Traffic Problems Again

[UWC]

Rant;

Early finish at school today and of course the traffic is bloody awful   

If school is going to finish early organise it in such a way so as traffic doesn't keep on getting bloody jammed.

[may be]

better if you direct that to UWC

[actually]

There is no point directing it to uwc. E-mails are ignored or a standard reply comes back to say they are working on it. They have been working on it for 2 yrs!

[school fees]

Wow looks like there are quite a lot of unhappy parents and potential parents of UWC out there at the moment.  The waiting list could soon be shrinking like my bank balance   

[pay more, learn less]

I can't understand why the Junior School had to have a half day off anyway.  There was stuff going on for the seniors, but no reason why the JS had to be kicked out early.  Perhaps the teachers are struggling to cope after 3 weeks back at work?

[JS half day]

Am sure was more to do with the fact that buses had to leave early to take the middle  and high schoolers home and it was too much for then to organise a second bus run for the junior schoolers.

[Dr. Phil]

Wow looks like there are quite a lot of unhappy parents and potential parents of UWC out there at the moment.  The waiting list could soon be shrinking like my bank balance    

Its not just parents of school children who are inconvenienced.

The rising level of inconvenience due to immobility or more accurately "paralysis" on the roads is an increasing problem in Singapore.

I have also noticed the grey skies and poor quality of air (and sore throat) lately and its not all due to Indonesian farmers slashing and burning.

As immigration in Singapore increases the pressures on public services also increases however I would guess that public services here in Singapore are so good they can cope. So why more vehicles?

Is it, like property prices, another indicator of easy credit or debt?  

I was watching an interesting program on RT about debt and how throughout the ages rules and regulations to protect debtor's rights has always been strong but this has changed and the balance of power is now firmly with the creditors.

And why should banks "borrow" your savings and make 5% when they can extend credit to you and charge +24% interest; and its all protected by governments!  

The greatest fear over past centuries has been that debtors will be allowed to incur unrealistic debt and then will be compelled to sell their property or even sell children into slavery or as we see in the Balkans and parts of Asia (including India, a member of BRIC), sell organs to pay their debts.

The traditional protective measures which includes proper screening of borrowers and ends with a waiver of debt under special circumstances or on special occasions are being replaced with a rigid enforcement, whether by IMF or knuckle-breaking contractors to "respectable" banks as we see in UK.

In UK most people believe easy debt is good. But the taxpayer will pay in the event of default especially if on a large scale.

Like property prices, too many car on roads here. This is a heads-up, we should ask why and where is the finance coming from?

[cantunderstand]

Like property prices, too many car on roads here. This is a heads-up, we should ask why and where is the finance coming from?

That's a good question especially give the price of cars here. We paid S$172,000 for an average car that would cost us S$60,000 back home. I thought that Singaporeans were squeezed, yet there are so many flash cars on the road, including those parked under HDB's?

[Schoolbus]

UWC's school bus service is quite expensive from what my friends tell me.  Our school bus service is too and I've recently taken my two kids off the bus and they're getting the public bus instead - which will cost us $1,000 per year saving us $3,000 per year. 

Local school bus services are cheaper than International school bus services - why is this, is it cheaper to take a bus full of kids to a local school than it is to an international school?  No it is not, so why do they charge more? 

Because it's like the wet market - rip off the expats.

It's about time they cut the prices and made a push to get the kids back on the school buses and out of the family car, that'd make the roads less congested.

[bus stop]

The local school busses are subsidised by the government to make it affordable to Singaporeans.
The international schools don't own their own busses ; they have to subcontract one of the private bus companies.
There is now a shortage of busses and drivers because more constraction companies are using smaller buses to ferry their workers instead of using trucks. So it's a question of supply and demand as well as the government looking after their own people.
Same as our kids at school age have to pay full fare on the public busses while Singaporean kids have a pass that gives them child fares.

[You need your head read]

Like property prices, too many car on roads here. This is a heads-up, we should ask why and where is the finance coming from?

That's a good question especially give the price of cars here. We paid S$172,000 for an average car that would cost us S$60,000 back home. I thought that Singaporeans were squeezed, yet there are so many flash cars on the road, including those parked under HDB's?

You paid S$172,000 for a car in Singapore....

Why?

We have lived here for six years and bought two cars for $45K and $47K...

A much better option..

[can'tunderstand]

Errr not really PP. We bought our car at a time when the COE was really low and the British Pound was still at 2.35 We are now looking to leave and sell our car. There are a few models of our car in the same year and slightly older advertised for sale in Singapore at S$160-168K largely because the CEO has skyrocketed. The same thing happened to my friend. They had a car for a year, left and got what they paid for it.

I'm not suggesting that I will get S$168 for it, but if I did and I then converted it back to GBP (which I will do), I would have just under GBP86K. When I bought it I paid GBP74K for it.

Of course, I may not get that much for it, but if I sell it for a fair market price then I think that I will have paid less to use my new car than I would have done to hire one. I know lots of people who do this and have broken even. The key is to make sure you cut a car that the Singaporeans like to buy and that many do so second hand e.g. Mercedes, BMW, Volvo.

[same experience]

if I sell it for a fair market price then I think that I will have paid less to use my new car than I would have done to hire one. I know lots of people who do this and have broken even. The key is to make sure you cut a car that the Singaporeans like to buy and that many do so second hand e.g. Mercedes, BMW, Volvo.

Same. We bought a BMW 525i with options for 174k in Feb 2010. An identical car (registered Feb 2010, even the same colour) is for sale at the moment for 159k (without the options).

People complain about the cost of cars here, but they forget that the resale value is high.

[scarbowl]

UWC's school bus service is quite expensive from what my friends tell me.  Our school bus service is too and I've recently taken my two kids off the bus and they're getting the public bus instead - which will cost us $1,000 per year saving us $3,000 per year. 

Local school bus services are cheaper than International school bus services - why is this, is it cheaper to take a bus full of kids to a local school than it is to an international school?  No it is not, so why do they charge more? 

Because it's like the wet market - rip off the expats.

It's about time they cut the prices and made a push to get the kids back on the school buses and out of the family car, that'd make the roads less congested.

  It's worth the cost to me for my kids to have SEAT BELTS and an on-board auntie.  Expats aren't "victims" in this.  Most local families are willing to take public buses or without seat belts.  I'm happy to have my kids ride safely and if that also means aircon then great.  Let your kids sweat on a local bus.  I'm NOT being ripped off.   

So the wet markets are cheating you?  Is everyone out to cheat you?  Sigh!

[the law]

UWC's school bus service is quite expensive from what my friends tell me.  Our school bus service is too and I've recently taken my two kids off the bus and they're getting the public bus instead - which will cost us $1,000 per year saving us $3,000 per year. 

Local school bus services are cheaper than International school bus services - why is this, is it cheaper to take a bus full of kids to a local school than it is to an international school?  No it is not, so why do they charge more? 

Because it's like the wet market - rip off the expats.

It's about time they cut the prices and made a push to get the kids back on the school buses and out of the family car, that'd make the roads less congested.

  It's worth the cost to me for my kids to have SEAT BELTS and an on-board auntie.  Expats aren't "victims" in this.  Most local families are willing to take public buses or without seat belts.  I'm happy to have my kids ride safely and if that also means aircon then great.  Let your kids sweat on a local bus.  I'm NOT being ripped off.   

So the wet markets are cheating you?  Is everyone out to cheat you?  Sigh!

local school buses have seat belts too.  Don't you remember when they brought in the law about it, it was after that boy got killed when the school bus he was travelling on crashed.