Strides Interactive

Driving in SingaporeFiled Under: Articles

As a citizen of Singapore, sometimes I can’t help but talk about some of the good and bad things that happen in our daily lives.

So, in this article, I’ll take a step out of IT and games development and talk about driving a vehicle in my own country, Singapore.

Tagline: Driving in Singapore is an art, not a sport.

Find out why…

Driving in Singapore is quite different from driving in other countries. In Singapore, there isn’t really a distinctive difference between urban and sub-urban since there’re so many cars on the road nowadays.

Therefore, in Singapore, I’m constantly faced with slow or heavy traffic as well the fact that I need to maintain a conscious effort to know when each ERP gantry will be switched on or off. (ERP stands for Electronic Road Pricing - used to pay tolls on the road).

Let’s therefore talk about a sub-topics:

1) The Car
2) Road and Traffic
3) Drivers
4) Conclusion

The Car

It’s very expensive to own and drive a car in Singapore. On average, a normal 1.6L sedan will cost around $1000 SGD to $1500 SGD per month for normal usage. (ie, petrol, parking on both sides, ERP, road tax, insurance and instalment).

Petrol costs around $1.7 to $2 per litre nowadays. So, for a typical car with 55L petrol capacity, we’re talking about $110 SGD per full tank.

So therefore, petrol is one of the key factors in saving costs when driving in Singapore. Let’s take Avante for example. Its petrol consumption is like 14.1 km/L (cited from Torque magazine). Therefore on average, a fully fueled Avante should travel around 775.5 km before running out of fuel. Of course, that’s not a realistic figure in Singapore, especially when I’m usually stuck in heavy traffic or worse, traffic jams.

Road and Traffic

Since Singapore is a small country with very limited space for travelling as well as having so many cars on the road (despite the costs), traffic is a constant pain and a good source of frustration. Singapore do have very good roads though, at least I don’t have to change my suspension due to bumps and potholes.

Traffic lights are of abundance in Singapore. So many that they can sometimes make you feel that I can go faster on foot than on the wheels (especially with jams).

But that’s is all ok! Why? It sort of trains my patience and route planning.

What about ERP? ERP is actually closely linked to route planning. Therefore, to minimize ERP payments, I’ll need to plan my route very early, with the precision high enough to reach the gantry at a specific time. Why? ERP prices changes from time to time. Let me give you an example.
1) If I know I’m going to be late, (I pass by this gantry around 8:35am to reach my office by 8:45am)
2) If I know there’s a jam now at the road with the ERP gantry
3) I might as well drive to a nearby place, have my breakfast, and wait for the ERP price to drop

To put in perspective, here’re the ERP charges for this particular gantry:

8:00am-8:05am - $1 SGD
8:05am-8:30am - $1.50 SGD (this looks fairly good enough only if I’m willing to wake up earlier)
8:30am-8:55am - $2 SGD
8:55am-9am - $1.30 SGD
9am - 9:30am - $0.50 SGD only (I’d rather pay this price since I’m already late)
9:31am onwards - free (till next morning 7:30am)

Cite: http://www.onemotoring.com.sg/publish/onemotoring/en/on_the_roads/ERP_Rates.html

Drivers

As mentioned previously, driving in Singapore is a constant source of frustrations and anger.

Why? A majority of it is caused to the drivers themselves. Here’s what I’ve observed over the past 9 years of driving in Singapore (being a Singaporean myself)

1) Poor route planning - have the tendency to keep themselves on the WRONG lane till it’s too late, then they swerve out, change lanes, and cause the others to jam brakes, cascading an effect in which if accumulated, becomes a phenomenon known as jam or heavy traffic
2) Selfish driving - Swerve in and out, disregarding the safety of their lives and the others around them, usually people with fake sport cars, loud engines with little power and heavily modified “sports” cars. (bunch of idoits)
3) Drive-by-law - that means, if I have the right of way, I’d rather get involved in an accident than to give way
4) Poor judgement on their car’s pick up - Swerve out to change lanes but their car fails to pick up in time, causing the cars behind to brake hard
5) Stopping Inconsiderately -  Stopping completely in the middle of a road or the left side (since we’re right-hand drive) of the road on a 2-lane road, obstructing traffic.

Of course, this doesn’t apply to most of the drivers in Singapore which I believe are gracious and defensive when they’re driving.

The above mentioned 5 points can easily lead to an accident. Some might disagree, but on average, on CTE (our Central Expressway) 1 car accident occurs everyday. There’s no fun getting involved in an accident for the sake of pride or your driver’s right of way. An accident can easily ruin your day and most probably spill over the next few weeks or worse, ruin your life if it’s serious enough.

Conclusion

In conclusion, what have I learnt after 9 years of driving in Singapore? I’ll summarize in points:

1) Plan your route
2) Be decisive, don’t stop just because a mistake was committed
3) Know your car, don’t abstain from this just because you’re the driver
4) Understand the density of the traffic lights
5) Seriously, follow the speed limits - other than safety, I somehow believe that they’re also used to coordinate traffic frequencies. I often find myself getting around much smoother travelling within the speed limits.
6) Don’t just stop in the middle of the road, even if you’re not feeling well.
7) Drive defensively, right of way don’t always apply. Be aware and conscious of the traffic situation and exercise extra caution if need be.
Always remember why and what you’re driving for. Is it just getting from point A to point B or is it more than that? If you’re out to race, do it somewhere else (heard that Pasir Gudang is good).
9) Don’t assume that other vehicles are dumb moving AI-controlled cars . They’ll also make their own decisions too. If they make a mistake while you’re reckless, guess what?

Mistakes + Recklessness = Accidents!

Lastly, the most important points I’d like to point out are,

- Speed is NOT the most important factor to get to where you want in Singapore.

- The ability to understand traffic situations will get you there much faster, without having to speed or rush. Anticipation is key.

- It’s no feat to just drive, ramp your car to 80km/h in 5 seconds just to be stopped by the red light. It’s however, a feat to be able to drive at 60 km/h all the way, without stopping! If so, you’ll save more petrol and get to where you want to go in a shorter time with lesser frustrations!

Thus explaining why driving in Singapore in an ART, not a sport. The fastest driver don’t always get to their destination the fastest. The slowest driver don’t always lose out to the faster cars.

Cheers,

Jeremy