Tuesday, December 8, 2015
Executive Summary
This proposal discusses the concerns regarding traffic congestion arising from the
high car ownership in Singapore resulting in traffic congestion. As such, the team
would like to suggest a new approach to allow greater maneuverability in traffic
especially in the CBD area through a ‘car-sharing’ approach. Primary and secondary
data obtained from different sources has established a need for the improvement or
developing of a new approach in order to reduce the number of cars on the road. This
approach would serve to provide alternative transportation for people for occasional
and leisure purposes and thus reducing car ownership. The proposed solution contains
three parts, the conversion of unused taxis to the car-sharing vehicles, implementation
of the approach and benefits of these cars. These ideas will work in tandem to
complement existing policies to encourage alternative mode of transportation, reduce
car ownership and effectively make our roads less congested and stressful.
PERSONAL STATEMENT
Lim Hong Yi
Hong Yi has diploma in civil aviation. Currently, he is currently pursuing Bachelor of
Engineering with Honours in Sustainable Infrastructure Engineering (Land) in
Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT). Hong Yi studied in this course because he
likes the analytical thinking aspect of the course. Through this degree, he hopes that
he could work in the transport industry in the future. He also hopes to promote the use
of car-sharing and reduce the car ownership in Singapore through this proposal.
Hong Yi has diploma in civil aviation. Currently, he is currently pursuing Bachelor of
Engineering with Honours in Sustainable Infrastructure Engineering (Land) in
Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT). Hong Yi studied in this course because he
likes the analytical thinking aspect of the course. Through this degree, he hopes that
he could work in the transport industry in the future. He also hopes to promote the use
of car-sharing and reduce the car ownership in Singapore through this proposal.
Letter of Transmittal
Sustainable Infrastructure Engineering (Land)
Singapore Institute of Technology
10 Dover Drive
Singapore 138683
20 October 2015
Chew Men Leong
Chief Executive
Land Transport Authority
1 Hampshire Road
Singapore 219428
Dear Mr Chew,
Re: Proposal for Implementation of New Policy
Enclosed for your kind consideration is the following proposal for the implementation
of a new policy plan in Singapore. We are pleased to present you the following
proposal with the intention of reducing the number of cars on the roads and
encouraging the new generation not to purchase a vehicle of their own.
The report is comprised of the problems of which every driver faces on a daily basis
and also the motivation behind the proposed solutions as well as a comprehensive
summary of all related research.
We would like to thank you for taking the time to read through our proposal and hope
that you will take our suggestion into consideration to make Singapore a greener and
a more pleasant place to live in.
Yours Sincerely,
Kathleen,
Hong Yi,
Muhammad Sahil,
Mubin Noor
Wednesday, December 2, 2015
Reader Response Draft 4
Khanna (2015) in “Explosive growth in Asian cities: Bright ideas to ‘seize the urban moment’” states that multiple South-east Asian cities have been metropolitanized. To adapt to rapid urbanization, South-east Asian governments have exploited technological applications to work with citizens on real time issues. They also use those to ease resource and infrastructural constraints. Furthermore, to increase potential economic growth, the governments’ focuses are on investing in technological infrastructure and the ideal of a green city. The boost in urban productivity establishes their advancement in becoming the "model of urban development in the 21st century." While the technological applications increase the spread of information and help ease the infrastructure constraints, they are underutilized and impose little value to the public.
Khanna expresses his hopefulness in the use of technological applications such as QLUE (crowd-sourcing mobile app) which reports on immediate local issues such as traffic and flood issues to the Indonesian government. Another example includes Beeline from Singapore (personalized bus service) that allows the passengers to plan private bus routes for buses and create the optimal route for these users. While these technological applications increase the spread of information and help ease some infrastructure constraints, they provide little value to the public in these countries to help solve their traffic and flood issues.
Firstly, some of the so-called "innovative" applications, have limited application. One example given by Khanna is Beeline, which has limited potential in Singapore because it has a very efficient public bus transportation system that covers all parts of the city. According to the Ministry of Transport (2015), the frequency of the buses and trains is increasing steadily and there are more routes added for the buses and trains to cater to the increasing population. Not only that, based on the TomTom (2015) traffic congestion statistic, the roads are heavily congested at the central area that connects to other parts of Singapore. The routes that are shown on the Beeline official website are mainly focus on traveling from north-east area to the central area during peak hours. Hence, the Beeline service impose little help to ease the congestion during peak hours when they are sending more buses to the central area during peak hours.
Furthermore, Khanna talks about proactive urban governance in Jakarta with the use of technological application like QLUE. This has been effective only to a limited extent due to the existing infrastructural problems. According to The economist (2015), Jakarta is ranked number 1 with the worst traffic in the world. Dewanti (2015) point out how Jakarta’s bad traffic is getting worst mainly due to the disproportional increase of car numbers as to increase of road ratio. On top of that, despite being one of the world’s most congested cities, Jakarta only has one rail-based form of public transportation. Ben (2014) mentioned that Jakarta has been swamped by a host of problems like land requisition issues that involve clearing other infrastructures, and hence new mass rapid transit(MRT) has been delayed numerous time. As such, this application (QLUE) could only be used as a tool for observation and does not alleviate the underlying problems.
According to Adonai (2015), with regards to devastating floods, Jakarta is affected badly from the monsoon peak. They have rendered many roads useless and many power grids in affected areas were shut down for safety precautions. However, QLUE merely reports incidents back to the Indonesian government but does not ensure that any existing infrastructural issues are dealt with. Overall, the government needs to 'proactively' create new policies to deal with the traffic and existing infrastructures that can subside the flood and ease traffic to a manageable level. Until then, the use of technological applications like QLUE will prove limited in use to the citizen.
In conclusion, Khanna’s optimism about the technological application falls short and it is far from reality. Technological applications can only be a limited tool when the lack of effective policy and limited infrastructure planning are reducing the effectiveness of information sharing applications.
References
The economist. (2015). Safe city index 2015 white paper. Retrieved from
TOMTOM (2010, September1).Safe city index 2015 white paper. Retrieved from http://www.onemotoring.com.sg/publish/onemotoring/en/motoring_buzz/Motoring_News/Best_and_worst_travel_times_in_Singapore.html
Ananda, T., Pribadi, W., Atmi, P.,& Wanto. (2013, September 22). Jokowi: Jakarta's Traffic Most Affected by Cheap Cars. Retrieved from http://en.tempo.co/read/news/2013/09/22/057515573/Jokowi-Jakartas-Traffic-Most-Affected-by-Cheap-Cars
Ben, O. (2014, July 14). When Will Jakarta’s MRT Be Finished? New Answer Coming in September. Retrieved from http://blogs.wsj.com/indonesiarealtime/2014/07/20/when-will-jakartas-mrt-be-finished-new-answer-coming-in-september/
Adonai. (2015, February 9). Jakarta flooded as peak rainy season approaches, Indonesia. Retrieved from http://thewatchers.adorraeli.com/2015/02/09/jakarta-flooded-as-peak-rainy-season-approaches-indonesia/
Dewanti, A.W., & Indra B.,(2015). Jakarta has 'worst traffic in the world'. Retrieved from
The Role of Peer and Tutor Feedback
Write a critically reflective post on the topic “The Role of Peer and Tutor Feedback." Explain your view of that feedback, how it impacted your developing writing skills, and whether/how you might transfer content, organization and language skills learned in the course to writing assignments within any other module at SIT. This should be 300 to 400 words.(311 words)
I read my peers' passages from a different angle and write down my own ideas into words for them to understand. A good feedback has the attribute of providing strengths and weaknesses in a timely fashion about the peer's passages so that they can reflect upon themselves when the passage is still fresh in their mind.
My first post on this blog is about how English is important. I got my fair share of positive comments and constructive criticism. One of more memorable one is professor Blackstone's feedback. He mentioned that I have illustrated the impression of English. However, the use of metaphor was confusing. After evaluated what he said, I kept it in mind and whenever I read books, I will keep a look out for interesting metaphor that were used appropriately. Even though my newer posts does not reflect the use of improved metaphors but I picked up a good habit. It reminded myself that it is important to keep your reader's imagination link to your idea.
Effective communication is a very crucial skill to have. Any job in the world requires some form of communication and being able to pass on your idea to another person in a form of words or writing without corroding the meaning helps people to understand your point. This module, Effective Communication, given me a deeper understanding of how to write a more effective report. All the skills can be very beneficial to other modules with report writing during my years in Singapore institute of Technology. Through the many reader respond draft done, I have a better understand of how to get my idea across. With or without words limit, we should always keep the meaning of the sentence relevant. Always have your peers feedback on the post you wrote. This helps them to pick up any silly grammar mistakes or illogical sentences.
I read my peers' passages from a different angle and write down my own ideas into words for them to understand. A good feedback has the attribute of providing strengths and weaknesses in a timely fashion about the peer's passages so that they can reflect upon themselves when the passage is still fresh in their mind.
My first post on this blog is about how English is important. I got my fair share of positive comments and constructive criticism. One of more memorable one is professor Blackstone's feedback. He mentioned that I have illustrated the impression of English. However, the use of metaphor was confusing. After evaluated what he said, I kept it in mind and whenever I read books, I will keep a look out for interesting metaphor that were used appropriately. Even though my newer posts does not reflect the use of improved metaphors but I picked up a good habit. It reminded myself that it is important to keep your reader's imagination link to your idea.
Effective communication is a very crucial skill to have. Any job in the world requires some form of communication and being able to pass on your idea to another person in a form of words or writing without corroding the meaning helps people to understand your point. This module, Effective Communication, given me a deeper understanding of how to write a more effective report. All the skills can be very beneficial to other modules with report writing during my years in Singapore institute of Technology. Through the many reader respond draft done, I have a better understand of how to get my idea across. With or without words limit, we should always keep the meaning of the sentence relevant. Always have your peers feedback on the post you wrote. This helps them to pick up any silly grammar mistakes or illogical sentences.
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