Singaporean drivers, for some odd reasons, like to slow down whenever there are some vehicles stopped on the road. The vehicle could simply be stalled, having a punctured tyre or involved in a traffic accident.
So, there was a 2-vehicle accident between a van and a small lorry this morning. It caused a jam on both directions of the roads Jalan Boon Lay and Boon Lay way as early as 7:15am, and for a moment I thought the economic crisis is already hitting so hard that more people are moving off earlier in the morning to avoid the ERP charges. Then there was a slow down along the AYE all the way to Clementi Ave 2, because a trailer has broken down on the shoulder.
As the cab I am on drove past the 2 ‘troubled spots’, I realised the reasons for most of these jams or slow downs is not because the vehicle-of-attraction has become an obstacle blocking part of the road and thus required some careful driving, but because of a lot of these nosy people are taking a look at what has happened. I seriously couldn’t fathom why in the universe they need to do that. As a result of their curiosity, it can cause slow traffic that could go on for several kilometers, and even those who are not interested ‘paid’ for their curiosity in the form of an unnecessary delay.
The usual explanation for their curiosity is that they wanted to take note of the license plate number so they can punt on 4D. And if that is true then there are several ways to deal with that.
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By having the numbers displayed on those huge LTA displays. Instead of displaying information like: Accident vehicle on Lane 1 or Vehicle breakdown on shoulder, it should display, Vehicle(s) xxx xxxx x brokedown on shoulder, or Vehicle(s) xxx xxxx x in accident.
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Have a subscription service provided by a GLC or maybe the Telcos. Whoever loves these information can always pay $10 a month (just about 35 cents a day) and numbers of all accident vehicles on the Expressway will be sent via sms to them. They will even get the numbers on roads they are not on!
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Have the numbers automatically forwarded to Singapore Pools and the Singapore Turf Club to be marked so no one can place a bet on them. In short, give no reasons for the nosy-parkers to even look the numbers.
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Adjust ERP rates on the fly to $5 in the gantry ahead within 10 minutes so everyone gets the ‘incentive’ to move faster instead of looking at the accident / broke down vehicles.
And see? You don’t even pay me 3-million to come up with these lousy ideas.