was born in
Melaka but raised up in Singapore. Yeah he still working there and not planning
to retire I guess...he is 66 this year. No worries my mom fully housewife which
will monitor our behavior regularly.
Why I decided to choose Singapore as my first
country to blog? Hey of course this is the first country I
visited after I was born. One more thing, I see the development in the
country for 28 years until to date. Compare to Malaysia, my late grandmother
once said "Dari aku anak dara sampai da ada cucu..tambak Johor macam tu
gak"..I guess she complaining on every time she have to go through traffic
jammed and queue at the immigration border.
Talking about traffic jammed, we in Malaysia
having the similar issues especially at Toll gate. I am the frequent user of
Tol Batu Tiga Shah Alam for the past 5 years. Yes I am not the only one who
facing the issues. In fact I’m using SMART TAG to avoid queue at cash and touch
n go lane. But still this traffic is unavoidable. Am I paying the toll to get
into massive jammed??
Who said that Singapore did not charge toll to
those drivers? They use this system called ERP. How it works???ERP Singapore stands for the Electronic Road Pricing, in Singapore. It is a traffic management system that was implemented in 1998 to address the road congestion faced by many road users in Singapore. It complements the COE (Certificate Of Entitlement) which was implemented earlier in 1990.
All cars in Singapore will have a special gadget
incorporated into the car, called the IU (In Vehicle unit). This gadget is
normally mounted on the right had side of the dashboard below the windscreen, directly
in front of the driver. In the IU, there is a cashcard or a stored-value card.
Each IU has a unique identity to each vehicle. (Same like our SMART
TAG)
Electronic gantry (Toll Gate). The gantry detects
the vehicle and its associated unique IU. When a card with this IU goes through
a gantry, the gantry detects the car and its associated IU and make the
necessary road usage deduction from the cashcard in the IU automatically.
The sensors installed on the gantry communicates with the IU via
short-range communication system and the amount deducted is displayed to the
driver on the small LCD screen od the IU. As the gantry is managed and
electronically controlled, it can adjust the toll fees according to the time of
the day and different days and thus effectively adjusting and moderating
traffic. The “toll fees” will be most expensive during peak hours, so as to
discourage road users during this peak period so that road users can look for
alternative route.
With the advancement in Global Positioning System
(GPS) technology, in 2006, the Land Authority of Singapore intent to
eventually replace the current gantry ERP with a system based on GPS. The
new system will provide flexibility and speed due to the physical constraints
of the gantry especially when it comes to putting up new gantries or even
relocating existing ones.
Ok wait for my next post...bye2..
