"the stupidest device i've ever seen"

I quote the above statement directly from Mr Ong Kian Min, an MP (and formerly from ACS - just a random fact there =), as taken from today's Straits Times. He was speaking regarding a series of inverted-U-shaped barriers placed at the bottom of the ramps leading up and down the overhead bridge that crosses the PIE, between Tampines and Pasir Ris. He said this in the immediate aftermath of an incident that happened yesterday morning, in which a 40-year-old cyclist was cycling down the ramp in poor light (it was only 6:45am), did not notice the newly-installed barrier at the base of it (the genius contractor decided to install one set of barriers at a time - meaning that cyclists coming from the side of the bridge that did not have the barriers yet would be unaware of the presence of the barriers on the other side), hit the back of his neck against the barrier at high speed, i presume, and is currently in hospital paralysed from the neck-down.

By the way, this is the second quotable local quote of the week, the first being spoken by a certain someone who candidly said that a certain CEO's salary is "peanuts" (guess who... haha...)

But i digress, the point is, despite the choice of words that perhaps one would not normally expect an MP to use, i totally agree with what he said and his subsequent actions (he ordered another contractor to saw off the stupid devices - after the LTA, who ordered the installation of the barriers without first informing Mr Ong's town council, did not respond to his complaints for a whole day). Yes, i know, that by right cyclists should dismount their bikes and push them up and down the ramps, but let's face it, faced with the temptation of a smooth downward descent, who (including yours truly, who has used that very bridge several times without getting into a single accident) can resist zooming down the ramps? The problem lies with the less careful and responsible cyclists (mainly young teenage boys) who throw caution to the wind and blindly zoom down the ramps at full speed, posing a safety risk, and spoiling the party for the rest of us, through providing a basis for the installation of these stupid devices...

And i do feel that in this case, LTA has some explaining to do... I mean, either they didn't bother to dictate clear instructions to the contractor, or they failed to enforce these instructions, leading to the dear contractor to install the barriers one-side-at-a-time, leading to the accident. Furthermore, the silly barrier was painted the same shade of dark green that is used to paint many traffic barriers. In the poor light of dawn, how could the cyclist expect to see the dark green barrier clearly...

Speaking as a concerned cyclist, i think that some people really need to, if you don't mind the army speak, wake up their idea...