the neo earth

I remember a couple of years ago when I was volunteering at an ad-hoc call center of the local chapter of a certain international organization involved in the disaster relief efforts in Myanmar. People were calling in then to enquire about ways they could donate money and if it’s possible to bring it down to our headquarters. Surprisingly, few knew how to get there – but that’s not important. So over and over again I repeated directions to the building, and some still couldn’t get it. So, I took out the laptop, wrote an email to LTA and requested for a signboard to point to the building, which I was surprised isn’t in place yet, given the history of the building. How hard can it be, given that there are signboards to seemingly everything. Well I found out, pretty hard, this is the reply that was given:

Dear Mr Leong
Thank you for your request.
We note the purpose of the signs.  However, we are concerned about the safety of road users.  Advertisements such as signs displayed along public streets  distract road users and pose safety hazards to them.  In addition, they clutter the streetscape.  In this respect, we are unable to display the signs along Penang Lane.
Please feel free to contact me for clarifications.  Thank you.
Lame-O-Guy
Road Infrastructure Management
Road Operations & Community Partnership
Land Transport Authority

I’m kidding about the name – but the rest of the message, has been copied in its entirety. I replied to the message, but never received any reply. So it surprised me that sometime ago, MediaCorp launched a moving billboard – literally. Touted as a new Out-of-Home (OOH) platform, the “On-The-Move Billboard”, features three large display panels: 7.3m x 3m on two sides and 2.1m x 3m on the rear.

I came across this in the Straits Times forum just the other day, “An offence to leave engines running”:

We refer to the letter by Ms Chua Mei Ling, “Running engines add to pollution” (April 3).

Leaving a vehicle engine running unnecessarily is an offence under the Environmental Protection and Management (Vehicular Emissions) Regulations.

The National Environment Agency conducts regular enforcement checks in areas where drivers of vehicles are observed to have left their engines running without good reason. Motorists caught could be issued with a warning or fine.

The writer can provide us with the necessary details to do a follow-up by contacting our call centre on  1800 CALL NEA (1800-2255632).

Tan Quee Hong, Director, Pollution Control Department, National Environment Agency

I certainly haven’t had the chance to see anyone being caught for the act, but enforcement is definitely in place. How regularly are the checks conducted? Well, that is difficult to answer but I would think that Taxi drivers form the bulk of the culprits, followed by couples engaging in some heated action in the carparks of the Lower Pierce Reservoir. If they aren’t, I suggest the enforcement officers change their target locations.

P.S. I wonder if hybrid vehicle owners who reason that they are charging their batteries substantiate the argument?

While searching for details of a van that my mom was intending to purchase, I found out about this awesome database by the National Environment Agency. If anyone of you ever had trouble making a direct comparison between cars for fuel economy, this will help a lot. It’s a database with every single model of vehicle (I suppose) that is registered in Singapore.

This probably came as part with the mandatory Fuel Economy Labelling Scheme following the inclusion of motor vehicles as registrable goods under Environmental Protection and Management Act (Cap. 94A). The only problem I see with this database is the likelihood that it goes into the bin of white elephants. You see, NEA had a revamp of their website some time back, and this database is not linked from any of the new pages as far as I can search. I have this habit of trying to back-track any interesting website that I find, and the furthest I got from the main page is the Fuel Economy Labelling Scheme page. The only way to get to this database is by searching on Google.

The good news however, is that I did try to find the latest cars in the market, and I found cars registered in 2011. Check it out if you are aiming for a new car, and wants a comparison for the most fuel economical car out there!