1.
Road pricing
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Road congestion pricing for entering an urban area, or pollution charges levied on vehicles with higher tailpipe emissions are typical schemes implemented to price externalities. Examples of pollution pricing schemes include the London low emission zone, many recent road pricing schemes have proved controversial, with a number of high-profile schemes in the US and the UK being cancelled, delayed or scaled back in response to opposition and protest. Road pricing is a term that may be used for any system where the driver pays directly for use of a particular roadway or road network in a particular city. The Smeed Report, Road Pricing, The Economic and Technical Possibilities, Road pricing was then developed by Maurice Allais and Gabriel Roth in a paper titled The Economics of Road User Charges published by the World Bank in 1968. The first successful implementation of a charge was with the Singapore Area Licensing Scheme in 1976. The Electronic Road Pricing scheme operated as a trial between 1983 and 1985 but was not continued due to public opposition. A number of road tolling schemes were introduced in Norway between 1986 and 1991 in Bergen, Oslo, and the Trondheim Toll Scheme. It was noticed that the Oslo scheme had the effect of reducing traffic by around 5%. The Singapore scheme was expanded in 1995 and converted to use a new electronic tolling system in 1998, the first use of a road toll for access by low-occupancy vehicles to high-occupancy vehicle lane was introduced in the U. S. on California State Route 91 in 1995. Since 2000, other schemes have been introduced, although the New York congestion pricing proposal, in January 2009, variable tolls were implemented at Sydney Harbour Bridge, two weeks after upgrading to 100% free-flow electronic toll collection. The city is dealt with traffic congestion and air pollution through a driving restriction scheme implemented since the 2008 Summer Olympics, as of June 2016, another 11 Chinese cities have similar restriction schemes in place. In early 2010 the city Guangzhou, Guangdong province, opened a discussion on whether to introduce congestion charges. An online survey conducted by two news outlets found that 84. 4% of respondents opposed the charges. The city of Nanjing is also considering the implementation of congestion pricing, in December 2015, the Beijing Municipal Commission of Transport announced plans to introduce congestion charges in 2016. The Dongcheng and Xicheng are among the districts that are most likely to implement congestion charge. Vehicle emissions account for 31% of the citys smog sources, according to Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau, the local government has implemented already several policies to address air quality and congestion, such as a driving restriction scheme based upon the last digits on their license plates. Also a vehicle quota system was introduced in 2011, awarding new car licenses through a lottery, in May 2016, the Beijing city legislature announced it will consider to start levying traffic congestion charges by 2020 as part of a package of measures to reform the vehicle quota system. As of June 2016, the environmental and transport departments are working together on a congestion pricing proposal
2.
Malay language
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Malay is a major language of the Austronesian family. It has a status in Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia. As the Bahasa Kebangsaan or Bahasa Nasional of several states, Standard Malay has various official names, in Singapore and Brunei it is called Bahasa Melayu, in Malaysia, Bahasa Malaysia, and in Indonesia, Bahasa Indonesia and is designated the Bahasa Persatuan/Pemersatu. However, in areas of central to southern Sumatra where the language is indigenous, Indonesians refer to it as Bahasa Melayu and consider it one of their regional languages. There are also several Malay trade and creole languages which are based on a lingua franca derived from Classical Malay, as well as Macassar Malay, Malay historical linguists agree on the likelihood of the Malay homeland being in western Borneo stretching to the Bruneian coast. A form known as Proto-Malay language was spoken in Borneo at least by 1000 BCE and was, it has been argued, the ancestral language of all subsequent Malayan languages. The history of the Malay language can be divided into five periods, Old Malay, the Transitional Period, the Malacca Period, Late Modern Malay and it is not clear that Old Malay was actually the ancestor of Classical Malay, but this is thought to be quite possible. Old Malay was influenced by Sanskrit literary language of Classical India, Sanskrit loanwords can be found in Old Malay vocabulary. Batenburg on November 29,1920 at Kedukan Bukit, South Sumatra, on the banks of the Tatang and it is a small stone of 45 by 80 centimetres. The earliest surviving manuscript in Malay is the Tanjong Tanah Law in post-Pallava letters and this 14th-century pre-Islamic legal text produced in the Adityawarman era of Dharmasraya, a Hindu-Buddhist kingdom that arose after the end of Srivijayan rule in Sumatra. The laws were for the Minangkabau people, who still live in the highlands of Sumatra. The Malay language came into use as the lingua franca of the Malacca Sultanate. During this period, the Malay language developed rapidly under the influence of Islamic literature, the development changed the nature of the language with massive infusion of Arabic, Malayalam and Sanskrit vocabularies, called Classical Malay. Under the Sultanate of Malacca the language evolved into a form recognisable to speakers of modern Malay, however, there is no connection between Malaccan Malay as used on Riau and the Riau vernacular. One of the oldest surviving letters written in Malay is a letter from Sultan Abu Hayat of Ternate, Maluku Islands in present-day Indonesia, the letter is addressed to the king of Portugal, following contact with Portuguese explorer Francisco Serrão. The letters show sign of non-native usage, the Ternateans used the unrelated Ternate language, Malay was used solely as a lingua franca for inter-ethnic communications. Malay is a member of the Austronesian family of languages, which includes languages from Southeast Asia, malagasy, a geographic outlier spoken in Madagascar in the Indian Ocean, is also a member of this language family. Although each language of the family is mutually unintelligible, their similarities are rather striking, many roots have come virtually unchanged from their common ancestor, Proto-Austronesian language
3.
Chinese language
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Chinese is a group of related, but in many cases mutually unintelligible, language varieties, forming a branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family. Chinese is spoken by the Han majority and many ethnic groups in China. Nearly 1.2 billion people speak some form of Chinese as their first language, the varieties of Chinese are usually described by native speakers as dialects of a single Chinese language, but linguists note that they are as diverse as a language family. The internal diversity of Chinese has been likened to that of the Romance languages, There are between 7 and 13 main regional groups of Chinese, of which the most spoken by far is Mandarin, followed by Wu, Min, and Yue. Most of these groups are mutually unintelligible, although some, like Xiang and certain Southwest Mandarin dialects, may share common terms, all varieties of Chinese are tonal and analytic. Standard Chinese is a form of spoken Chinese based on the Beijing dialect of Mandarin. It is the language of China and Taiwan, as well as one of four official languages of Singapore. It is one of the six languages of the United Nations. The written form of the language, based on the logograms known as Chinese characters, is shared by literate speakers of otherwise unintelligible dialects. Of the other varieties of Chinese, Cantonese is the spoken language and official in Hong Kong and Macau. It is also influential in Guangdong province and much of Guangxi, dialects of Southern Min, part of the Min group, are widely spoken in southern Fujian, with notable variants also spoken in neighboring Taiwan and in Southeast Asia. Hakka also has a diaspora in Taiwan and southeast Asia. Shanghainese and other Wu varieties are prominent in the lower Yangtze region of eastern China, Chinese can be traced back to a hypothetical Sino-Tibetan proto-language. The first written records appeared over 3,000 years ago during the Shang dynasty, as the language evolved over this period, the various local varieties became mutually unintelligible. In reaction, central governments have sought to promulgate a unified standard. Difficulties have included the great diversity of the languages, the lack of inflection in many of them, in addition, many of the smaller languages are spoken in mountainous areas that are difficult to reach, and are often also sensitive border zones. Without a secure reconstruction of proto-Sino-Tibetan, the structure of the family remains unclear. A top-level branching into Chinese and Tibeto-Burman languages is often assumed, the earliest examples of Chinese are divinatory inscriptions on oracle bones from around 1250 BCE in the late Shang dynasty
4.
Electronic toll collection
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Electronic toll collection aims to eliminate the delay on toll roads by collecting tolls electronically. In 1959, Nobel Economics Prize winner William Vickrey was the first to propose a system of electronic tolling for the Washington Metropolitan Area and he proposed that each car would be equipped with a transponder. In the 1960s and 1970s, free flow tolling was tested with fixed transponders at the undersides of the vehicles and readers, norway has been the worlds pioneer in the widespread implementation of this technology. ETC was first introduced in Bergen, in 1986, operating together with traditional tollbooths, in 1991, Trondheim introduced the worlds first use of completely unaided full-speed electronic tolling. Norway now has 25 toll roads operating with electronic fee collection, in 1995, Portugal became the first country to apply a single, universal system to all tolls in the country, the Via Verde, which can also be used in parking lots and gas stations. The United States is another country with widespread use of ETC in several states, cashless tolling is when cash tolls are not collected on the roadway. Electronic toll collection becomes the primary option for payment, with payment by mail as a secondary option, open road tolling is a type of electronic toll collection without the use of toll booths. The major advantage to ORT is that users are able to drive through the plaza at highway speeds without having to slow down to pay the toll. In some urban settings, automated gates are in use in electronic-toll lanes, with 5 mph legal limits on speed, currently over 80% of Illinois 1.4 million daily drivers use an I-PASS. The system sends a notice and fine to cars that pass through without having an account or paying a toll. Unionized toll collectors can also be problematic, toll plazas are typically wider than the rest of the highway, reducing the need for them makes it possible to fit toll roads into tight corridors. Despite these limitations, however, it is important to recognize that throughput increases if delay at the gate is reduced. The greater the throughput of any toll lane, the fewer lanes required, specifically, the toll-collecting authorities have incentives to resist pressure to limit the fraction of electronic lanes in order to limit the length of manual-lane lines. In the short term, the greater the fraction of automated lanes, an example is the United States E-ZPass tag, which is accepted on toll roads, bridges and tunnels in fifteen states from Illinois to Maine. In Australia, there are a number or organisations that provide tags that can be used on toll roads and they include Roads and Maritime Services, Roam and E-Toll. A toll is debited to the account with their tag provider. A similar device in France, called Liber-T for light vehicles, sem Parar/Via-Fácil also allows users to enter and exit more than 100 parking lots. There are also other systems, such as via expressa, onda livre and auto expresso, in Pakistan, the National Database and Registration Authority is implementing an electronic toll collection system on motorways using RFID
5.
Singapore
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Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, sometimes referred to as the Lion City or the Little Red Dot, is a sovereign city-state in Southeast Asia. It lies one degree north of the equator, at the tip of peninsular Malaysia. Singapores territory consists of one island along with 62 other islets. Since independence, extensive land reclamation has increased its size by 23%. During the Second World War, Singapore was occupied by Japan, after early years of turbulence, and despite lacking natural resources and a hinterland, the nation developed rapidly as an Asian Tiger economy, based on external trade and its workforce. Singapore is a global commerce, finance and transport hub, the country has also been identified as a tax haven. Singapore ranks 5th internationally and first in Asia on the UN Human Development Index and it is ranked highly in education, healthcare, life expectancy, quality of life, personal safety, and housing, but does not fare well on the Democracy index. Although income inequality is high, 90% of homes are owner-occupied, 38% of Singapores 5.6 million residents are permanent residents and other foreign nationals. There are four languages on the island, Malay, Mandarin, Tamil. English is its language, most Singaporeans are bilingual. Singapore is a multiparty parliamentary republic, with a Westminster system of unicameral parliamentary government. The Peoples Action Party has won every election since self-government in 1959, however, it is unlikely that lions ever lived on the island, Sang Nila Utama, the Srivijayan prince said to have founded and named the island Singapura, perhaps saw a Malayan tiger. There are however other suggestions for the origin of the name, the central island has also been called Pulau Ujong as far back as the third century CE, literally island at the end in Malay. In 1299, according to the Malay Annals, the Kingdom of Singapura was founded on the island by Sang Nila Utama and these Indianized Kingdoms, a term coined by George Cœdès were characterized by surprising resilience, political integrity and administrative stability. In 1613, Portuguese raiders burned down the settlement, which by then was part of the Johor Sultanate. The wider maritime region and much trade was under Dutch control for the following period, in 1824 the entire island, as well as the Temenggong, became a British possession after a further treaty with the Sultan. In 1826, Singapore became part of the Straits Settlements, under the jurisdiction of British India, prior to Raffles arrival, there were only about a thousand people living on the island, mostly indigenous Malays along with a handful of Chinese. By 1860 the population had swelled to over 80,000, many of these early immigrants came to work on the pepper and gambier plantations
6.
Land Transport Authority
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The Land Transport Authority is a statutory board under the Ministry of Transport of Government of Singapore. Land Transport Authority was established on 1 September 1995 and launched by the then Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong, to meet with the increasing number of commuters in Singapore, Land Transport Authority had to exercise on new changes over time. LTA is responsible for the development of the transit system. It aims to double the rail network by 2030, downtown Line, Thomson-East Coast Line, North South Line Extension, Tuas West Extension are underway towards completion, with Cross Island Line and Jurong Region Line under planning. Half-height platform screen doors were installed in all 36 elevated stations in 2012 for the safety of passengers, HVLS fans are also installed at all elevated stations starting from 1 June 2012 and ending on 6 January 2013. In addition, this year is also the time where upgrading works are underway for all stations, railway sleepers, re-signaling, third rail and propulsion systems will be changed, together with Wi-Fi, noise barriers at ten places, escalator announcements and Care Zones are also implemented. Free travel was implemented since 24 June 2013, together with Travel Smart Initiative and it is only applicable if passengers are exiting the station before 7. 45am. It is meant for their feedbacks, and any changes will be under the monthly updates, under BSEP, about 80 new services are being introduced and 1000 buses are being added over five years. Quality of Service standards have also been tightened to reduce waiting time, now, those with increased loads run every 10 minutes or less during weekday peak hours in 2015. Feeder bus services have become more frequent too, with 95% of bus services now running at intervals of 10 minutes or less during the peak periods. As part of investment in projects, LTA will also be expanding the EMAS signages. Road studs which flash in tandem with the green man signal at traffic junctions were also installed at locations to alert motorists to stop for crossing pedestrians. The LTA Academy was launched in September 2006 by the Land Transport Authority of Singapore, the Academy aims to be a global knowledge hub in urban transport. The Academy takes on three key roles, Learning Enabler, Research and Public Education and it publishes JOURNEYS, a professional publication on land transport issues. The LTA Gallery, located at the main LTA Hampshire Office, offers a learning experience about the evolution of Singapores land transport system in a fun and interactive environment
7.
Singapore Area Licensing Scheme
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The Singapore Area Licensing Scheme, was a road pricing scheme introduced in 1975 to 1998, charged drivers who were entering downtown Singapore, and thereby aimed to manage traffic demand. This was the first urban traffic congestion pricing scheme to be implemented in the world. The scheme was replaced in 1998 by the Electronic Road Pricing and these measures have included high annual road tax, custom duties and vehicle registration fees. Besides fiscal deterrents, supply of vehicles was regulated since 1990. These high initial buy-in charges are considered as the price motorists pay for the luxury of owning a car, then, use-related charges, such as fuel taxes, ALS or high parking rates are utilised by public authorities to further constraint travel. The ALS scheme was implemented only after a public dialogue. As detailed above, the ALS was sold as part of a package of road pricing measures. A total of 28 overhead gantries were set up along the boundaries of the RZ and these gantries were monitored by auxiliary police officers who carried out visual checks and recorded any violations. Fines were usually S$70 and for traffic management reasons, licences were not sold at the control points of the RZ. This licence was displayed on the car windscreen or on the bars for motorcycles during hours of operation. Initially, they were 7.30 am to 9.30 am daily, except on Sundays, however, it soon had to be extended to 10.15 am, to control the surge of vehicles waiting to enter just after 9.30 am. In 1989, the peak had to be restricted too, and in 1994. In the first few years after the introduction of the ALS, passenger cars having four or more occupants, taxis, public buses, carpool was exempted too, to better manage demand and to counter the belief that the scheme favoured the rich. Special carpool pick-up points were set up, in 1989 more users were required to pay the fee, as motorcycles and heavy vehicles made up about two-thirds of the traffic entering the RZ. Hence, with review of the policy, only buses. Later, the exemption for carpools was abolished, because many private cars were picking up bus commuters just to avoid the payment. In 1980, the fee was increased to S$5, but in 1989 it was reduced back to S$3, in 1994, two levels of licence fees were established, to differentiate between daily permits and inter-peak licences. The paper licences vary in shape depending on the class of vehicle, the colour-coded licences also made it easier for the enforcement personnel to identify the vehicles during the restricted hours
8.
Congestion pricing
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This pricing strategy regulates demand, making it possible to manage congestion without increasing supply. Implementation of congestion pricing has reduced congestion in areas, but has also sparked criticism. Congestion pricing has been used by telephone and electric utilities, metros, railways and autobus services. Congestion pricing is one of a number of alternative demand side strategies offered by economists to address traffic congestion, Congestion is considered a negative externality by economists. Congestion pricing is a pricing strategy that requires the users to pay more for that public good. Nobel-laureate William Vickrey is considered by some to be the father of congestion pricing, also, it was considered by the Smeed Report, published by the British Ministry of Transport in 1964, but its recommendations were rejected by successive British governments. The quantity supplied is less than the quantity demanded at what is essentially a price of zero. If a good or service is provided free of charge, people tend to more of it—and use it more wastefully—than they would if they had to pay a price that reflected its cost. For the broader concept on roads charges see road pricing, practical implementations of road congestion pricing are found almost exclusively in urban areas, because traffic congestion is common in and around city centers. Autoroute A1 in Northern France is one of the few cases of congestion pricing implemented outside of urban areas, thanks to technological advances in electronic toll collection, electronic detection, and video surveillance technology, collecting congestion fees has become easier. In January 2008 Milan began a trial program called Ecopass, charging low emission standard vehicles and exempting cleaner. The Ecopass program was extended until December 31,2011, and on January 16,2012 was replaced by Area C, the Gothenburg congestion tax was implemented in January 2013 and it was modeled after the Stockholm scheme. Also, all cities report public controversy before and after implementation, in 2010 the Land Transport Authority began exploring the potential of Global Navigation Satellite System as a technological option for a second generation ERP. Implementation of such system is not expected in the short term, a proposal by former Mayor of London Ken Livingstone would have resulted in a new pricing structure based on potential CO2 emission rates by October 2008. However, Livingstones successor as Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, Johnson announced in July 2008 that the new CO2 charging structure will no longer be implemented. Among other reasons, he said the charge would encourage travel by thousands of smaller vehicles free of charge. Approved by Mayor Boris Johnson in April 2013, the Ultra Low Emission Discount went into effect on 1 July 2013, the measure was designed to curb the growing number of diesel vehicles on Londons roads. About 20,000 owners of vehicles registered for the Greener Vehicle Discount by June 2013 were granted a three-year sunset period before they have to pay the congestion charge
9.
Open road tolling
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Open road tolling or free-flow tolling is the collection of tolls on toll roads without the use of toll booths. An electronic toll system is usually used instead. The major advantage to ORT is that users are able to drive through the plaza at highway speeds without having to slow down to pay the toll. In some installations, ORT may also reduce congestion at the plazas by allowing more vehicles per hour/per lane, the disadvantage to ORT is the possibility of leakage, that is, violators who do not pay. Leakage may either be written off as an expense by the operator, or offset in part or whole by fees and fines collected against the violators. In 1959, Nobel Economics Prize winner William Vickrey was the first to propose a system of electronic tolling for the Washington metropolitan area and he proposed that each car would be equipped with a transponder. ETC was first introduced in Bergen, in 1986, operating together with traditional tollbooths, the first major deployment of an RFID electronic toll collection system in the United States was the TollTag system used on the Dallas North Tollway, implemented in 1989 by Amtech. The first fully automated toll highway in the world, Ontario Highway 407, the highway manages to achieves this automation through the uses both RFID technology along with automatic number plate recognition. On September 1998, Singapore was the first city in the world to implement an electronic toll collection system for purposes of congestion pricing. Today there are many roads around the working with electronic toll collection technologies. While rarely used as the vehicle identification method, automatic number plate recognition is used on a number of different highway systems. Both methods aims to eliminate the delay on toll roads by collecting tolls electronically by electronically debiting the accounts of registered car owners without requiring them to stop, transponders are a receiver-transmitter that will generate a reply signal upon proper electronic interrogation. Transponders are an adaptation of military identification friend or foe technology, most current AVI systems rely on radio-frequency identification, where an antenna at the toll gate communicates with a transponder on the vehicle via dedicated short-range communications. Some early AVI systems used barcodes affixed to each vehicle, to be read optically at the toll booth, optical systems proved to have poor reading reliability, especially when faced with inclement weather and dirty vehicles. Automatic number plate recognition or a license plate reader is a system that uses optical character recognition on images to read the license plates on vehicles. While the technology is most commonly used by law enforcement for cataloging vehicle movements and traffic enforcement, ANPR can be used in conjunction with transponder systems. If a transponder is not detected on a vehicle, a system of cameras located at each junction logs the vehicle’s unique identity and an invoice is mailed. The use of ANPR reduces fraud related to cash transactions or non-payment, makes charging effective, list of electronic toll collection systems Toll road Accelerating electronic toll collection
10.
Central Area, Singapore
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The Central Area, also called the City Area, and informally The City, is the city centre of Singapore. The term Central Business District has also used to describe most of the Central Area as well. The Central Area surrounds the banks of the Singapore River and Marina Bay where the first settlements on the island were established shortly after the arrival of Raffles in 1819, surrounding the Central Area is the rest of the Central Region. The south-easternmost limits of the city is enclosed in by Marina Barrage, the Central Area is one of the most densely developed places in Singapore, with a large mix of commercial and residential developments packed into a space of only 1784 hectares. A great number of Mass Rapid Transit stations tend to be concentrated in this area as well, each of the districts within the Central Area have a heavy and dense commercial presence, especially in the Downtown Core, Orchard and Singapore River districts. Rochor, Newton, River Valley and Outram are commercially thriving, schools, condominiums and Housing Development Board apartments are located in these areas, albeit at higher prices. Since the 1970s, the Singapore government and the Urban Redevelopment Authority have reclaimed land portions from Marina Bay in an attempt to expand the Central Area, newly created portions of land surrounding Marina Bay have been organised and labelled into Marina East, Marina South and Straits View. Many construction projects have completed in these districts since their creation. Much of the area bounded by Telok Ayer Road, which has a high concentration of skyscrapers is built on reclaimed land. Therefore, the Thian Hock Keng Temple built in 1839 along Telok Ayer Road used to face the sea, prior to 1839, the temple served as a joss-house for the Hokkien immigrants. The clan’s office was housed there and this temple was used as a meeting venue. The temple comprises an architectural masterpiece of stone, tiles and wood, dragons and phoenixes, amazing cravings, sculptures, the Thian Hock Keng temple has been gazetted as a national monument in 1973. At Church Street is the Yueh Hai Ching Temple, one of the oldest Taoist temples and this temple was established by a group of Teochew settlers from Guangzhou in China when they dedicated a shrine to Tian Hou. This temple faced the sea and was therefore a place where newly arrived Chinese immigrants came to offer their thanks to the Goddess for their voyage across the seas. The renovation to the temple was undertaken by the Ngee Ann Kongsi and this temple served as a meeting place for the people of the Teochew community in the late 19th century when the Teochews became the second largest Chinese Dialect group in Singapore. The temple was honoured with an e, an imperial signboard from Emperor Guang Xu of the Qing Dynasty in 1907. In 1996 it was gazetted as a monument and it underwent repairs. This temple is a silent testimony to the faith and gratitude of many people in Singapore, the background contrast between the old temples and the new modern buildings indicate the juxtaposition and coexistence of new and old
11.
Stored-value card
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A stored-value card is a payments card with a monetary value stored on the card itself, not in an external account maintained by a financial institution. Stored-value cards differ from debit cards, where money is on deposit with the issuer, and credit cards which are subject to credit limits set by the issuer. Stored-value cards are prepaid money cards and may be disposed when the value is used, or the value may be topped up. The term closed-loop stored-value card means the funds and or data are physically stored on the card. With prepaid cards the data is maintained on the card issuers computers, in contrast, open-loop stored value cards are credit and debit payment cards such as MasterCard Contactless, Visa payWave, American Express ExpressPay and Discover Zip. There is no name for stored-value cards, which are country or company specific. The U. S. Department of the Treasury manages three stored-value card programs, EZpay, EagleCash, and Navy Cash, non-government stored-value cards include Aramark GuestExpress, Compass Zipthru, and Freedompay FreetoGo. Stored-value cards are most commonly used for transactions, such as transit system farecards, telephone prepaid calling cards, cafeterias. A benefit to the merchant is that bank transaction fees are not incurred as the transaction is processed offline, a limitation is that these cards cannot be used for online, telephone, mail order and other card not present transactions. The German Geldkarte and the Austrian Quick card can also be used to validate a customers age at vending machines. Closed system prepaid cards are issued by a merchant and may only be redeemed for purchases from the merchant. They are typically of fixed amounts and are known as merchant gift cards or store cards. These cards are purchased to be used as gifts, and are increasingly replacing the traditional paper gift certificate. Generally, few if any laws govern these types of cards, card issuers or sellers are not required to obtain a license. Closed system prepaid cards are not subject to the USA PATRIOT Act, as debts owed to consumers who purchased the card, these purchases remain on the books of a merchant as a liability rather than an asset. Consequently, gift certificates and merchant gift cards have fallen under state escheat or abandoned property laws, however, the emergence of closed system prepaid cards has blurred the applicability of APL. North Carolina and Illinois have excluded these types of cards from APL provided the card has no date or a service fee. Maine and Virginia require the issuer to pay the state when the cards are abandoned, in Connecticut an issuer is required to identify the residence of the gift card owner
12.
CashCard
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Network for Electronic Transfers Pte Ltd was founded in 1985 by a consortium of local banks to establish the debit network and drive the adoption of electronic payments in Singapore. NETS is designated as a payment system by the Monetary Authority of Singapore. NETS is owned by Singapores largest banks, DBS Bank, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation Bank, NETS is a member of the Asian Payment Network and a council member of UnionPay International. In 2011, the NETS debit system came under the purview of the Payment Systems Act by the Monetary Authority of Singapore, in 2014, the debit system was upgraded to integrate the EMV Smart Chip card technology, aligning with the best-practice standards of the global industry. NETS is both an acquirer and an issuer in the payments industry, as a card issuer, NETS issues Stored Value Facility prepaid electronic cards for consumers to make mircopayments. As a merchant acquirer, NETS works with business owners to extend its reach of Electronic Funds Transfer at Point-of-Sale in Singapore, NETS EFTPOS is a nationwide infrastructure that enables DBS/POSB, OCBC, UOB and Standard Chartered bank customers to make purchases at points-of-sale using their ATM cards. The NETS EFTPOS service is available at 97,000 acceptance points throughout Singapore, NETS Unified POS was introduced to accept contact/contactless, credit and debit payments on one terminal. NETS Unified POS can be integrated with loyalty programmes, prepaid services, ENETS is an online payment gateway services. It enables payment from all major credit cards and currencies as well as Direct Debit from the banks in Singapore and China, including DBS, UOB, OCBC, Citibank. NETS eCommerce was launched in 2016 to provide a quick and affordable solution to set up webstores. The solution is integrated with secured payment options using eNETS Debit and Credit, retailer Stored Value Programme helps merchants to enable customisable rewards programmes that ride on their existing NETS terminals and NETS FlashPay-platform. There are 20 RSVP Purses and each Purse holds up to 7 prepaid items, redemption and top-ups are done on the NETS terminals in real-time. All NETS FlashPay cards and bank/credit/debit cards that have the NETS FlashPay logo support RSVP rewards programmes, NETS allows merchants to design their own branded prepaid gift cards to implement customisable prepaid programmes. Redemption and top-ups are done in stores on NETS terminals in real-time, the magnetic stripe cards can be one-time or reusable cards. NETS introduced the CashCard in 1995, the CashCard is a stored value card that is predominantly used as a payment mode for Singapore’s Electronic Road Pricing and car park charges since the introduction of the in-vehicle unit in 1997. CashCard can also be used for retail purchases, in May 2015, NETS launched vCashCard, a virtual wallet for road tolls payment that allows motorists to drive through Singapore’s Electronic Road Pricing gantries seamlessly. Road toll payments are charged to their bank accounts or debit/credit cards. Motorists can sign up for auto top-up service and view their ERP transactions at the website or NETS vCashCard app from App Store or Google Play
13.
EZ-Link
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Established in 2001, it was promoted as the means for speedier boarding times on buses. EZ-Link cards are sold, distributed and managed by EZ-Link Pte. Ltd. a subsidiary of Singapores Land Transport Authority, in September 2009, the new CEPAS EZ-Link card replaced the original EZ-Link card. The Land Transport Authority introduced its pilot testing of the card to 100,000 volunteers on 26 February 2000, initially for commuters who made at least five trips on MRT/LRT per week, the card was branded as the Super Rider. As an incentive, volunteers were given 10% rebate off their regular fare during the one-month period, two further tests were made, with the scheme extending to frequent bus users on selected routes, on an invitation basis. The S$134.6 million contract was awarded to the ERG Motorola Alliance to supply 5 million cards, the card is commonly used in Singapore as a smartcard for paying transportation fees in the city-states Mass Rapid Transit, Light Rail Transit and public bus services. The system has since expanded, with EZ-Link cards being used for payments in Singapore branches of McDonalds. Some schools in Singapore have also started to adopt the EZ-Link card as a way to mark the attendance of students, the system is similar to the Octopus card in Hong Kong and Touch n Go in Malaysia. On 3 December 2005, EZ-Link Pte Ltd announced that it was working with NETS to create a new card which will have the functions of both the EZ-Link card and the CashCard. This card would make it possible for one card to be used for payment on land transport in Singapore — ERP, bus, MRT, stalls and library. Work on this card was expected to be completed in 2008, on 17 October 2007, StarHub and EZ-Link Pte Ltd declared the start of a 6-month trial on phones with an embedded EZ-Link card. A trial to test the system was held from 29 August to 28 October 2008, the trial, which involved some 5,000 commuters, generated 1.7 million transactions and has confirmed that the system is ready for revenue service. With SeP, commuters will be able to use cards issued by any card issuer for transit purposes as long as the card complies with the CEPAS standard, holders of the old EZ-Link card got new CEPAS-compliant cards in a free one-for-one card replacement exercise in 2009. The new EZ-Link cards also have a storage capacity of S$500.00 instead of the previous S$100.00 limit. With the old cards cannot be used from 1 October 2009, faregates and EZ-Link card readers continue to support the old EZ-Link card function, but it will say INVALID CARD - PLEASE USE CORRECT CARD. The old EZ-link card function is no longer supported on all Downtown Line stations, Circle Line stations, stations which changed to TITAN faregates and new EZ-Link card readers on buses. There is currently limited support on North East Line, Bukit Panjang LRT,5 Circle Line stations, Pioneer, Joo Koon, Dover and Expo stations. The EZ-Link card operates on a radio frequency interface of 13.56 MHz at 212 kbit/s and it employs the Manchester bit coding scheme for noise tolerance against distance fluctuation between the card and the contactless reader, and implements the Triple DES algorithm for security. An adult EZ-Link card costs S$12, inclusive of a S$5 non-refundable card cost, there was a problem with commuters attempting to evade paying the full fare, with the prior magnetic farecard system
14.
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries
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Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. is a Japanese multinational engineering, electrical equipment, and electronics company headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. Through its defense-related activities it is the worlds 23rd-largest defense contractor measured by 2011 defense revenues, MHI is one of the core companies of the Mitsubishi Group. This was renamed Nagasaki Seitetsusho in 1860, and construction was completed in 1861, following the Meiji Restoration of 1868, the shipyard was placed under control of the new Government of Meiji Japan. The first dry dock was completed in 1879, iwasaki purchased the shipyards outright in 1887. In 1891, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries - Yokohama Machinery Works was started as Yokohama Dock Company and its main business was ship repairs, to which it added ship servicing by 1897. The works was renamed Mitsubishi Shipyard of Mitsubishi Goshi Kaisha in 1893, the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries - Shimonoseki Shipyard & Machinery Works was established in 1914. It produced industrial machinery and merchant ships, the Nagasaki company was renamed Mitsubishi Shipbuilding & Engineering Company, Ltd. in 1917 and again renamed as Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in 1934. It became the largest private firm in Japan, active in the manufacture of ships, heavy machinery, airplanes, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries merged with the Yokohama Dock Company in 1935. From its inception, the Mitsubishi Nagasaki shipyards were heavily involved in contracts for the Imperial Japanese Navy, the largest battleship Musashi was completed at Nagasaki in 1942. The Kobe Shipyard of Mitsubishi Goshi Kaisha was established in 1905, the Kobe Shipyard merged with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in 1934. The Kobe Shipyard constructed the ocean liner Argentina Maru, and the submarines the I-19, following the dissolution of the zaibatsu after the surrender of Japan at the end of World War II, Mitsubishi divided into three companies. Mitsubishi Nagasaki became West Japan Heavy Industries, Ltd, the Nagasaki Shipyard was renamed Mitsubishi Shipbuilding & Engineering Co. Ltd. in 1952. The Mitsubishi Kobe Shipyard became Central Japan Heavy Industries, Ltd. in 1950, in 1964, the three independent companies from the 1950 break-up were merged again into one company under the name of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. The Nagasaki works was renamed the Nagasaki Shipyard & Engine Works, the Kobe works was renamed the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries - Kobe Shipyard & Machinery Works. In 1970, MHIs automobile parts department became an independent company as Mitsubishi Motors, MHI participated in a ¥540 billion emergency rescue of Mitsubishi Motors in January 2005, in partnership with Mitsubishi Corporation and Mitsubishi Tokyo Financial Group. As part of the rescue, MHI acquired ¥50 billion of Mitsubishi Motors stock, increasing its stake to 15 percent. In October 2009, MHI announced an order for up to 100 regional jets from the United States-based airline Trans States Holdings. MHI entered talks with Hitachi in August 2011 about a merger of the two companies, in what would have been the largest merger between two Japanese companies in history
15.
SGD
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The Singaporean dollar is the official currency of Singapore. It is normally abbreviated with the dollar sign $, or alternatively S$ to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies and it is divided into 100 cents. The Singaporean dollar is accepted as customary tender in Brunei according to the Currency Interchangeability Agreement, likewise, the Bruneian dollar is customarily accepted in Singapore. Between 1845 and 1939, Singapore used the Straits dollar and this was replaced by the Malayan dollar, and, from 1953, the Malaya and British Borneo dollar, which were issued by the Board of Commissioners of Currency, Malaya and British Borneo. Singapore established the Board of Commissioners of Currency, Singapore, on 7 April 1967 and issued its first coins, nevertheless, the Singapore dollar was exchangeable at par with the Malaysian ringgit until 1973, and interchangeability with the Brunei dollar is still maintained. Initially, the Singaporean dollar was pegged to the British pound sterling at a rate of S$60 = £7. This peg lasted until the demise of the Sterling Area due to the Nixon Shock in the early 1970s and this, in theory, allows the Singaporean government to have more control over imported inflation and to ensure that Singapores exports remain competitive. Before 1970, the various functions associated with a central bank were performed by several government departments. Therefore, the Parliament of Singapore passed the Monetary Authority of Singapore Act in 1970, the MAS Act gave the MAS the authority to regulate all elements of monetary, banking, and financial aspects of Singapore. On 31 March 2003, the Board of Commissioners of Currency Singapore merged with the Monetary Authority of Singapore, as of 2012, the total currency in circulation was S$29.1 billion. All issued Singapore currency in circulation are fully backed by assets in its Currency Fund to maintain public confidence. Singapores foreign reserves officially stood at over US$277.9 billion, in 1967, the first series of coins was introduced in denominations 1,5,10,20 and 50 cents and 1 dollar. These coins depicted wildlife and other relating to the island nation and were designed by Stuart Devlin. The sizes were the same as used for the Malaysian Ringgit and based directly off the old coinage of the former Malaya. The 1 cent was bronze while the other denominations were copper-nickel, later, in 1976 the 1 cent was changed to copper-clad steel. The production of the first series was phased out by 1985, in 1985, the second series of coins were introduced in denominations 1,5,10,20 and 50 cents and 1 dollar. The reverse of coins were designed by Christopher Ironside. The new series offered smaller coins depicting a floral theme, one dollar banknotes were discontinued and gradually replaced with an aluminum-bronze coin
16.
Yishun
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The name, Yishun, is a Mandarin romanisation of Nee Soon, named after Lim Nee Soon, a prominent industrialist who made his fortune from rubber and pineapples. Lim Nee Soon was also a banker, contractor and general commission agent and he was the first general manager of the Bukit Sembawang Rubber Company Limited, formed in 1908. Nee Soon and Company was formed in 1911, Nee Soon was one of the pioneers that opened up Sembawang. Nee Soon served on the Rural Board from 1913 to 1921 and was appointed a Justice of Peace. In the field of education, he was one of the founders of Chinese High School, Nee Soon Road was officially named in 1950 by the Rural Board to facilitate postal services. Nee Soon also owned a plot of land in the area and several roads in this area are named after his business concerns. Nee Soon was a member of the Teochew clan association poit ip huay kwan. The name Nee Soon was one of those changed at the height of the campaign to replace dialect names with Mandarin ones, Yishun has started the development of HDB flats since 1976, with the first HDB flats at Chong Pang. Yishun Neighbourhood 1 has been developed since 1981, followed by Neighbourhood 7, Neighbourhood 6,8 and 9 have been developed in 1987, together with the Town Centre. Neighbourhood 3 and 4 followed slightly later in 1992, construction of Neighbourhood 5 was started in 2009 and was completed in 2015. Northpoint Shopping Centre → The only shopping mall in Yishun, was located just beside the Yishun MRT Station and it underwent an expansion completed in 2010 which included a new building connected to the main shopping mall built on a plot of land next to it. The expansion increased the size of Northpoint Shopping Centre and hold more shops as well as a new library at its top floor, the shopping centre was opened in 1992 making it the first modern sub-urban mall in a major housing estate. Currently, sub-urban malls are almost a standard feature in all housing estates, Northpoint City is a massive expansion of Northpoint. It will include a bus interchange, a condominium, North Park Residences, and a community club and it is currently under construction and will be completed in 2018. GV Yishun → The first Golden Village Cinema opened in May 1992, GV Yishun has a capacity of 1477 seats with 20 berths set aside for wheelchair-bound patrons, and its signature ten cinema halls have seen three of them upgraded to full 3D digital halls. Chong Pang City → Chong Pang City is located in Neighbourhood 1 and it has a collection of shophouses, a hawker centre and a market. There are small and family-run businesses, as well as major retailers such as a Giant supermarket, CK department store, McDonalds, Watsons and Guardian pharmacies, and 7-Elevens. Chong Pang City was by far the biggest and most complete of the neighbourhood centres until the arrival of Northpoint Shopping Centre, other neighbourhood shopping areas → There are various other neighbourhood centres at Nee Soon East, Khatib City and Neighbourhood 4
17.
Global Positioning System
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The Global Positioning System is a space-based radionavigation system owned by the United States government and operated by the United States Air Force. The GPS system operates independently of any telephonic or internet reception, the GPS system provides critical positioning capabilities to military, civil, and commercial users around the world. The United States government created the system, maintains it, however, the US government can selectively deny access to the system, as happened to the Indian military in 1999 during the Kargil War. The U. S. Department of Defense developed the system and it became fully operational in 1995. Roger L. Easton of the Naval Research Laboratory, Ivan A, getting of The Aerospace Corporation, and Bradford Parkinson of the Applied Physics Laboratory are credited with inventing it. Announcements from Vice President Al Gore and the White House in 1998 initiated these changes, in 2000, the U. S. Congress authorized the modernization effort, GPS III. In addition to GPS, other systems are in use or under development, mainly because of a denial of access. The Russian Global Navigation Satellite System was developed contemporaneously with GPS, GLONASS can be added to GPS devices, making more satellites available and enabling positions to be fixed more quickly and accurately, to within two meters. There are also the European Union Galileo positioning system and Chinas BeiDou Navigation Satellite System, special and general relativity predict that the clocks on the GPS satellites would be seen by the Earths observers to run 38 microseconds faster per day than the clocks on the Earth. The GPS calculated positions would quickly drift into error, accumulating to 10 kilometers per day, the relativistic time effect of the GPS clocks running faster than the clocks on earth was corrected for in the design of GPS. The Soviet Union launched the first man-made satellite, Sputnik 1, two American physicists, William Guier and George Weiffenbach, at Johns Hopkinss Applied Physics Laboratory, decided to monitor Sputniks radio transmissions. Within hours they realized that, because of the Doppler effect, the Director of the APL gave them access to their UNIVAC to do the heavy calculations required. The next spring, Frank McClure, the deputy director of the APL, asked Guier and Weiffenbach to investigate the inverse problem — pinpointing the users location and this led them and APL to develop the TRANSIT system. In 1959, ARPA also played a role in TRANSIT, the first satellite navigation system, TRANSIT, used by the United States Navy, was first successfully tested in 1960. It used a constellation of five satellites and could provide a navigational fix approximately once per hour, in 1967, the U. S. Navy developed the Timation satellite, which proved the feasibility of placing accurate clocks in space, a technology required by GPS. In the 1970s, the ground-based OMEGA navigation system, based on comparison of signal transmission from pairs of stations. Limitations of these systems drove the need for a more universal navigation solution with greater accuracy, during the Cold War arms race, the nuclear threat to the existence of the United States was the one need that did justify this cost in the view of the United States Congress. This deterrent effect is why GPS was funded and it is also the reason for the ultra secrecy at that time
18.
Parking
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Parking is the act of stopping and disengaging a vehicle and leaving it unoccupied. Parking on one or both sides of a road is permitted, though sometimes with restrictions. Some buildings have parking facilities for use of the buildings users, countries and local governments have rules for design and use of parking spaces. In the U. S. after the first public parking garage for vehicles was opened in Boston, May 24,1898. In cities of the Eastern US, many former livery stables, with lifts for carriages, the following terms give regional variations. All except carport refer to outdoor multi-level parking facilities, in some regional dialects, some of these phrases refer also to indoor or single-level facilities. Elsewhere, the ramp would apply to the inclines between floors of a parking garage, but not to the entire structure itself. Multi-storey car park Car park Parking structure Parking garage Parking building Carport Cycle park Parkade In addition to basic car parking/parking lots variations of serviced parking types exist. Common serviced parking types are, Park and ride Valet Parking Airport Parking Meet and Greet Parking Park, Parking lots specifically for bicycles are becoming more prevalent in many countries. These may include bicycle parking racks and locks, as well as modern technologies for security. For instance, one parking lot in Tokyo has an automated parking system. Urban parking spaces can have a value where the price of land is high. In Boston in 2009 a single parking space sold for $300,000, in congested urban areas parking of motor vehicles is time-consuming and often expensive. Urban planners who are in a position to override market forces must consider whether, the costs or subsidies of such parking accommodations can become a heated point in local politics. For example, in 2006 the San Francisco Board of Supervisors considered a controversial zoning plan to limit the number of vehicle parking spaces available in new residential developments. Heated social discourse sometimes revolves around the sense of ownership that informally arises, many use parking chairs and other markers, usually without approval of municipal authorities. For example, during the winter of 2005 in Boston, the practice of some people saving convenient roadway for themselves became controversial. At that time, many Boston districts had a convention that if a person shoveled the snow out of a roadspace
19.
Central Expressway, Singapore
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As from 29 December 2013, SLE and CTE are one of the two pairs of expressways in Singapore which are linked together, the other being the KPE and MCE. This stretch was opened on 21 September 1991, as it is the only expressway to connect the city and the northern residential areas, it is more prone to congestion than the other expressways in Singapore. m. to 8 p. m. This is the first time that evening ERP hours were introduced for a Singapore road, a section of the CTE passes under the Singapore River, causing significant water seepage problems. Despite the LTA plugging nearly 2000 leaks and spending millions, on 9 May 2007, traffic cameras monitoring the CTE Infopedia article on Central Expressway
20.
Thomson Road, Singapore
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Thomson Road is a major trunk road linking Singapores central business district with the northern suburban areas. Thus, it was known as Ang Kio Tau, meaning head of the red bridge. It also had a Tamil name, Thanir Pilei Sadakku, literally meaning water-pipe street, the present day Thomson Road begins at a major road junction with Keng Lee Road, Kampong Java Road, Cavenagh Road and Norfolk Road, and leads northwards through the Novena residential area. It passes by Toa Payoh before continuing on as Upper Thomson Road at the junction with Braddell Road and it is also the site of Saint Joseph Institution International, Ministry of Youth and many more. This road also is affected with the North-South Expressway construction, the Thomson Road connected the city centre to the former British Naval Base at Seletar. The road was known as Thomson Road till the 9th mile. This resulted in confusion as the British naval and air bases, were both known as Seletar. In response to this, parts of the road were renamed in 1939 and it was determined that the road would be called Thomson Road till the Yio Chu Kang junction, whereupon it was to become Upper Thomson Road till the Mandai Road junction. From the Mandai Road junction till the sea, it was named as Sembawang Road, the name Seletar Road was dropped. In 1959, the Singapore rural board renamed the stretch of road from the junction of Braddell and Thomson Roads to the junction of Mandai and Sembawang Roads, Thomson Road Grand Prix circuit Peter K G Dunlop Street Names of Singapore Whos Who Publishing ISBN 981-4062-11-1
21.
Serangoon Road
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Serangoon Road is a street in Singapore which runs from Little India to Kallang. It is a street, with Jalan Besar and Bendemeer Road running parallel to Serangoon Road in the other direction. After Woodsville Interchange, Serangoon Road becomes Upper Serangoon Road, where it connects towards Serangoon Central, Hougang, Sengkang, the street is notable due to having the former Hotel New World located on the intersection of Serangoon Road and Owen Road
22.
Viaduct
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A viaduct is a bridge composed of several small spans for crossing a valley, dry or wetland, or forming a flyover. The term viaduct is derived from the Latin via for road and ducere, the ancient Romans did not use the term, it is a modern derivation from an analogy with aqueduct. Like the Roman aqueducts, many early viaducts comprised a series of arches of equal length. Viaducts may span land, water or both, a viaduct is a bridge composed of several small spans for crossing a valley or a gorge. The term is conventional for a flyover as opposed to a flying junction or a rail bridge which crosses one feature. In Romance languages, the word refers to a bridge which spans only land. A bridge spanning water is called ponte, the longest viaduct in antiquity may have been the Pont Serme which crossed wide marshes in southern France. Viaducts are commonly used in cities that are railroad centers, such as Chicago, Atlanta, Birmingham, London. These viaducts cross the railroad yards that are needed for freight trains there. These viaducts keep highway and city street traffic from having to be interrupted by the train traffic. Likewise, some viaducts carry railroads over large valleys, or they carry railroads over cities with many cross-streets, many viaducts over land connect points of similar height in a landscape, usually by bridging a river valley or other eroded opening in an otherwise flat area. Often such valleys had roads descending either side that become inadequate for the traffic load, such bridges also lend themselves for use by rail traffic, which requires straighter and flatter routes. Some viaducts have more than one deck, such that one deck has vehicular traffic, others were built to span settled areas, crossing over roads beneath—the reason for many viaducts in London. Viaducts over water use of islands or successive arches. The Millau Viaduct is a cable-stayed road-bridge that spans the valley of the River Tarn near Millau in southern France and it was formally dedicated on 14 December 2004 and opened to traffic two days later. The viaduct Danyang–Kunshan Grand Bridge in China is the longest bridge in the according to Guinness World Records as of 2011. Where a viaduct is built across land rather than water, the space below the arches may be used for such as car parking, vehicle repairs, light industry, bars. In the United Kingdom, many lines in urban areas have been constructed on viaducts
23.
East Coast Parkway
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The East Coast Parkway is an expressway that runs along the southeastern coast of Singapore. It has an interchange with the Pan Island Expressway at the Changi Flyover and it is the only expressway in Singapore which the last letter behind uses P which is known as Parkway for Expressway. Previously, the East Coast Parkway used to be connected to AYE. They were built on reclaimed land, construction on Phase 4, stretching from Fort Road to Keppel Road began in 1977 and it was opened on 18 April 1981. It opened in 1981 to coincide with the opening of Singapore Changi Airport, the Benjamin Sheares Bridge was opened at the same time in 1982, and it was extended all the way until it reaches Keppel Road. A recently decommissioned highway strip was built in a long, straight section of the ECP close to Changi Airport and this section can be easily identified by removable potted plants instead of the standard large trees on the median strip
24.
Geylang Road
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Geylang Road is a major trunk road linking Singapores eastern suburban areas with the countrys central business district. Previously it was the main thoroughfare linking Changi and Kallang. As traffic mushroomed, Geylang Road was converted into a street. Geylang Road is known for its history of prostitution. Geylang had over 50 lanes at one point in history, each lane had female prostitutes catering to a specific niche in terms of their language spoken, nationality, age, experience and sexual position performed. For example, each street could be filled with Thai, Filipino, Macau, Chungking prostitutes. One street would be for virgin prostitutes and another for virgin customers, red lanterns would light up in the night in seemingly pristine mansions discreetly announcing that they are brothels open for business. Normally, clients can only afford the working women in cubicles or corners, the mansions are reserved for exclusive business or corporate personnel as the fees charged for the same services rendered are beyond the reach of any normal working-class individual. Unlike in Hong Kong and Taipei, male prostitution for women clientele, as such, Geylang is exclusively targeted towards heterosexual male clientele from all over the world. The Geylang prostitutes are routinely rounded up by police for check-ups and health screenings, transport in Singapore Peter K G Dunlop Street Names of Singapore Whos Who Publishing ISBN 981-4062-11-1
25.
Nicoll Highway
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Nicoll Highway is a major arterial road in Singapore which links Kallang to the city. En route, it passes through the areas of Kallang, Kampong Glam, despite what its name may suggest, the speed limit on the highway is less than that of an expressway. The highway also has traffic light junctions at some of its intersection with roads such as Bras Basah Road and Esplanade Drive, which are not found in expressways. When the Merdeka Bridge was completed over the Kallang River in 1956, Nicoll Highways role is now taken over by the Benjamin Sheares Bridge on the East Coast Parkway. The highway was named by Sir John Fearns Nicoll, Governor of the Colony from 1952 to 1955. Singapore Time on April 20,2004, a section of Nicoll Highway between Ophir Road and Merdeka Bridge collapsed, due to the failure of the wall of the Circle Line tunnel below it. This section of the road had to be closed for months for repairs. All bus services going through that sector of Nicoll Highway had to be redirected, the road was re-opened in December later that year
26.
IBM
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International Business Machines Corporation is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States, with operations in over 170 countries. The company originated in 1911 as the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company and was renamed International Business Machines in 1924, IBM manufactures and markets computer hardware, middleware and software, and offers hosting and consulting services in areas ranging from mainframe computers to nanotechnology. IBM is also a research organization, holding the record for most patents generated by a business for 24 consecutive years. IBM has continually shifted its business mix by exiting commoditizing markets and focusing on higher-value, also in 2014, IBM announced that it would go fabless, continuing to design semiconductors, but offloading manufacturing to GlobalFoundries. Nicknamed Big Blue, IBM is one of 30 companies included in the Dow Jones Industrial Average and one of the worlds largest employers, with nearly 380,000 employees. Known as IBMers, IBM employees have been awarded five Nobel Prizes, six Turing Awards, ten National Medals of Technology, in the 1880s, technologies emerged that would ultimately form the core of what would become International Business Machines. On June 16,1911, their four companies were amalgamated in New York State by Charles Ranlett Flint forming a fifth company, the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company based in Endicott, New York. The five companies had 1,300 employees and offices and plants in Endicott and Binghamton, New York, Dayton, Ohio, Detroit, Michigan, Washington, D. C. and Toronto. They manufactured machinery for sale and lease, ranging from commercial scales and industrial time recorders, meat and cheese slicers, to tabulators and punched cards. Thomas J. Watson, Sr. fired from the National Cash Register Company by John Henry Patterson, called on Flint and, Watson joined CTR as General Manager then,11 months later, was made President when court cases relating to his time at NCR were resolved. Having learned Pattersons pioneering business practices, Watson proceeded to put the stamp of NCR onto CTRs companies and his favorite slogan, THINK, became a mantra for each companys employees. During Watsons first four years, revenues more than doubled to $9 million, Watson had never liked the clumsy hyphenated title of the CTR and in 1924 chose to replace it with the more expansive title International Business Machines. By 1933 most of the subsidiaries had been merged into one company, in 1937, IBMs tabulating equipment enabled organizations to process unprecedented amounts of data, its clients including the U. S. During the Second World War the company produced small arms for the American war effort, in 1949, Thomas Watson, Sr. created IBM World Trade Corporation, a subsidiary of IBM focused on foreign operations. In 1952, he stepped down after almost 40 years at the company helm, in 1957, the FORTRAN scientific programming language was developed. In 1961, IBM developed the SABRE reservation system for American Airlines, in 1963, IBM employees and computers helped NASA track the orbital flight of the Mercury astronauts. A year later it moved its headquarters from New York City to Armonk. The latter half of the 1960s saw IBM continue its support of space exploration, on April 7,1964, IBM announced the first computer system family, the IBM System/360
27.
Traffic estimation and prediction system
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Traffic estimation and prediction systems have the potential to improve traffic conditions and reduce travel delays by facilitating better utilization of available capacity. These systems exploit currently available and emerging computer, communication, and control technologies to monitor, manage and they also provide various levels of traffic information and trip advisory to system users, including many ITS service providers, so that travelers can make timely and informed travel decisions. The success of ITS technology deployments is heavily dependent on the availability of timely, as such, there is a strong need for a “traffic prediction system”. The main objective of this research is to develop a deployable real-time Traffic Estimation and Prediction System to meet the information need in the ITS context, each team was required to develop a prototype of TrEPS demonstrating its potential for real time application capability. After three years of intensive R&D efforts, two prototype TrEPS were developed, the two prototype TrEPS developed by MIT and UTX/UMD are named DynaMIT-R and DYNASMART-X, respectively. Both systems are simulation-based DTA system, in France, the Centre national d’information routière directs, coordinates and monitors the work of seven regional traffic coordination and information centres. It publishes forecastd which are available on line at www. bison-fute. equipement. gouv. fr/en/ and are referred to in radio. The advice of Bison Futé as the service is called is well known and has been in place for several decades, in China, Xian Jiaotong University initiated a similar simulation-based DTA research project in 2000 with a follow-up development and support at the Shandong Academy of Sciences after 2004. Dr. Yong Lin is the leader and Houbing Song is the earliest project member. After six years of intense R&D efforts, one prototype TrEPS was developed in 2006, the overall prototype TrEPS developed by Dr. Lin and his team which has more than 20 members is named DynaCHINA. Singapore implemented the first practical application of congestion pricing in the world in 1975, thanks to technological advances in electronic toll collection, detection, and video surveillance, Singapore upgraded its system in 1998. The pilot results show overall prediction results above 85 percent of accuracy, furthermore, when more data was available, at peak hours, average accuracy raised near or above 90 percent. Roads and Traffic Authority, NSW SCATS Sydney Coordinated Adaptive Traffic System
28.
Transportation Demand Management
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In transport, as in any network, managing demand can be a cost-effective alternative to increasing capacity. A demand management approach to transport also has the potential to better environmental outcomes, improved public health, stronger communities. TDM techniques link with and support community movements for sustainable transport, the concepts of TDM borrowed from mainstream transport planning in Europe, which had never been based on assumptions that the private car was the best or only solution for urban mobility. Because vehicle travel was increasing rapidly from 1980–2000, it follows that the techniques of management were not widely or successfully applied during this period. Small-scale projects to provide alternatives to single occupant commuter travel were common, however many of the techniques in the demand management toolbox were developed during this period. The British Governments White Paper on Transport marked a change in direction, in the introduction to the White Paper, Prime Minister Tony Blair stated that We recognise that we cannot simply build our way out of the problems we face. It would be environmentally irresponsible - and would not work, TDM practitioners have found that TDM is far more effective when framed as a philosophical approach which over time becomes a cornerstone of sustainable urban transport systems. A new paradigm in transport planning, internationally recognised as TDM, appears to be emerging which embraces concepts such as mobility management and active travel management under its umbrella. It appears that managing travel demand has largely been compartmentalized as a set of “soft measures” to promote sustainable travel options or programs to promote, demand management means different things to different disciplines. The concept has become confused as each discipline has tried to mold the concept to their set of tools and this “silo” thinking inhibits the kind of policy integration that is needed to develop a sustainable urban transport solution strategy. There remains much confusion as to what a sustainable transport system would comprise and it is helpful therefore to consider different approaches to sustainable transport along a spectrum of viewpoints, ranging from weak to strong sustainability. Generally efforts to address the impact of transport on climate change to date have been focused on technology. The impact of this approach has been very limited in the transport sector. TDM has the potential to move the transport sector from a position of weak to strong sustainability by combining behavior-change with technology improvements, in this context transport demand management is understood as a much broader concept. It is the philosophy of TDM, not specific measures associated with it. This philosophy of managing demand accepts that meeting unfettered demand for travel is impractical, the need to manage travel demand has now become urgent for a number of converging reasons. Oil prices have now passed the peak in 1980. Vehicle travel in the United States, which has been rising steadily since records began, part of this decline is likely to be people making fewer trips, with potentially far-reaching economic and social consequences
29.
Global Navigation Satellite System
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A satellite navigation or satnav system is a system that uses satellites to provide autonomous geo-spatial positioning. It allows small electronic receivers to determine their location to high precision using time signals transmitted along a line of sight by radio from satellites, the system can be used for providing position, navigation or for tracking the position of something fitted with a receiver. The signals also allow the receiver to calculate the current local time to high precision. Satnav systems operate independently of any telephonic or internet reception, though these technologies can enhance the usefulness of the information generated. A satellite navigation system with global coverage may be termed a global satellite system. As of December 2016 only the United States NAVSTAR Global Positioning System, the Russian GLONASS, the European Unions Galileo GNSS is scheduled to be fully operational by 2020. China is in the process of expanding its regional BeiDou Navigation Satellite System into the global BeiDou-2 GNSS by 2020, India currently has satellite-based augmentation system, GPS Aided GEO Augmented Navigation, which enhances the accuracy of NAVSTAR GPS and GLONASS positions. India has already launched the IRNSS, with an operational name NAVIC and it is expected to be fully operational by June 2016. France and Japan are in the process of developing regional navigation systems as well, Global coverage for each system is generally achieved by a satellite constellation of 18–30 medium Earth orbit satellites spread between several orbital planes. The actual systems vary, but use orbital inclinations of >50°, Ground based augmentation is provided by systems like the Local Area Augmentation System. GNSS-2 is the generation of systems that independently provides a full civilian satellite navigation system. These systems will provide the accuracy and integrity monitoring necessary for civil navigation and this system consists of L1 and L2 frequencies for civil use and L5 for system integrity. Development is also in progress to provide GPS with civil use L2 and L5 frequencies, making it a GNSS-2 system. ¹ Core Satellite navigation systems, currently GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, Global Satellite Based Augmentation Systems such as Omnistar and StarFire. Regional SBAS including WAAS, EGNOS, MSAS and GAGAN, Regional Satellite Navigation Systems such as Chinas Beidou, Indias NAVIC, and Japans proposed QZSS. Continental scale Ground Based Augmentation Systems for example the Australian GRAS, Regional scale GBAS such as CORS networks. Local GBAS typified by a single GPS reference station operating Real Time Kinematic corrections, early predecessors were the ground based DECCA, LORAN, GEE and Omega radio navigation systems, which used terrestrial longwave radio transmitters instead of satellites. These positioning systems broadcast a radio pulse from a known master location, the delay between the reception of the master signal and the slave signals allowed the receiver to deduce the distance to each of the slaves, providing a fix. The first satellite system was Transit, a system deployed by the US military in the 1960s
30.
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
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Toronto is the most populous city in Canada and the provincial capital of Ontario. With a population of 2,731,571, Toronto is the fourth most populous city in North America after Mexico City, New York City, and Los Angeles. A global city, Toronto is a centre of business, finance, arts, and culture. Aboriginal peoples have inhabited the area now known as Toronto for thousands of years, the city itself is situated on the southern terminus of an ancient Aboriginal trail leading north to Lake Simcoe, used by the Wyandot, Iroquois, and the Mississauga. Permanent European settlement began in the 1790s, after the broadly disputed Toronto Purchase of 1787, the British established the town of York, and later designated it as the capital of Upper Canada. During the War of 1812, the town was the site of the Battle of York, York was renamed and incorporated as the city of Toronto in 1834, and became the capital of the province of Ontario during the Canadian Confederation in 1867. The city proper has since expanded past its original borders through amalgamation with surrounding municipalities at various times in its history to its current area of 630.2 km2. While the majority of Torontonians speak English as their primary language, Toronto is a prominent centre for music, theatre, motion picture production, and television production, and is home to the headquarters of Canadas major national broadcast networks and media outlets. Toronto is well known for its skyscrapers and high-rise buildings, in particular the tallest free-standing structure in the Western Hemisphere, the name Toronto is likely derived from the Iroquois word tkaronto, meaning place where trees stand in the water. This refers to the end of what is now Lake Simcoe. A portage route from Lake Ontario to Lake Huron running through this point, in the 1660s, the Iroquois established two villages within what is today Toronto, Ganatsekwyagon on the banks of the Rouge River and Teiaiagonon the banks of the Humber River. By 1701, the Mississauga had displaced the Iroquois, who abandoned the Toronto area at the end of the Beaver Wars, French traders founded Fort Rouillé on the current Exhibition grounds in 1750, but abandoned it in 1759. During the American Revolutionary War, the region saw an influx of British settlers as United Empire Loyalists fled for the British-controlled lands north of Lake Ontario, the new province of Upper Canada was in the process of creation and needed a capital. Dorchester intended the location to be named Toronto, in 1793, Governor John Graves Simcoe established the town of York on the Toronto Purchase lands, instead naming it after Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany. Simcoe decided to move the Upper Canada capital from Newark to York, the York garrison was constructed at the entrance of the towns natural harbour, sheltered by a long sandbar peninsula. The towns settlement formed at the end of the harbour behind the peninsula, near the present-day intersection of Parliament Street. In 1813, as part of the War of 1812, the Battle of York ended in the towns capture, the surrender of the town was negotiated by John Strachan. US soldiers destroyed much of the garrison and set fire to the parliament buildings during their five-day occupation, the sacking of York was a primary motivation for the Burning of Washington by British troops later in the war
31.
Ontario Highway 407
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Highway 407 is a tolled 400-series highway in the Canadian province of Ontario. The segment between Burlington and Brougham in Pickering is leased to and operated by the 407 ETR Concession Company Limited and is known as the 407 Express Toll Route. It begins at the junction of the Queen Elizabeth Way and Highway 403 in Burlington, East of Brock Road, the freeway continues east as Highway 407 East for 21.2 km to Harmony Road in Oshawa. Highway 407 is the first electronically operated toll highway opened in the world, distances are calculated automatically using transponders or licence plates, which are scanned at entrance and exit points. Major interchanges along the route include the QEW, Highway 403, Highway 401, Highway 410, Highway 427, Highway 400, Highway 404, and Highway 412. Highway 407 was planned in the late 1950s as a freeway bypassing the Toronto segment of Highway 401, however, construction did not begin until 1987. During the early 1990s, the government proposed tolling the highway to alleviate a revenue shortfall. The central sections of Highway 407 opened 1997, the remaining sections were built quickly over the following four years, with the final segment of opening in mid-2001. Despite being included in the 400-series network, the Highway 407 ETR section is not considered part of the highway network due to it now being privately operated. The route is operated privately under a 99-year lease agreement with the provincial government, the lease was sold in 1998 for approximately C$3.1 billion to a consortium of Canadian and Spanish investors operating under the name 407 International Inc. The privatization of the Highway 407 ETR section has been the source of significant criticism, especially regarding the increases in tolls, plate denial, in addition, the safety of segments constructed following the sale of the freeway has been called into question. Many have come to regard Highway 407 ETR as a luxury, the first phase of a provincially owned and tolled extension of the route, known solely as Highway 407 opened to traffic from Brock Road in Pickering to Harmony Road in Oshawa on June 20,2016. Included as part of extension, was the construction of a tolled north-south link between Highways 401 and 407 known as Highway 412. Construction is currently underway to extend the provincially owned portion of Highway 407 easterly to Highway 35 / Highway 115 in Clarington and this construction is set to open in two stages, with the first phase opening in 2017, and the second phase opening in 2019. This construction includes a link to Highway 401 east of Oshawa that will be known as Highway 418. The 407 ETR is contractually responsible for maintaining high levels as justification for increasing tolls. Despite increased usage, parallel roads that Highway 407 was intended to supplement continue to grow congested, forcing the MTO to revisit costly widening projects of Highway 401 and the QEW. Highway 407 has been designed with aesthetics and environmental concerns in mind by featuring landscaped embankments,79 storm drainage ponds, as well as a curb, unlike most other Ontario highways, it features concrete pavement as opposed to top-coated asphalt
32.
London Congestion Charge
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The London congestion charge is a fee charged on most motor vehicles operating within the Congestion Charge Zone in Central London between 07,00 and 18,00 Mondays to Fridays. It is not charged on weekends, public holidays or between Christmas Day and New Years Day, the charge was introduced on 17 February 2003. The charge aims to reduce traffic flow in the central area. The standard charge is £11.50 for each day, for each vehicle that travels within the zone. The ULED scheme was designed to curb the number of diesel vehicles on Londons roads. A new toxicity charge, known as T-charge will be introduced from 23 October 2017 for vehicles that do not meet Euro 4 standards and these older polluting vehicles will pay an extra £10 charge on top of the congestion charge to drive within the Congestion Charge Zone. Enforcement is primarily based on number plate recognition. Transport for London is responsible for the charge which has operated by IBM since 1 November 2009. During the first ten years since the introduction of the scheme, from 2003 to 2013, about £1.2 billion of net revenue has been invested in public transport, road and bridge improvement and walking and cycling schemes. Of these, a total of £960 million was invested on improvements to the bus network, despite these gains, traffic speeds have also been getting progressively slower over the past decade, particularly in central London. Although primarily an area, there are also 136,000 residents. There is little industry within the zone. Signs were erected and symbols painted on the road to help drivers recognise the congestion charge area. In January 2013 Transport for London opened a consultation to increase the standard charge 15% by mid 2014. The increase was expected to generate an estimated £84 million of revenue by the end of 2017/18. The consultation process ran from January 2014 to March 2014, according to TfL the objective of the increase was to recoup inflation over the past three years and ensure the charge remains an effective deterrent to making unnecessary journeys in central London. As of 16 June 2014 the following apply, The standard fee is £11.50 per day if paid by midnight on the day of travel, £14 if paid by the end of the following day. Businesses with six or more vehicles can register with Fleet Auto Pay, from 20 May 2013 failure to pay results in the issuance of a Penalty Charge Notice for £130, reduced to £65 if paid within 14 days, but increased to £195 if unpaid after 28 days
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Stockholm congestion tax
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The congestion tax was implemented on a permanent basis on August 1,2007, after a seven-month trial period between January 3,2006 and July 31,2006. The primary purpose of the tax is to reduce traffic congestion. The funds collected will be used for new constructions in. A referendum was held in September 2006, a few months after the end of the trial period, in the referendum the residents of Stockholm municipality voted yes and in 14 other municipalities voted no to implement it permanently. On October 1,2006, the leaders of the parties in the 2006 general election. The Riksdag approved this on June 20,2007, and the tax came into effect on August 1,2007. On 1 January 2016, congestion taxes were increased in the inner-city parts of Stockholm, the measure was implemented not only to improve accessibility and the environment, but also to help develop the infrastructure. There are unmanned electronic control points at all entrances to this area, the congestion tax is applied on both entry and exit of the affected area. From 1 January 2016, the tax began to be charged in on Essingeleden motorway. The control points on Essingeleden are located at the Kristineberg Interchange and at the access, the transport agencies involved expect to reduce traffic on Essingeleden by some 10% in peak hours. One week after the tax began to be charged, traffic on the motorway had decreased by 22% compared to a day in mid-December. The amount of tax payable depends on time of the day a motorist enters or exits the congestion tax area. There is no charge on Saturdays, Sundays, public holidays or the day before public holidays, nor during nights, the congestion tax was raised in January 2016, the first increase of the tax since it was introduced permanently in 2007. The highest increase took place at the two highest rush hour periods,7,30 to 8,29, and 16,00 to 17,29, from SEK20 to SEK35. The objective was to steer the traffic towards other times of the day and public transport, also the maximum amount levied was raised to SEK105 per day and vehicle. The additional funds will contribute to finance the extension of the Stockholm metro, the following table summarizes the charges for Essingeleden and the Inner City since 1 January 2016. Payment of the tax cannot be made at the control points — they merely register which vehicles have passed them. A bill is sent to the owner at the end of each month, with the tax decisions for the preceding months control point passages
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Stockholm
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The city is spread across 14 islands on the coast in the southeast of Sweden at the mouth of Lake Mälaren, by the Stockholm archipelago and the Baltic Sea. The area has settled since the Stone Age, in the 6th millennium BC. It is also the capital of Stockholm County, Stockholm is the cultural, media, political, and economic centre of Sweden. The Stockholm region alone accounts for over a third of the countrys GDP and it is an important global city, and the main centre for corporate headquarters in the Nordic region. The city is home to some of Europes top ranking universities, such as the Stockholm School of Economics, Karolinska Institute and it hosts the annual Nobel Prize ceremonies and banquet at the Stockholm Concert Hall and Stockholm City Hall. One of the citys most prized museums, the Vasa Museum, is the most visited museum in Scandinavia. The Stockholm metro, opened in 1950, is known for its decoration of the stations. Swedens national football arena is located north of the city centre, Ericsson Globe, the national indoor arena, is in the southern part of the city. The city was the host of the 1912 Summer Olympics, and hosted the equestrian portion of the 1956 Summer Olympics otherwise held in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Stockholm is the seat of the Swedish government and most of its agencies, including the highest courts in the judiciary, and the official residencies of the Swedish monarch and the Prime Minister. The government has its seat in the Rosenbad building, the Riksdag is seated in the Parliament House, and the Prime Ministers residence is adjacent at the Sager House. After the Ice Age, around 8,000 BCE, there were already a number of people living in the present-day Stockholm area. Thousands of years later, as the ground thawed, the climate became tolerable, at the intersection of the Baltic Sea and lake Mälaren is an archipelago site where the Old Town of Stockholm was first built from about 1000 CE by Vikings. They had a positive impact on the area because of the trade routes they created. Stockholms location appears in Norse sagas as Agnafit, and in Heimskringla in connection with the legendary king Agne, the earliest written mention of the name Stockholm dates from 1252, by which time the mines in Bergslagen made it an important site in the iron trade. The first part of the name means log in Swedish, although it may also be connected to an old German word meaning fortification, the second part of the name means islet, and is thought to refer to the islet Helgeandsholmen in central Stockholm. Stockholms core, the present Old Town was built on the island next to Helgeandsholmen from the mid 13th century onward. The city originally rose to prominence as a result of the Baltic trade of the Hanseatic League, Stockholm developed strong economic and cultural linkages with Lübeck, Hamburg, Gdańsk, Visby, Reval, and Riga during this time
35.
Dubai
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Dubai is the largest and most populous city in the United Arab Emirates. It is located on the southeast coast of the Persian Gulf and is the capital of the Emirate of Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Dubai are the only two emirates to have veto power over critical matters of national importance in the countrys legislature. The city of Dubai is located on the northern coastline. Dubai will host World Expo 2020, Dubai has emerged as a global city and business hub of the Middle East. It is also a transport hub for passengers and cargo. By the 1960s, Dubais economy was based on revenues from trade and, to an extent, oil exploration concessions. Oil revenue first started to flow in 1969, Dubais oil revenue helped accelerate the early development of the city, but its reserves are limited and production levels are low, today, less than 5% of the emirates revenue comes from oil. The emirates Western-style model of business drives its economy with the main revenues now coming from tourism, aviation, real estate, Dubai was recently named the best destination for Muslim travellers by Salam Standard. Dubai has recently attracted attention through many innovative large construction projects and sports events. The city has become iconic for its skyscrapers and high-rise buildings, in particular the worlds tallest building, Dubai has been criticised for human rights violations concerning the citys largely South Asian and Filipino workforce. As of 2012, Dubai was the 22nd most expensive city in the world, in 2014, Dubais hotel rooms were rated as the second most expensive in the world, after Geneva. Dubai was rated as one of the best places to live in the Middle East by U. S. global consulting firm Mercer, Many theories have been proposed as to the origin of the word Dubai. One theory suggests the word was used to describe the souq, another theory states that the name came from a word meaning money, as people from Dubai were commonly believed to be rich due to the thriving trading centre of the location. An Arabic proverb says Daba Dubai, meaning They came with a lot of money, according to Fedel Handhal, a scholar on the UAEs history and culture, the word Dubai may have come from the word daba, referring to the slow flow of Dubai Creek inland. The poet and scholar Ahmad Mohammad Obaid traces it to the same word, an inhabitant or native of the city is a Dubaian. Although stone tools have been found at archaeological sites, little is known about the UAEs early inhabitants as only a few settlements have been found. Many ancient towns in the area were trading centres between the Eastern and Western worlds, the remnants of an ancient mangrove swamp, dated at 7000 BC, were discovered during the construction of sewer lines near Dubai Internet City. The area was covered with sand about 5,000 years ago as the coast retreated inland, pre-Islamic ceramics have been found from the 3rd and 4th centuries
36.
United Arab Emirates
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In 2013, the UAEs population was 9.2 million, of which 1.4 million are Emirati citizens and 7.8 million are expatriates. The country is a federation of seven emirates, and was established on 2 December 1971, the constituent emirates are Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Dubai, Fujairah, Ras al-Khaimah, Sharjah and Umm al-Quwain. Each emirate is governed by a monarch, together, they jointly form the Federal Supreme Council. One of the monarchs is selected as the President of the United Arab Emirates, Islam is the official religion of the UAE and Arabic is the official language. The UAEs oil reserves are the seventh-largest in the world while its natural gas reserves are the worlds seventeenth-largest, Sheikh Zayed, ruler of Abu Dhabi and the first President of the UAE, oversaw the development of the Emirates and steered oil revenues into healthcare, education and infrastructure. The UAEs economy is the most diversified in the Gulf Cooperation Council, while its most populous city of Dubai is an important global city, nevertheless, the country remains principally reliant on its export of petroleum and natural gas. The UAE is criticised for its rights record, including the specific interpretations of Sharia used in its legal system. The UAEs rising international profile has led analysts to identify it as a regional. It appears the land of the Emirates has been occupied for thousands of years, there is no proof of contact with the outside world at that stage, although in time it developed with civilisations in Mesopotamia and Iran. This contact persisted and became wide-ranging, probably motivated by trade in copper from the Hajar Mountains, in ancient times, Al Hasa was part of Al Bahreyn and adjoined Greater Oman. Sassanid groups were present on the Batinah coast, in 637, Julfar was an important port that was used as a staging post for the Islamic invasion of the Sassanian Empire. The area of the Al Ain/Buraimi Oasis was known as Tuam and was an important trading post for camel routes between the coast and the Arabian interior. The earliest Christian site in the UAE was first discovered in the 1990s, a monastic complex on what is now known as Sir Bani Yas Island. Thought to be Nestorian and built in 600 AD, the church appears to have been abandoned peacefully in 750 AD and it forms a rare physical link to a legacy of Christianity which is thought to have spread across the peninsula from 50 to 350 AD following trade routes. Certainly, by the 5th century, Oman had a bishop named John – the last bishop of Oman being Etienne, in 676 AD. This led to a group of travelling to Medina, converting to Islam and subsequently driving a successful uprising against the unpopular Sassanids. Following the death of Prophet Muhammad, the new Islamic communities south of the Persian Gulf threatened to disintegrate, with insurrections against the Muslim leaders. The Caliph Abu Bakr sent an army from the capital Medina which completed its reconquest of the territory with the battle of Dibba in which 10,000 lives are thought to have been lost
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Salik (Road Toll)
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Salik is the name given to the electronic toll road system in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, which is based on RFID technology, automatically deducting a fee when a toll gate is passed under. The Salik toll was launched by Dubais Dubai Roads and Transport Authority on 1 July 2007, motorists are required to buy a 100 AED pre-paid card that is affixed to their windscreens. 4 AED is deducted from their account each time they pass through a toll gate, a further pair of gates was installed on Ittihad Road, the principal route from Dubai to neighbouring Sharjah and by the Dubai Airport Tunnel. The maximum charge per day per car using the roads was 24 AED. However, as of July 1,2013 this has been scrapped, alternative routes include Business Bay Crossing, Floating Bridge, Al Khail Road, and Sheikh Mohammad Bin Zayed Road. On 9 September 2008, two more SALIK gates were instituted, one at Safa Park and another at Al Maktoum Bridge, the Roads and Transport Authority of Dubai explained how the new gates will work in conjunction with existing gates. Once a motorist passes through Al Barsha toll gate, he will be charged Dh4. But if he continues his journey, does not take a right or left turn or does not get stuck in traffic and passes though the Al Safa toll gate, he will not be charged. But if the motorist continues his journey and passes through the Al Maktoum toll gate, moreover, if the motorist, during the same journey, passes through the Al Garhoud toll gate, he will again be charged Dh4. The Al Safa toll gate will be free of charge if the motorist is on a continuous journey. The Al Maktoum Bridge toll gate is free when the Floating Bridge is closed for traffic to ease the process for motorists, SALIK gates were subsequently installed at two additional locations, one at Al Mamzar Bridge and another one at the Dubai Airport Tunnel. These were activated on 15 April 2013, SALIK tags are passive RFID tags. Passive tags are powered by the transceiver in the toll gate, radio frequency identification is an automatic identification method, relying on storing and remotely retrieving data using devices called RFID tags or transponders. An RFID tag is an object that can be applied to or incorporated into a product, animal, some tags can be read from several meters away and beyond the line of sight of the reader. The use of this enables the traffic to continue flowing through the toll gates as opposed to vehicles having to stop. The fees are relatively low, when compared to schemes in other major cities such as the London congestion charge. Even though the tolls started on July 1,2007, many commuters have criticised the RTA for implementing Salik too soon, the initial problem of SMS alerts not being received by customers was found to be a result of incompatible mobile phone configuration. Now the SMS alerts have become a component of the service
38.
Milan
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Milan is a city in Italy, capital of the Lombardy region, and the most populous metropolitan area and the second most populous comune in Italy. The population of the city proper is 1,351,000, Milan has a population of about 8,500,000 people. It is the industrial and financial centre of Italy and one of global significance. In terms of GDP, it has the largest economy among European non-capital cities, Milan is considered part of the Blue Banana and lies at the heart of one of the Four Motors for Europe. Milan is an Alpha leading global city, with strengths in the arts, commerce, design, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, healthcare, media, services, research, and tourism. Its business district hosts Italys Stock Exchange and the headquarters of the largest national and international banks, the city is a major world fashion and design capital, well known for several international events and fairs, including Milan Fashion Week and the Milan Furniture Fair. The city hosts numerous cultural institutions, academies and universities, with 11% of the national total enrolled students, Milans museums, theatres and landmarks attract over 9 million visitors annually. Milan – after Naples – is the second Italian city with the highest number of accredited stars from the Michelin Guide, the city hosted the Universal Exposition in 1906 and 2015. Milan is home to two of Europes major football teams, A. C. Milan and F. C. Internazionale, the etymology of Milan is uncertain. One theory holds that the Latin name Mediolanum comes from the Latin words medio, however, some scholars believe lanum comes from the Celtic root lan, meaning an enclosure or demarcated territory in which Celtic communities used to build shrines. Hence, Mediolanum could signify the central town or sanctuary of a Celtic tribe, indeed, the name Mediolanum is borne by about sixty Gallo-Roman sites in France, e. g. Saintes and Évreux. Alciato credits Ambrose for his account, around 400 BC, the Celtic Insubres settled Milan and the surrounding region. In 222 BC, the Romans conquered the settlement, renaming it Mediolanum, Milan was eventually declared the capital of the Western Roman Empire by Emperor Diocletian in 286 AD. Diocletian chose to stay in the Eastern Roman Empire and his colleague Maximianus ruled the Western one, immediately Maximian built several monuments, such as a large circus 470 m ×85 m, the Thermae Herculeae, a large complex of imperial palaces and several other buildings. With the Edict of Milan of 313, Emperor Constantine I guaranteed freedom of religion for Christians, after the city was besieged by the Visigoths in 402, the imperial residence was moved to Ravenna. In 452, the Huns overran the city, in 539, the Ostrogoths conquered and destroyed Milan during the Gothic War against Byzantine Emperor Justinian I. In the summer of 569, a Teutonic tribe, the Lombards, conquered Milan, some Roman structures remained in use in Milan under Lombard rule. Milan surrendered to the Franks in 774 when Charlemagne took the title of King of the Lombards, the Iron Crown of Lombardy dates from this period
39.
Ecopass
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The Ecopass was implemented as a one-year trial program on January 2,2008, and later extended until December 31,2009. A public consultation was planned to be conducted early in 2009 to decide if the charge becomes permanent. The primary purpose of the program was to reduce traffic and air pollution and to use the funds raised through the charge to public transportation projects, cycle paths. Milan has one of the highest European rates of car ownership, as more than half of Milan citizens use private cars and motorcycles, ranking second only after Rome, and among the highest in the world. She said that it was part of a project to reduce smog in the Lombardy region. The mayor forecast that the scheme would raise €24 million a year, because of opposition, even among her own political allies, the original plan had to be scaled down as the traffic restricted zone was reduced from a planned 60 km2 to 8 km2. The implemented Ecopass ZTL represents just 5% of the citys area, also the launch was delayed from October 2007 until after the Christmas and New Year holidays, and the mayor was forced to include discounts for local residents. The amount of the depended on the vehicles engine emissions standard. Free access to the ZTL was granted to several types of alternative fuel vehicles and for conventional fuel vehicles compliant with the Euro3, enforcement is carried out through digital cameras located at 43 electronic gates, with fines for offenders varying between €70 to €275. The Ecopass fee can be paid before entering the ZTL or up to midnight the day after entering. There are daily and multiple-day passes, payment of the fee can be made via internet, by telephone, in designated banks or by direct debit to the users bank account, by first an Ecopass card must be issue at designated places. There were also restrictions on entering the ZTL between 7,30 a. m. to 9,00 p. m, an estimated 98,000 vehicles were entering the restricted area before the Ecopass came into force. This represents 12. 3% fewer vehicles entering the ZTL, while outside of the Ecopass area traffic decreased by 3. 6%. Meanwhile, surface public transportation service grew by 1,300 additional daily runs, carrying an average of 19,100 additional daily passengers, traffic accidents inside the ZTL also fell by 20. 6%. The number of exempt vehicles grew by 4. 3%, for an increase of 2.248 vehicles a day. This study also found that between January and November, all traffic related emissions were lower, pM10 decreased by 23%, particulate matter decreased by 18%, NH3 fell 47%, NOx was reduced by 15%, and CO2 emission were cut by 14%. The city of Milan was awarded a 2009 Sustainable Transport Honorable Mention by the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy for the introduction and this is a restriction in force in the entire Lombardy region since 2007. Cleaner vehicles are exempted from the charge and there is free access for all vehicles on Saturdays and Sundays
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Land reclamation
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Land reclamation, usually known as reclamation, and also known as land fill, is the process of creating new land from ocean, riverbeds, or lake beds. The land reclaimed is known as ground or land fill. In a number of jurisdictions, including parts of the United States. In Alberta, Canada, for example, reclamation is defined by the government as The process of reconverting disturbed land to its former or other productive uses. In Oceania it is referred to as land rehabilitation. Land reclamation can be achieved with a number of different methods, the most simple method involves simply filling the area with large amounts of heavy rock and/or cement, then filling with clay and dirt until the desired height is reached. The process is called infilling and the used to fill the space is generically called infill. Draining of submerged wetlands is often used to land for agricultural use. Deep cement mixing is used typically in situations in which the material displaced by either dredging or draining may be contaminated, the creation of new land was for the need of human activities. Notable examples include, Much of the coastlines of Mumbai, India and it took over 150 years to join the original seven islands of Mumbai. Much of the coastlines of Mainland China, Hong Kong, North Korea and it is estimated that nearly 65% of tidal flats around the Yellow Sea have been reclaimed. Inland lowlands in the Yangtze valley, China, including the areas of important cities like Shanghai, Much of the coastline of Karachi, Pakistan. A part of the Hamad International Airport in Qatar, around 36 square kilometres, the entire island of The Pearl-Qatar situated in West Bay, Qatar. The city-state of Singapore, where land is in supply, is also famous for its efforts on land reclamation. The Palm Islands, The World and hotel Burj al-Arab off Dubai in the United Arab Emirates The Yas Island in Abu Dhabi and it is one of the six divisions of Malé City. The Eko Atlantic in Lagos, Nigeria, mexico City, the chinampas are a famous example. Parts of Panama City urban and street development are based on reclaimed land, aeroparque Jorge Newbery, in Buenos Aires, Argentina One of the earliest large scale projects was the Beemster Polder in the Netherlands, realized in 1612 adding 70 square kilometres of land. In Hong Kong the Praya Reclamation Scheme added 20 to 24 hectares of land in 1890 during the phase of construction
41.
Victoria Harbour
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Victoria Harbour is a natural landform harbour situated between Hong Kong Island and Kowloon in Hong Kong. The harbours deep, sheltered waters and strategic location on the South China Sea were instrumental in Hong Kongs establishment as a British colony, throughout its history, the harbour has seen numerous reclamation projects undertaken on both shores, many of which have caused controversy in recent years. Environmental concerns have been expressed about the effects of these expansions, in terms of water quality and it has also been proposed that benefits of land reclamation may be less than the effects of decreased harbour width, affecting the number of vessels passing through the harbour. Nonetheless Victoria Harbour still retains its role as a port for thousands of international vessels each year. Long famous for its views, the harbour is a major tourist attraction of Hong Kong. Lying in the middle of the dense urban region, the harbour is the site of annual fireworks displays. During the Taiping Rebellion, armed rebels paraded the streets of Hong Kong, on 21 December 1854, the Hong Kong police arrested several armed rebels who were about to attack Kowloon City. On 23 January 1855, a fleet of Taiping war boats was on the verge of a battle against Chinese imperial war boats defending the harbour. The Chinese defenders were ordered away by the British colonial authorities and these incidents caused rising tension that would eventually lead to the Arrow War. The harbour was originally called Hong Kong Harbour, but was renamed as Victoria Harbour. The subject of pollution came to the fore in the 1970s with the growth of the manufacturing sector. The water club races were stopped in 1973 due to pollution in the harbour, studies also showed excessive nitrogen input from discharges of the Pearl River Delta into the harbour for decades. After completion of the Central and Wan Chai Reclamation Feasibility Study in 1989 and it consists of three district development cells separated by parks, namely, Central, Tamar and Exhibition. The latest proposed reclamation, extending along the waterfront from Sheung Wan to Causeway Bay, faced public opposition, I believe an insightful and visionary chief executive would support our stance and work with us to protect the harbour. Reclamation work also led to the demolition of Queens Pier and Edinburgh Place Ferry Pier, structures of historic significance, Victoria Harbour covers an area of about 41.88 km2 as of 2004. The eastern boundary is considered to be the line formed between the westernmost extremity of Siu Chau Wan and A Kung Ngam. Among the best places to view the harbour are the Peak Tower atop Victoria Peak, rides on the Star Ferry, particularly the route between Central and Tsim Sha Tsui, are another popular way to view the harbour and cityscape. As the natural centre of the territory, the harbour has played host to major public shows
42.
Road Pricing
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Road congestion pricing for entering an urban area, or pollution charges levied on vehicles with higher tailpipe emissions are typical schemes implemented to price externalities. Examples of pollution pricing schemes include the London low emission zone, many recent road pricing schemes have proved controversial, with a number of high-profile schemes in the US and the UK being cancelled, delayed or scaled back in response to opposition and protest. Road pricing is a term that may be used for any system where the driver pays directly for use of a particular roadway or road network in a particular city. The Smeed Report, Road Pricing, The Economic and Technical Possibilities, Road pricing was then developed by Maurice Allais and Gabriel Roth in a paper titled The Economics of Road User Charges published by the World Bank in 1968. The first successful implementation of a charge was with the Singapore Area Licensing Scheme in 1976. The Electronic Road Pricing scheme operated as a trial between 1983 and 1985 but was not continued due to public opposition. A number of road tolling schemes were introduced in Norway between 1986 and 1991 in Bergen, Oslo, and the Trondheim Toll Scheme. It was noticed that the Oslo scheme had the effect of reducing traffic by around 5%. The Singapore scheme was expanded in 1995 and converted to use a new electronic tolling system in 1998, the first use of a road toll for access by low-occupancy vehicles to high-occupancy vehicle lane was introduced in the U. S. on California State Route 91 in 1995. Since 2000, other schemes have been introduced, although the New York congestion pricing proposal, in January 2009, variable tolls were implemented at Sydney Harbour Bridge, two weeks after upgrading to 100% free-flow electronic toll collection. The city is dealt with traffic congestion and air pollution through a driving restriction scheme implemented since the 2008 Summer Olympics, as of June 2016, another 11 Chinese cities have similar restriction schemes in place. In early 2010 the city Guangzhou, Guangdong province, opened a discussion on whether to introduce congestion charges. An online survey conducted by two news outlets found that 84. 4% of respondents opposed the charges. The city of Nanjing is also considering the implementation of congestion pricing, in December 2015, the Beijing Municipal Commission of Transport announced plans to introduce congestion charges in 2016. The Dongcheng and Xicheng are among the districts that are most likely to implement congestion charge. Vehicle emissions account for 31% of the citys smog sources, according to Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau, the local government has implemented already several policies to address air quality and congestion, such as a driving restriction scheme based upon the last digits on their license plates. Also a vehicle quota system was introduced in 2011, awarding new car licenses through a lottery, in May 2016, the Beijing city legislature announced it will consider to start levying traffic congestion charges by 2020 as part of a package of measures to reform the vehicle quota system. As of June 2016, the environmental and transport departments are working together on a congestion pricing proposal
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Intelligent Transportation Systems
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They are considered a part of the Internet of things. Recent governmental activity in the area of ITS — is further motivated by a focus on homeland security. Many of the proposed ITS systems also involve surveillance of the roadways, funding of many systems comes either directly through homeland security organisations or with their approval. Further, ITS can play a role in the mass evacuation of people in urban centers after large casualty events such as a result of a natural disaster or threat. Much of the infrastructure and planning involved with ITS parallels the need for security systems. In the developing world, the migration from rural to urbanized habitats has progressed differently, many areas of the developing world have urbanised without significant motorisation and the formation of suburbs. A small portion of the population can afford automobiles, but the automobiles greatly increase congestion in these multimodal transportation systems and they also produce considerable air pollution, pose a significant safety risk, and exacerbate feelings of inequities in the society. High population density could be supported by a system of walking, bicycle transportation, motorcycles, buses. Other parts of the world, such as China, India. In these areas a motorised infrastructure is being developed alongside motorisation of the population, additionally, predictive techniques are being developed to allow advanced modelling and comparison with historical baseline data. Some of these technologies are described in the following sections, various forms of wireless communications technologies have been proposed for intelligent transportation systems. Radio modem communication on UHF and VHF frequencies are used for short. Short-range communications of 350 m can be accomplished using IEEE802, theoretically, the range of these protocols can be extended using Mobile ad hoc networks or Mesh networking. Longer range communications have been proposed using infrastructure networks such as WiMAX, Global System for Mobile Communications, long-range communications using these methods are well established, but, unlike the short-range protocols, these methods require extensive and very expensive infrastructure deployment. There is lack of consensus as to what business model should support this infrastructure, auto Insurance companies have utilised ad hoc solutions to support eCall and behavioural tracking functionalities in the form of Telematics 2.0. Recent advances in vehicle electronics have led to a move towards fewer, a typical vehicle in the early 2000s would have between 20 and 100 individual networked microcontroller/Programmable logic controller modules with non-real-time operating systems. The current trend is toward fewer, more costly microprocessor modules with hardware memory management, the new embedded system platforms allow for more sophisticated software applications to be implemented, including model-based process control, artificial intelligence, and ubiquitous computing. Perhaps the most important of these for Intelligent Transportation Systems is artificial intelligence, floating car or probe data collected other transport routes
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Milan Area C
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The ZTL encompasses about 8.2 km2 and 77,000 residents. The area is accessible through 43 gates, monitored by video cameras, Area C started as an 18-month pilot program based on the partial implementation of the results of a referendum that took place on June 2011. Area C was definitively approved as a permanent program on 27 March 2013, the program was temporarily suspended between 25 July and 17 September 2012 due to a ruling by the Council of State after protests by parking owners in the center of Milan. Milan has one of the highest European rates of car ownership, as more than half of Milan citizens use private cars and motorcycles, ranking second only after Rome, and among the highest in the world. In January 2008, the mayor of Milan, Letizia Moratti, launched the Ecopass program expecting a 30% cut in pollution levels, the program imposed a charge on vehicles with higher pollution levels. Ecopass was an incentive for motorists to buy less pollutant cars, despite the fact that these vehicles having less polluting engines, the free access helped less with the congestion problem. This trend contributed to a return to traffic levels and at the same time reducing revenue collected. This threatened the ability to keep the system in operation, the charge applies to every vehicle entering the city centre on weekdays from 7,30 am to 7,30 pm, on Thursdays the operation is limited to 6 pm. Every vehicle entering the zone must pay 5 € regardless of its pollution level. Residents inside the area must also pay to reach their houses but they have 40 free accesses per year. Access to the area is forbidden for diesel Euro 3 or below, gasoline Euro 0, electric vehicles, motorcycles and scooters, public utilities vehicles, police and emergency vehicles, buses and taxis are exempt from the charge. Hybrid electric and bi-fuel natural gas vehicles were exempt until 1 January 2013 and this was later extended until the end of 2016. After the suspension in summer 2012, the entrance in the area is free from 6 pm on Thursday, residents have also 40 free accesses per year 3. Includes public transport, emergency vehicles, taxis 4, with exceptions In the first month cars entering the city center decreased by 33%, with a total of about 700,000 vehicles less during the month or about 40,000 per day. A substantial decrease in congestion in the restricted area was also reported. The congestion charge did not appreciably affect pollution levels, with the exception of black carbon level, data from the first two months showed a decrease in traffic also outside the restricted zone. There was a reduction of about 6% of vehicles outside the ZTL compared to the months of 2011. The reduced congestion in the city resulted in increased average speed for public transport, especially for buses
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New York congestion pricing
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Congestion pricing in New York City was a proposed traffic congestion fee for vehicles traveling into or within the Manhattan central business district of New York City. If approved and implemented, it would have been the first such fee scheme enacted in the United States, the proposal did not succeed, as it was never put to a vote in the New York State Assembly. Congestion pricing was proposed in the 1970s, in part to reduce air pollution, tolls for the East River bridges were part of the proposal, but were banned by the 1977 Moynihan-Holtzman amendment to the Clean Air Act. The proposal was abandoned in 1981, Mayor Bloombergs goals for long-term sustainability through the year 2030 were first announced on December 12,2006. On April 22,2007, PlaNYC2030 was unveiled, the transportation initiatives support greater use of mass transit through various improvements and additions to transit infrastructure and services. Signed by Spitzer on July 27, the bill authorized New York to apply for at least $200 million in federal funds, on August 14,2007, the U. S. Department of Transportation awarded from the Urban Partnership program $354 million to New York City. It was the largest of the five awarded to cities, which included San Francisco, King County, Washington, the Minneapolis area. Only $10.4 million is allocated for launching the congestion pricing program, on January 31,2008, the New York City Traffic Congestion Mitigation Commission approved a plan for congestion pricing, which was passed by a vote of 13 to 2. Some changes over Mayor Bloombergs original proposal were introduced, such as reducing the congestion zone, no charges for vehicles which stay within the zone, and a discount for low-emission trucks. The commission estimated that revenues from the charge will generate $491 million a year. The proposal was approved by the New York City Council on March 31,2008 by a vote of 30 to 20 and this sort of road space rationing system is currently practiced in two of the worlds Top 10 megacities, São Paulo and Mexico City. Bloombergs plan was endorsed by the then new Governor David Paterson, afterwards, the USDOT announced that they will seek to allocate those funds to relief traffic congestion in other cities. New Yorks proposal cited comparable congestion pricing programs in London, Singapore, New York Citys was to be a three-year pilot program, at the end of which the City and State would decide if the program should be made permanent. Upon final legislative approval, the program could be put into effect within 18 months, the proposed congestion pricing zone was defined as the island of Manhattan south of 60th Street. Exempted roadways within the zone include the FDR Drive, New York Route 9A, the Battery Park Underpass, a free route from the East River bridges to the FDR Drive and from the Lincoln and Holland Tunnels to Route 9A would be designated. Drivers who use toll crossings to or from the zone would be charged the difference between the toll and the congestion charge, the charge would apply on weekdays from 6,00 a. m. to 6,00 p. m. Proposed fees would be $8 for cars and commercial vehicles and $21 for trucks entering from outside the zone, transit buses, emergency vehicles, taxis and for-hire vehicles, and vehicles with disabled parking plates would not be charged the fee. Taxi and livery trips that begin, end or touch the zone would have a $1 surcharge, vehicles would be charged only once per day
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London congestion charge
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The London congestion charge is a fee charged on most motor vehicles operating within the Congestion Charge Zone in Central London between 07,00 and 18,00 Mondays to Fridays. It is not charged on weekends, public holidays or between Christmas Day and New Years Day, the charge was introduced on 17 February 2003. The charge aims to reduce traffic flow in the central area. The standard charge is £11.50 for each day, for each vehicle that travels within the zone. The ULED scheme was designed to curb the number of diesel vehicles on Londons roads. A new toxicity charge, known as T-charge will be introduced from 23 October 2017 for vehicles that do not meet Euro 4 standards and these older polluting vehicles will pay an extra £10 charge on top of the congestion charge to drive within the Congestion Charge Zone. Enforcement is primarily based on number plate recognition. Transport for London is responsible for the charge which has operated by IBM since 1 November 2009. During the first ten years since the introduction of the scheme, from 2003 to 2013, about £1.2 billion of net revenue has been invested in public transport, road and bridge improvement and walking and cycling schemes. Of these, a total of £960 million was invested on improvements to the bus network, despite these gains, traffic speeds have also been getting progressively slower over the past decade, particularly in central London. Although primarily an area, there are also 136,000 residents. There is little industry within the zone. Signs were erected and symbols painted on the road to help drivers recognise the congestion charge area. In January 2013 Transport for London opened a consultation to increase the standard charge 15% by mid 2014. The increase was expected to generate an estimated £84 million of revenue by the end of 2017/18. The consultation process ran from January 2014 to March 2014, according to TfL the objective of the increase was to recoup inflation over the past three years and ensure the charge remains an effective deterrent to making unnecessary journeys in central London. As of 16 June 2014 the following apply, The standard fee is £11.50 per day if paid by midnight on the day of travel, £14 if paid by the end of the following day. Businesses with six or more vehicles can register with Fleet Auto Pay, from 20 May 2013 failure to pay results in the issuance of a Penalty Charge Notice for £130, reduced to £65 if paid within 14 days, but increased to £195 if unpaid after 28 days
