ERP & Taxi - Bad idea?

Many many moons ago a taxi driver once told me that ERP was the reason why people in the city area cannot get taxi. His reasoning was pretty simple: why would a taxi pay for ERP charges to go into the city to get customers? If a customer in the city area wanted to call for a taxi, he would call the customer and asked if he/she is willing to pay for taxi's ERP into the city. Good reason from a micro viewpoint.

The result was plenty of frustration for the common customers. So now there are plenty of different surcharges which bascially raise the fare to somewhat high level that ensures that taxi drivers will want to get customers no matter what.

Do we have happy taxi drivers then? I think not. Now we have plenty of taxis on the road during evening hours, that formed long queues and at times obstruct traffic by reducing the number of lanes. Take a look at Bugis Junction taxi queue and you would understand what I mean. The traffic obstruction posed danger for other road users, and so there are times when Traffic Police would pop by and take photos of the taxi, i.e. dishing out summons to the poor taxi drivers. Here's a picture of another long taxi queue elsewhere (I erased the car plate number or else the taxi driver might be in trouble later).

Incidentally, does anyone realise that ERP timing for 6.30 - 7.55pm is different from 755-8.00pm? Lolz, take a look at the two pictures below, taken at the same spot. Charges from 7.55-8.00pm is half the price of the preceding period.

Oh well, I dunno if we will ever get the ERP system and taxi charges right such that all road users will be satisfied. Lolz.

Lunar New Year 2009 - pictures & thoughts

It's always fun during this period of the year around Chinese / Lunar New Year. Part of the reason is the many activities of shopping for new year goodies, clothes and also the many colourful sights of foods /flowers. The other reason is that we would have a good period of rest and family time during these few days of break. Of course, businesses would take the opportunity to hold events (e.g. the Sentosa Flower Fest) and promotions to earn more money.

Here's some typical photos of the flower nursery and food that you can find during this period (photos from Sing Seong, and the nursery along Bukit Timah road). There are some food that we especially enjoy during this period of time, including bak gua (roasted pork) & pineapple tarts, and according to the papers the 白肚鱼 is also especially delicious during this time of the year.

Increasingly I think this holiday period is especially good for spending meaningful ime with family. During our normal hectic time schedules, we hardly have time to accompany our family for anything significant. The other short 1-day public holidays would normally be spent by sleeping. These few holidays where the Chinese traditions created more family activity time is truly a bliss. The whole chain of activities starting from house keeping to reunion dinner, and staying up late on the last day of the 'Rat' year is quite fun. 'Rat' is the previous Zodiac animal for the lunar year that just passed. I seriously think I would feel blue when work starts again on Weds.

Ok here's wishing everyone a Happy 'Niu' Year and 新年快乐 万事如意. Niu = 牛 for those who don't understand the Chinese hanyupinyin, and this is the year of the Ox / 牛 in the Chinese Zodiac.

Confusing Statistics about Singapore in 2009

Afternote: They revised the GDP growth forecast downwards and some views in this post is not valid anymore.

I'm confused by the official statistics. The news said that Singapore would experience between -2 percent and plus 1 percent for 2009. Then the news from Channel Newsasia website also said that Singapore's population is expected to fall by as much as 4% as foreign workers get laid off in 2009.

Since GDP per capita is linked to both total GDP and also population, does that mean that while total GDP drops, the actual GDP per capita would increase, since the base, i.e. population in Singapore, is shrinking?

Moreover, since the foreign workers are 'working' with actual income received while there are actually Singaporeans who are not working, e.g. 70 years old grandmothers, does that also means that actual productivity per working adult should also be increasing due to the much smaller denominator?

Ok ok I may be generalising here, but the concept seems confusing somehow. If dropping population numbers far outstrip the negative growth, surely GDP per capita must be increasing. Hmm so maybe our average household income next year would also increase, and the latest 2008 figures for household incomes have already been affected by this 'population drops faster than GDP shrinkage' phenomenon. Quoting from Straits Times:

Latest official figures show the average monthly income for all Singapore households went up by about $700 in a year, from $6,300 in 2007 to $7,090 last year.

and also from Channelnewsasia:

The median monthly household income among all resident households grew 13 per cent from S$4,380 in 2007 to S$4,950 in 2008.

Food for thought isn't it?

Geocaching - fun way of treasure hunt

Happy New Year to everyone!

During December a group of us participated in a fun treasure hunt in Singapore! We were thinking of what to do for an outdoor activity that is fun and yet not too taxing physically. Someone found out about geocaching and we decided to give it a try. Apparently this is a worldwide activities where many people have hidden 'cache' and gave a clue to where the cache could be found. Those with iPhone or GPS device could have an easier time since the GPS co-ordinates could be given.

In our case, our treasure hunt lead us to somewhere near the Singapore Flyer, and it took us a good 20plus minutes before we found the cache, in part thanks to the various hints given in the cache logbook. Seems like various tourists have also found that cache, and left messages for future 'cache hunt' groups.

If you want some outdoor activity that is light, give it a try. Hmm I know there are harder to find caches that required trekking through forests...etc etc, but choose one with difficulty 'easy' and it should be fine.

:) Have fun!