It Feels Good To Be Given A Second Chance

It always freaks me out when I receive a letter with the words "ON GOVERNMENT SERVICE" on the envelope:


From my past experience, receiving such letters always meant that I would soon lose something, be it money or time. You see, some typical examples of senders of such letters are as follows:

1. Inland Revenue Authority Of Singapore, demanding that I pay my income tax;

2. Ministry Of Defence, calling me up for National Service;



3. Other ministries/government departments, telling me that I have violated some rules and how I would be punished.

My heart skipped a beat when I turned over the envelope and saw who the sender was:



Now who wouldn't be afraid of receiving a love letter from the Investigation & Violation Reports Branch of the Traffic Police? In the past, all my replies to such love letters consisted of a signed cheque which would "compound" the offence. Don't ask me why but "compound" in this case does not mean "to make a difficult situation even worse by adding more problems". Instead, the meaning here is quite the opposite.

I tore open the envelope with trembling hands. What a surprise! Within the envelope was not exactly a love letter but a letter that I loved to read:

The Traffic Police must have realised how easy it is for someone to exceed the normal speed limit of 60 kmh by 1-20 kmh. I am not giving excuses but some modern cars would not even reach their top gears at 60 kmh. With the driver concentrating on driving, looking out for road hazards and so on, it is so easy to exceed the speed limit. In addition, cars are nowadays mostly air-conditioned and quite stable at high speeds, hence drivers sometimes breach the speed limit without even realising it.

I must say that it feels so good to be given a warning instead of an "offer to compound the offence" (which is really an euphemism for a fine). The Traffic Police is certainly moving in the right direction, emphasising more on education rather than punishment and using more of the carrot approach rather than the stick.

In fact, the current Road Courtesy Campaign even rewards courteous road users with a FREE $20 Cashcard and a box of New Moon Chicken Essence.

I am hoping that the next letter I receive from the Traffic Police will be one asking me to collect a cashcard and a box of chicken essence. Okay, okay, with the $130 I saved this time, I could buy myself a $20 cashcard and a box of chicken essence with enough money left over to buy a couple of beers to celebrate the occasion. Of course, I will not be driving immediately after I downed the beers. Cheers!

So Did The Rubbish Bin Finally Cross The Road? - An Update

I have received an email reply (see below) from LTA dated 25 Dec 2006 to my query on why is the rubbish bin waiting to cross the road?

I sent the query to LTA via their on-line feedback website on 21 Dec 2006.

(Wow, LTA works on Christmas Day! I am impressed.)

Dear Mr Koo,

DANGEROUS SITUATION AT ZEBRA CROSSING
FEEDBACK NUMBER: XXXXXX

Thank you for your feedback 21 Dec 2006.

We would like to inform you that your feedback is under the purview of the National Environment Agency (NEA). We will, by copy of this email, refer your feedback to them for their attention and reply to you.

Should you wish to contact NEA directly on the matter, please refer to their email address below.

We thank you for writing in.

Yours sincerely,

(SIGNED IN LOTUS NOTES)
XXXXX XXXXXX XXX (MS)
MANAGER, PUBLICITY
& PROGRAMMES
CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS

cc
NEA
Email: Contact_NEA@nea.gov.sg

At around 8 a.m. today, I received the following response from NEA:

Dear Mr Victor Koo

Thank you for your email dated 25th December 2006 Via LTA.

This is being addressed by North West Regional Office. Our Officer will reply to you accordingly.

Please call us or email Contact_NEA@nea.gov.sg again if NEA can be of further service.

Thank you for your time and interest.

Sincerely,

XXXXXX XXXX
Customer
Service Officer
Tel: 1800-CALL NEA [1800-2255 632]
National Environment Agency Call Centre

Our Environment -- We Care

It was quite a nice touch and very impressive of NEA to come up with a reply within 24 hours of receiving the email from LTA. But what I read next at the end of the email frightened the shit out of me:

This message may contain confidential information under the purview of the Official Secrets Act. Unauthorized communication or disclosure of such information is an offence under the Official Secrets Act. If you are not the intended recipient of this message, please notify the sender and delete it. Do not retain it or disclose the contents to any person as it may be an offence under the Official Secrets Act.

Whoa, since when have environmental issues become official secrets?

Hmm... does it look like LTA is passing the bin buck to NEA who in turn is passing it to its North West Regional Office? Meanwhile, I passed by the zebra crossing this morning and the rubbish bin was still there. So Alex was right when he commented that LTA would probably get another department to look at the problem. Smart aleck Alex. How did you know? You worked in LTA before ah?

Why Is The Rubbish Bin Waiting To Cross The Road?

Despite the title, this post is not intended to be a riddle.

Last Sunday at about 5.30 pm, I noticed that a small tree on the central road divider just outside Punggol Plaza had been uprooted, probably by the strong winds of the prevailing Northeast Monsoon. It was blocking all of the right lane of the two-lane road. So I called the Land Transport Authority (LTA) on their hard-to-forget 24-hour Hotline - 1800-CALL-LTA or 1800-2255582. When the duty officer answered the call, I informed him about the fallen tree. He said that someone else had already reported the incident. Alright, so I was slower than others in reporting this one. Not minding that, I took the opportunity to inform him of another potentially dangerous situation on the road which I have noticed for several months already. So far in this case, it seemed like nobody was interested in competing with me in calling LTA.

You see, I am talking about this huge brown rubbish bin (dimensions about 4 x 4 x 4 feet) placed at one end of a zebra crossing at the filter road from Holland Road turning left into Queensway. The presence of a large tree at the same location made the situation even worse:

The road leading to the dangerous filter road (at left of photo).

The huge dustbin circled in red behind the large tree trunk.

A taxi slowing down only because it had to give way to a vehicle from the right.

Now imagine a 10-year old child waiting behind the dustbin to use the zebra crossing. His/her presence will be completely obscured by the rubbish bin from the view of approaching motorists. And you know how some 10-year olds just love to dash across zebra crossings without looking out for on-coming traffic. You are probably also all too familiar with the fact that most motorists do not slow down when approaching a pedestrian crossing.

Even if a tall adult were to use the zebra-crossing, his/her presence could still be blocked by the large tree trunk. Therefore, a nasty accident is just waiting to happen at this location. It is a potential deathtrap for pedestrians. The inattentive motorist would also get into serious trouble if he/she hits a pedestrian at a zebra crossing.

The duty officer seemed convinced by my persuasive arguments and assured me that LTA would "look into" the situation. I remember that he asked for my handphone number, "just in case". However 3 days later, the rubbish bin is still there.

(Ah, maybe LTA really "looked into" the rubbish bin, found nothing, so did nothing?) I have the following questions for the LTA:

1. Is LTA waiting for an accident to happen first before it will do something? Must innocent people lose their lives or limbs before something is done?

2. Why does LTA provide a convenient feedback channel but yet seem to take its own sweet time in acting on the public's feedback?

3. On the other hand, LTA seems to be very efficient in other matters that do not involve life and death. For example, when I crossed a double-white line at Braddell Road some months ago, I was given a ticket demanding payment almost immediately. Has LTA got its priorities right?

4. And the final few questions - I know that the tree is not waiting to cross the road but is the rubbish bin there to do the same? If it is not, then may I suggest that it be removed?

Note: An email has been sent to LTA with an HTML link to this self-explanatory blog post. If there is still no action by the LTA, I will give up trying to be a civic-concious citizen. Instead, I will just let the powerful Internet do the work for me. But then I will have a new riddle to solve, i.e. how could the LTA be so indifferent?