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Thank you for visiting this blog. This blog is dedicated to solving the parking problems at Marine Crescent.
To the parents of TNS pupils: do you regularly pick up your children from the pick up point at Blk 30 Marine Crescent ? I am sure you have noticed recently HDB is sending their wardens (from their service provider - Wilson Parking) to the car park service road at Blk 30 to 35 especially during school dismissal hours. They are there around 1pm, and again at about 6:30pm.
If you have spoken to anyone of them, they would have told you that they are here because of complaints from residents.
However, I am puzzled:
My child is in P6 this year. I have not seen wardens coming during school dismissal hours in the past. This is a recent phenomenon. And if you observe carefully, I wonder how are the residents really being affected ? Our cars are mostlwaiting along the service road AFTER the multi-storey car park. Have you seen any cases of resident's car being obstructed in any way ?
True, the cars waiting along the service road can be quite messy. However, I am of the opinion that this can be resolved if we (parents of TNS pupils) exercise a bit of self-discipline, and perhaps we can get organised with the help of the school.
Let me propose the following:-
(a) between waiting along the main road (Marine Crescent) and the service road (at Blk 34 car park), the latter is the lesser evil; because waiting along the main road, it will affect a lot more people and the public buses;
(b) it is not practical to require all the parents to go into the multi-storey car park because with so many cars going in and out just about the school dismissal time, it is going to create necessary bottleneck in the multi-storey car park itself. The multi-storey car park is not originally designed for such purpose, the space in the car park is only cater to normal light traffic;
Unfortunately HDB and at certain point in time, the Ops Manager of the school actually think this is a solution. After some careful thinking, this is not a workable option. Just go to Marine Parade Central multi-storey car park (the one next to NTUC Fairprice) on a Saturday morning and you will understand I mean.
(c) HDB must recognise that TNS is a popular school located in a housing estate. It is inevitable that during school dismissal hours, there will be a bit of congestions. Unless TNS moves to another location, or unless there is another plot of land nearby can be developed into a proper parking space - we have to find the best solution within the current constrains.
(d) HDB's senior officers in the car park division have to work with us (parents) and the school, and also the grass roots of Marine Crescent, and not just simply send their wardens. This is not solving the problem.
(e) As for the residents of Marine Crescent, the value of your properties appreciated because of this school in your neighbourhood. If this school moves away from Marine Crescent, what can happen to the value of your properties ? I would say this is a happy problem for you. I have been wondering, there are many TNS pupils (past and present) staying in this neighbourhood. I cannot imagine you are one of those who complained about us waiting to pick up your school mates. I really wonder who, and I would like to speak to the complainants in person to find out what really bother you, or what grudges you have.
Well, the purpose of this blog is to be a focus point, to gether your views, and to solve this problem. So, I invite parents to post your comments. I have set it such that you can post anonymously.
Updates:
I have taken the step to speak to the officers of HDB (Geylang Branch) Car Park Division on 19 July 2010. I have invited them to come to the ground and meet with us.
Any parents who are interested in participating, please leave a comment here.
If HDB is willing to find an alternative way to resolve this (instead of sending wardens here all the time), I will be proposing to the school to form a working committee, comprising of
(i) parents who are sending their children to school by car (it would be good if we can find at least one resident of Marine Parade so that if is a need to, he or she can go see the Marine Parade MP);
(ii) the school's ops manager;
(iii) HDB Geylang Branch Car Park Division officers;
(iv) and either the traffic police or the community liaison from Marine Parade NPC;
The traffic flow along the car park service road between Blk 34 and Blk 30 can be changed to one-way, during school dismissal hours, so that there is less congestion along that part of the service road.
Parent volunteers and the school's ops staff can do the traffic diversion (instead of them standing at the turn in front of the school's bin center).
Once this arrangement is set up, parents should not wait along the main road (Marine Crescent) anymore.
Please feel free to post your views into the comments below. If you did not see your comments below, please check at the discussions pages.
I fully understand the frustration faced by parents who fetch their kids at Tao Nan. I agree that we should all try to strike a compromise between residents and parents. However I believe traffic safety should remain the top priority and illegal parking, waiting or loitering of cars around the vicinity poses a danger to residents as well as TNS students.
ReplyDeleteIf the wardens were to one day chase me away, or worse still give me a fine, i will be upset and complain. But i guess we must still understand that these traffic rules are in place to protect the public.
I feel the school can do more to improve the traffic situation. Some other schools (like Hwa Chong Institution) built their own slip road parallel to the main rd to facilitate pickup / dropoff. Of course they are rich and have lots of land to spare ... while Tao Nan is limited in land space. But perhaps when re-developing the school, consideration should be given to allow parents' vehicles to enter school compound for swift pickup / dropoff of students, without jeopardising safety of pedestrians within school.
Meanwhile TNS should not just shut their gates to parents and leave them to fight their traffic war with wardens outside. They should allow parents to enter the school carpark to swiftly dropoff/ pickup. I feel the PV traffic marshalls can be better utilised in this aspect, to direct parents vehicles within the compound, and to help students to swiftly board or alight from cars.
Understandably residents of blocks 30-34 will be upset that TNS has invariably extended their compound to their housing estate by forcing parents and students to use their block foyers as pick-up / drop-off points. Congestion aside, the air pollution from idling engines may be unbearable to some lower floor residents. Even if it is for just 15-30 mins per day, the daily cumulative effect can take its toll on residents. Just my guess.
I fully supported HDB sending their wardens - I think it had made the place safer for our kids. Prior to this action by HDB, there are too many irresponsible motorists who parked their cars along the service road leading to the driveway. It created a bottleneck as cars coming out from the driveway would find it difficult to get out. With so many pupils walking around the area, we are just waiting for an accident to happen. Those who oppose to the deployment of these wardens are plain selfish. I applaud the action of HDB.
ReplyDeleteThere would be no problem if motorists stop parking their cars along the service road. The presence of the wardens had certainly helped to smoothen the traffic flow around Blk 34. The traffic situation around the area at 3.30pm today was chaotic and the main reason is because the wardens were not on duty. I will be writing to the town council, requesting them to deploy wardens on Tuesday and Thursday afternoon. Also, this is a warning to motorists who always park their cars along the service road and against the traffic flow, I take pictures and send them to traffic police.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous wrote on 3 Aug 2010 7:52am
ReplyDelete>Prior to this action by HDB, there are too many
>irresponsible motorists who parked their cars
>along the service road leading to the driveway.
>It created a bottleneck as cars coming out from
>the driveway would find it difficult to get
>out. With so many pupils walking around the
>area, we are just waiting for an accident to
>happen.
My question is - why must kids (and their parents/guardians) walk in between the cars, especially you see that there is a congestion along the service road ?
If you walk with your kid along the covered walk way joining the blocks, you will be 100% safe.
If there is a congestion, the speed of the car would logically be slow. If there is no congestion, the speed of the car would be faster. If you say it is dangerous to for pupils to walk around the area when there is a congestion, THEN it would be even MORE dangerous for pupils to walk around when there is NO congestion.
Therefore, in either case (whether congestion or not) pupils should NOT walk around the service road, but to walk the covered walk way built for them.
By the way, are you one of the residents or parents ?
If you were to pay more attention, you would notice that the congestion is caused by irresponsible drivers who parked their cars along the service road and many cars were parked AGAINST traffic flow. Do you think this is right? Even adults motorists do not follow traffic rules, do you expect kids to walk along the covered walkway??? Kids will be kids, they will take the shortest route. By the way, I am a parent who drives to pick my kid from TNS everyday and I am sick and tired of seeing so many irresponsible motorists who parked their cars as if they own the road. You have to admit the traffic flow is much smoother if the car park attendants are around. It seems to me that you are against the presence of these attendants, are you one of those irresponsible motorists?
ReplyDeleteI had an unpleasant experience which I would like to share. One day, after picking up my kid, I was coming out of the driveway. I made a right turn but I could not proceed very far as my path was blocked by a light blue RX300 that was parked against the traffic flow. The driver was not there. To allow cars that turned left to get out of the driveway, I had to move my car very close to the park car. The driver of the RX300 finally appeared with his kid and got into his car. There was no apologies or sign of embarrassment. It seems that he had god given right to park his car wherever he wished. As soon as he was ready to move, he signalled to me that I should back off to give him space to get out. I could not back off as there was a line of cars behind me, all of us were patiently waiting for this RX300 driver. To my shock, he honked very loudly when I did not move. What was even more shocking was he got out of his car and approached me in a very aggressive manner, reprimanding me for not backing off. This selfish behaviour is one of the most Ugly Singapore behaviour I had ever witnessed. Here was a guy who thought of nothing when he parked his car against the traffic flow and held up everyone and when he was ready to go, he expected people to give way to him. I wonder what value was he teaching his son by his behaviour. Quite frankly, I am really ashamed that he was a fellow parent of a TNS kid. Through this incident, i totally agreed that we should not parked our cars as if we owned the road.
ReplyDeleteThat is disgusting behaviour. To the owner of the light blue RX300, and other similar culprits ... pls note we are Shaming you here. Do not go against traffic flow, or park your vehicle along the narrow driveway... or worse still do both at the same time.
ReplyDeleteWe are all busy parents and our kids are all equally important ... nothing gives one more right than another to flout traffic rules.
Had anyone received letter from HDB regards to the illegal parking?
ReplyDelete