However, Plaza Singapura has always have a place in my heart. Just a place... nothing else. I remember hanging out there as a kid during the Yaohan days. There was this big Times bookshop on the fifth floor and there was Yamaha at the 6th or 7th floor where I learn my music. YES.... I learned music... though not much success.
However, in recent years... going to Plaza Singapura is becoming a big Pain.
You see.... with such a wonderful history behind and an old Car Park (which they kept during the retrofitting) vehicular system that makes so much sense during the early days that every developer should learn from it.... they decided to be "smart" and totally screw up the whole system. I bet it must be some scholar who did this to the car park. I mean... only scholar do such things. They do things unlogically.
Offence intended.
Let me explain the OLD car park concept.
1.) You enter from Handy Road and goes up to the car park thru the entrance on the left. This makes a good natural flow from the traffic coming from Handy Road.
2.) upon entering the car park, you will be entering the Car Park from the lowest floor up.
3.) As the car park is designed such that you will be able to see ALL the lots available as you drive, every car moves in the same direction. It's almost a case of first come, first serve basis. This is unlike those big car park found in Suntec City where every car can go in different directions to find car park lots. Over here, it won't happen.
4.) At which ever level you have park your car, you exit it at the level thru the ramp. Every level has a ramp for exit. This ensure immediate exit. So if you park at level 3, you exit at level 3.
5.) you exit out to handy road, again with the flow of traffic.
6.) just perfect!
Let me explain THE CURRENT SUPER SCREW UP CAR PARK SYSTEM DESIGNED BY SOME SMART ASS WHOM I'M SURE IT'S A SCHOLAR.
1.) You enter the car park via the ramp up from Handy Road. The entrance is on the right side of the building while you enter from handy road which is on the left side of the road. Almost often, there is a attendant or a security guard manning the criss-cross to help with the traffic.
2.) They come up with a a system whom they thought it's damn bloody smart. They have indicators at point of entry which levels have available lots.
3.) Assuming you enter into level 3 out of 7 storey, with an indicator showing there are 3 lots. What the indicator didn't show you is that there are already 3 other cars about to enter those lots and when you drive into level 3, you realised there aren't any more lots available. You drive down to level 2 and there aren't any lots, you drive down to level one and you realised you are exiting. You couldn't drive up because the only way up is thru the RAMPS and there is no access to the ramps when you realised you are at level 1, so you have to exit.
4.) So to play really safe, you drive the ramps up the level 7 where the electronic indicators suggested lots of lots available. So you drive round the ramps 7 times to get dizzy.
5.) naturally when you find a lot at level 7, you park there. You are afraid of situations no.3 as explained before.
6.) when you exit, you drive all the way level by level in the CAR PARK itself down to level one. It's not immediate, because in this narrow carpark, when 1 car try to park their car say, at level 5, all the exiting cars have to wait until this car parked before they can drive down. If you park level 7, you have to drive down 7 levels. Cars in the car park either are looking for a lot or they are exiting, thus often you have bottlenecks. While in the old system, the ramps are for exiting and the carpark is for finding a lot. In this new system, the ramps is just a transit and serve no purpose.
7.) you exit into Handy Road and you have to give way for cars trying to cross the junction entering the car park.
8.) It's a nightmare.
But WHY? Why did someone do something so silly? What is their rationale for doing what they did?
They wanted customers to find a lot faster knowing which level has lots but overall, there aren't much of a time savings.
Anyway, Vivo City is operated by Mapletree which is another government link company. Let's see how efficient they are in designing their car parks.
5 comments:
haha...poking fun at scholars at the same time. :) shouldn't 'unlogical' be spelt as 'illogical'?
anyways, i have been following your blog for quite some time. i like reading your blog.
i hope your cysts are not giving you any problem now. i am the guy who shared with you about the story of my cysts in your earlier post.
I know for sure Plaza Sing lost 1 set of customers... my family!
Ever since they came up with this new carpark system, we went there 3 times. It was, like you said, a nightmarish affair. And Fang and I would definitely get into an argument each time. I would insist we go all the way up where there are more lots available but Fang rather try his luck at the lower levels. How to enjoy & shop when we're all irritable and testy?
Gu, PS carpark is small issue, look at the way LTA screws up everything on our roads and you know that the same cohort of scholars are at work.
No amount of complaining will get them to change back to the original way. Must be like Singapore - Always looking & moving forward.
Coolcat, I have a solution for u - "whoever is driving decides where to park". End of argument.
HI Anonymous...
Yes.. I remember you. Thanks for your concern.
You are right... should be "illogical". Somehow "illogical" looks like "i logical" which I'm sure I am while "unlogical" really looks like "not logical".
hehe.
yo leon...
Funny... HDB has to hire phillipinos architect to design our HDB flats because they are cheaper... and yet we hire expensive scholars to design car parks.
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