THE roads in Singapore are painted with white, yellow and red lines.

There are also many colourful signboards with a lot of text on them along the roads.

When I took my driving-theory test some 30 years ago, I recall that signboards were simple and could be easily understood, even by an illiterate person.

Over the years, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) has erected many new signs.

Some are just too much to handle when you are trying to concentrate on the road.

One example is signboards which tell you what time you can make a turn during peak hours.

I had to pause and take a few seconds to digest the information, and incur the wrath of an impatient driver behind me, who was honking incessantly.

My suggestion is to replace such signboards with one which displays an electronically-controlled red cross or green tick.

Many people are not aware that whole-day bus lanes are operational only from 7.30am to 8pm and not round the clock, as the name implies.

Other examples are pairs of white arrows pointing towards each other at an angle along Dairy Farm Road and red and yellow parallel broken lines for bus lanes, just to name a few things which drivers might find incomprehensible on the roads.

Maybe LTA could consider sending older drivers back to the classroom to update their knowledge of driving theory.

Mr Philip Wong Twee Leom

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