The Jam on CTE and the New ERP that's coming up
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Having stayed in AMK for a long time and shifting to Bukit Batok recently, I discover a major flaw in the ERP system. First of all, lets just say that the volume of cars is almost the same on both AYE and CTE (seriously... its almost the same). AYE do not experience the same kind of jam like on CTE, and here is why.
The major contributing factor is the number of flyovers (upsloping roads) we have on CTE. Starting from SLE, we have (a) Lentor Flyover (b) AMK Ave 5 Flyover (c) AMK Ave 3 Flyover (d) AMK Ave 1 Flyover (e) Braddell Flyover (f) PIE Flyover. Travelling on the CTE in the morning, you will discover a bottleneck at the foot of all these flyovers, and it gets worse as we are nearing the CBD. But once, we pass the PIE Flyover, movement is smooth.
On the other hand, there isn't any flyovers on AYE, therefore no bottlenecks.
Coupled with the 2 ERPs which acts like a force field making cars slow down when approaching, the jam gets worst.
All these flyovers can be likened to water dams, speed of water slows down when hitting a dam and will continue its same speed after clearing the dam.
So the answer to the jam on CTE is not ERPs, but rather a major education on road users that they do not need to reduce their speed from 90kmh to 60kmh when approaching the apex of the slope!!!
Just my 2 cents worth...
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its about money, not the traffic jam.
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interesting observation i must say. But your assumption about the similarity between the amount of traffic in both expressway may not be correct.
CTE runs through from Yishun, AMK, Bishan, Toa Payoh, Moulmein. Neighbourhoods with huge population density.
AYE and PIE (West) actually shares the traffic for the Western neighbourhoods.
Maybe your arguement can be supported by the dominating numbers of trucks, lorries, heavy vehicles piling the AYE, hogging the left must lane, to compensate for the traffic on AYE. -
Yea Deportivo, agree with you some how on the population density. But I think the major part of the after work jam is caused by the bottleneck at the PIE entrance to CTE which is too near to Braddell Exit. Plus you know lah, Singaporeans never give way to one another so end up bumper to bumper
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Your last statement is so true. If Singaporean drivers are more willing to give way, our traffic situation will be much better.
Nonetheless, your observation about the bottlenecks are very interesting indeed. Mine personal view of reducing the heavy traffic in Singapore is to remove the 60-70 km/h speed limit of goods and heavy vehicles. At least, allow them to travel up to 90 km/h. This should prevent the congestion on the left lanes and thus easing filtering and entering slip-roads and exits.
You might be interested to take a course in traffic science. -
sometime when u are stuck in a jam.. non moving kinda of jam den whne u reach the front part sudeenly traffic go smooth liao.. u dunno wad is causing the jam.. no accidents no block no nth.. haiz...
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When the Minister of National Development - Mah Bow Tan - opened the CTE, he said that it will be impossible for the Government to continue to build roads so as to keep up with the size of the car population that continue to increase in geometrical speed.
This seems to be a sad reflection of his failed policy of keeping car population under control with his brain child of the COE scheme, which he implemented as the Minister of Communication.
However, he failed to understand that by the time the Highway was opened, time will have already passed for the various stages of building the Highway - from decision to go ahead, to planning the design and preparing the ground, the construction itself, and finally opening - all of which takes more then SEVEN YEARS.
The design of the CTE was already SEVEN YEAR'S OLD by the time it is opened.
Surprisingly, CTE was designed after AYE, and yet the CTE do not have the improvements of WIDER lanes, which was incorporated in the AYE during upgrading.
If one compare the width of the lanes amongst all the Expressways in Singapore, the AYE has the widest WIDTH PER LANE, with the PIE (the stretch from Bukit Timah Shopping Centre to Adam Road Fly Over) being the narrowest.
Along the AYE, there will be at least ONE meter space on both sides of any vehicles when it is travelling along the dotted lines of any lane; while along the PIE, there is barely 0.5 meters on both side of any vehicles.
The other poor design caused by poor LTA thinking, and from first hand experience, one can see every "kiasu-and-kiasee " Singaporeans, slowing down about ONE kilometer before the Speed Camera along the AYE, BKE, CTE, ECP, and the PIE.
This bad habit has resulted in the heavy traffic moving at about 70kmh during peak hours, to suddenly slow down further to a speed of 40 to 50kmh just before the Camera.
It is these Speed Cameras that act like a valve that throttle the flow of the traffic, which also has been the cause of multiple car pile up during the bumper-to-bumper traffic.
The last design fault in the Singapore traffic management policy is the absurd speed limit of 50kmh throughout Singapore, unless otherwise indicated.
Nearly all speed limits on Singapore roads are made to cause Singaporeans to be traffic offenders.
The speed limits do not allow Singaporean Drivers to exercise one's own judgment, to adjust one's speed according to traffic and road condition.
At 02:00hrs, most roads are quite empty, and there are hardly any cars within sight at any stretch of ONE KILOMETER along any roads at this hour.
Yet the speed limit of 80-90kmh on Expressways have to be maintained, and 50kmh along all roads are to be followed.
Try driving at 50kmh along the 3-lane roadway along Adam-Farrer-Lornie Roads, or Hougang Avenue 3, or Ang Mo Kio Avenue 1, or Upper Thomson Road and Bukit Timah-Upper Bukit Timah Roads at 02:00hrs to 06:00hrs, and the snail speed will make one go crazy trying to get home safely to bed.
The average sensible Singaporean Driver is prevented from exercising one's own initiative and judgment to drive even at a safe speed of 80kmh at 02:00hrs along such wide roadways, with hardly any traffic in sight.
With so many regulations in place that require Singaporeans to follow rigidly, and with no flexible allowance to exercise personal initiative, judgment, and self-discipline, little wonder that the X-Factor has been so sadly suppressed and lost.
Footnote:
Somehow, this Minister of National Development seemed to have conveniently forgotten - that in his capacity as a Minister of Communication - he had also said that when COE is in place to control the growth of the car population, and when ERP is also in place to have a fairer pricing of road usage, then Road Tax will be reduced.
Yet up till this date, with both the COE and ERP is place, Road Tax - which have shot up to over 300% from the rates charged in 1975 - have only been reduced by only 20%.
Should we believe what is being told to us - especially by this creative person who seem to make very wonderul and simple explanations of some very sensitve issues ?
He had also convinced Singaporeans to accept the change of SingTel charges of $30 per month per Household, to one of 0.10 cents per 3 minutes usage; and had assured Singaporeans that their telephone bills will not exceed the $30 per month charges unless their usage is "more than normal".
Today, most Singaporean Household are paying between $60 to $150 per month - and some even more. -
Double Post
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Unfortunately, "sensible Singaporean drivers" are pretty rare. Judging from the Cars forums, where we see someone who just obtaining his license trying to buy a Evo 9 to 'drive', the only sensible driver may just be a figment of our imagination.
let's just hope the air-cars in Back To The Future 2 may be realised.....oh wait, we still may have traffic jams in the air. oh well. -
Better move, never like to go to AMKio, Serangoon cos always jam.
There are too many hses/ HDB- too congested.
ECP is still the best, u can enjoy beautiful view of the sea
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u buy for me lorOriginally posted by gerrykoh:Better move, never like to go to AMKio, Serangoon cos always jam.
There are too many hses/ HDB- too congested.
ECP is still the best, u can enjoy beautiful view of the sea
u noe how much it cost to have an apartment over there? -
so is our fault tt we stay north and northeast area?
so we get penalised twice a day?
i bet serangoon rd will be lagi more jam
cars will avoid CTE then take serangoon rd.....for ppl staying in hougang and sengkang and punggol....
so govt will erect another gantry there in a few yrs time.....
if drivers wanna avoid the ERP, they will either have to stay late in the office, or have to eat dinner in town....
tot govt say wanna promote family cohesivness?
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I suggest someone commit his time to do a PHD on the the relationship between the traffic volume/jams and birth rate of Singapore.
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national sex surveyOriginally posted by Deportivo:I suggest someone commit his time to do a PHD on the the relationship between the traffic volume/jams and birth rate of Singapore.
why you no time to make babies?
ans: to spend my time, i jerked off 2 times in my car when im in the jam on CTE. once in the tunnel after meridian and another time before braddell exit... reach home no more energy liao
can't help it....there's a cute babe in the Getz -
govt is trying to increase all sorts of public transport service... u see mrt fares and bus fares go up..erp more and more...carpark coupons and etc etc... he is promoting family cohesiveness by increasing transport cost so tat everyone will stay at home and make babies...
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maybe they can allow the road shoulders to be used as "Coupling Zone".
Cars in jam are allowed to stop by the shoulders to enagage in a steamy mating session. -
he's tryin to make singaporeans work harder u noe... go to work super early to avoid erp n gg home super late to avoid erp oso..Originally posted by m)phosis:govt is trying to increase all sorts of public transport service... u see mrt fares and bus fares go up..erp more and more...carpark coupons and etc etc... he is promoting family cohesiveness by increasing transport cost so tat everyone will stay at home and make babies...
and cos of the job market... most ppl are doin the job of 2 person. n because of increase in work load, ppl are stayin back in office doin OTs..
all these made ppl super tired when they reach home... so soli ah laling.. today at office sibei tired ar.. next time ok?
this applies even if the person stayin back isn doin ot
n the govt blames teh citizens for not producing enuff babies -
ndsef:
It's not so much of the uphill and downhill layout of CTE that causes the jam. Even if it is, the costs for restructuring that segment of the expressway will be extremely complicated since that segment is pretty much like how the North South MRT tracks meets the East West tracks at City Hall and Raffles Place. Planning and work as well as the money to rebuild CTE would take MANY years and too many hard earned peanuts.
But that's not my point.
I would say the major contributing factor to the heavy traffic (in a jam.. u don't even move..) is really the space in between exits starting from CTE's Bukit Timah Road exit all the way to Braddel's exit. Not to mention, the traffic coming in from PIE which by the way is not just situated to close to the Braddel exit but also comprises of only ONE lane. And to top everything off, we throw in a Speed Camera (which i doubt serves any purpose since there isn't any space to go above 70 km/h during peak hour). Situating two exits so close to each other only causes a huge slow down in traffic. With 6 exits tightly packed in this stretch (Bukit Timah, Jln Bahagia, Upper Serangoon, PIE and Braddel).. the end result is a chain of stoppages. So the 3rd and 4th lanes on the CTE at that stretch will perpetually be full of people slowing down either to exit, to change to faster lanes or just because they're stuck.. then as you drive pass jalan bahagia exit up the final ramp before the speed cam, u start to see the cars infront of you break.. JUST because it is a subconcious mindset to do so when you see the speed cam even if you are travelling at only 60-70km/h (which is about the fastest you can go at those times) So one person breaks.. the rest of us will as well.. so there you go... the conclusion: Heavy and Slow traffic as you come out of the tunnel.
Despite all that, CTE is still the preferred choice by most people staying anywhere between Serangoon all the way to Yishun.. the other routes up north from south already have pretty heavy traffic (Upper Serangoon road, Farrer -> Lornie -> Braddel -> Upper Thompson). Putting up a gantry may ease the strain on CTE but it's only going to transfer that amount of traffic onto the Braddel and the Upper Serangoon roads... And unecessary move in my opinion because the traffic on CTE may be slow moving.. but atleast its still moving.
I suggest either we wait to see how the new "braddel express route" works out OR.. Do something about the Speed Cam (maybe switch it off during peak hours) OR build a parallel route that runs under CTE with only exits at Yio Chu Kang and beyond and at the Havelock area bypassing the whole entire stretch..
thoughts? -
I supposed the 12 km Kallang Paya Lebar e-way (KPE) would not help CTE jams since it serves mainly NE zones. KPE may instead increase the load on the Sheares bridge during both morning and evening peak hrs.
ECP users further east will instead enjoy lesser conjestion when KPE helps to divert NE bound traffic. -
Is there such a CourseOriginally posted by Deportivo:Your last statement is so true. If Singaporean drivers are more willing to give way, our traffic situation will be much better.
Nonetheless, your observation about the bottlenecks are very interesting indeed. Mine personal view of reducing the heavy traffic in Singapore is to remove the 60-70 km/h speed limit of goods and heavy vehicles. At least, allow them to travel up to 90 km/h. This should prevent the congestion on the left lanes and thus easing filtering and entering slip-roads and exits.
You might be interested to take a course in traffic science.
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They sure work as hardOriginally posted by shinta:he's tryin to make singaporeans work harder u noe... go to work super early to avoid erp n gg home super late to avoid erp oso..
and cos of the job market... most ppl are doin the job of 2 person. n because of increase in work load, ppl are stayin back in office doin OTs..
all these made ppl super tired when they reach home... so soli ah laling.. today at office sibei tired ar.. next time ok?
this applies even if the person stayin back isn doin ot
n the govt blames teh citizens for not producing enuff babies
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Next Clementi Rd might have
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as hard?Originally posted by deathscythe99:They sure work as hard