August 2006 block of Blogs...

Found my Blogs again. I couldn't get into my Blogs the last couple of months because of my own stupidity... hah! ha! I forgot how to log into my PlanningBlogs site. These were from my archive for August 2006, unpublished PlanningBlogs.

16/8/06 Lagi-lagi snatch thieves
Haven't we had enough of snatch thieves? Let's take a long hard look at our planning standards and do more to make our streets and neighbourhoods safe. Let's plan for people, not for cars. Installing cameras along our streets is not going to make our streets safer if we don't design it to be safe in the first place. Technology is no substitute for our own stupidity ;-}

5/8/06 CO2 emission
London emitted 9m tonnes of CO2 in 2003 (1.09ton/pax). 45% of CO2 emission contributod by businesses. For the Carbon emission map, see www.planningResource.co.uk

3/8/06 KLCC Surau
Why was the KLCC surau (mosque) not sited in the centre of the KLCC park, next to the lake? No, I am not talking about the surau in Suria KLCC. I am referring to the surau that everyone called KLCC mosque built behind the district cooling station. Wouldn't it have been more convenient for people in KLCC to get to the mosque it it were located across the lake with the fountain? What a pity. The mosque was so beautifully designed but was hidden behind some steam puffing building. It would have added some grandeur to the scenery of the KLCC park. It would have deterred young amorous couples from using the park for some forbidden acts...

3/8/06 Planning 31 March 2006 issue
DEFRA (Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, UK) released figures on landfill that shows a drop of 5% in the amount of waste sent to landfill sites in 2005 compared to 2004. The level of waste tonnage was reduced from 20.9 million tonnes in 2003-04 to 19.9 million tonnes in 2004-05. This also shows that the growth in the amount of waste produced has slowed down. The average annual rise halved to 1.5% fr 3.4%. There! That's the real solution to our problem of finding new landfill areas for solid waste disposal. Why don't we learn how they did in the UK?

Re-inserted from archive file: 21/4/06 Wealth Distribution
If the world were a single town with a population of 100, one of those 100 people would have a college education, 30 would be able to read and write, 15 would live in adequate housing (the rest would live in huts) and 50 would be hungry most of the time. Six of the 100 would control almost half the wealth of the town, and of these six, three would be Americans.

24/07/06 Speed Limit

Is it sensible to retain a 60kph speed limit in front of (rural) schools where the road has been upgraded to a 4-lane dual carriageway, and when barriers on the road shoulders and divider, as well as pedestrian footbridge are installed? OTOH, is it sensible to upgrade rural roads that passes in front schools into a 4-lane dual carriageway?

Better still, we should change the frontage of the school compound, i.e. the main gate, to a side road if we upgrade the main road in front of it into a fast dual carriageway highway.