From ‘No YOG ‘give way’ lane dry runs yet?’22 July 2010, ST Forum
(Eugene Tan): …First, why is the second lane designated the ‘give way’ lane? Traffic in the outermost lane will cut across this lane to exit the highway, while traffic in the innermost lane will do so to reach the outermost lane. This will only increase traffic in the designated lane, partly defeating the intention of the give way lane.
Second, the white words and the Olympic rings are not the most eye-catching. The Olympic colours would be ideal but if this is too expensive, yellow would be much more arresting.
It is less than three weeks to the YOG… But I have not seen any practice runs yet, either in the morning or the evening when traffic is heaviest and athletes are more likely to be late for their events.
You forgot to say the magic word
Too little too late, Eugene. They’ve already painted the rings, and unfortunately all of the same colour. Pity the poor road worker who has to carry 5 pails of coloured paint around just to make sure the rings are ‘eye catching’ enough to drivers like you. Unlike you, most drivers would have eyes on their rearview mirrors rather than on the road, making sure there’s no YOG bus in sight while they’re on the YOG lane. Pointless to have the ‘Give Way’ sign really, and if YOG drivers really want people out of their special lanes, forget about horning. Blasting the YOG cheer at full volume in place of it would very well do the trick. As for the dry runs, they wouldn’t work because drivers know exactly when it’s YOG time and there’s no reason to give way to buses on practice runs when it’s not yet the YOG. Having a designated lane also has no advantage at all in the event of a real traffic congestion, where cars will inevitably stall while forced to change lanes in front of you, unless of course you have another road marking on the adjacent lane telling cars to ‘give way to cars in YOG lane giving way’ In fact, it would probably be faster if the car in front just carried on going straight instead of switching lanes. So, wrong choice of transport, YOG committee. What you need is a 18 wheeler monster truck with a battering ram, not a wimpy blue bus.
Filed under: 2010, Campaigns/Elections, Motorists, Public works, Sports Tagged: | YOG, YOG bus lane
