Friday, November 7, 2008

The Notorious Motorbike at Singapore Checkpoints

For all those of you who have traveled to Singapore via JB, will know how terrible and notorious these jams(Woodlands and Tuas) are. Normal days we would be stuck at the checkpoint jam for around 1.5 to 2.5 hours per day. During the peak season(e.g the Mas Selamat or whenever SG Home Ministry imagine of some security issues), the jam could easily be 6-7 hours per day. My personal best was 6 hours only. In a our typical time spent worst case scenario: Work : 9.5 hours Checkpoint jam : 6.0 hours Actual Traveling : 1.5 hours TOTAL : 17 hours As you can see, many of us has barely time to sleep. Thats why many like myself choose to ride bicycle to cross the checkpoints. However time is not the most worrying of issue. While being stuck in these jams, we inhale toxic exhaust fumes for hours every day. We suffer serious deterioration of health. As a fellow kakitambak once remarked that we all will die of terrible death. He regretted that unlike his grandmother in Kampar, he will suffer painful death and could not die graciously. Barage of complaints/criticism sent to the press of both sides have not brought positives changes to situation on the ground. The SG government will always give some sort of bureaucratic excuse in reply.

Kaki tambak?

Not too sure whether anyone has used the term kaki tambak before. Anyway from now on I will loosely define kaki tambak as people who travel the causeways everyday to work in Singapore.