Having mocked the traffic lights mercilessly when they were installed a couple of months back, it is worth reviewing their performance and effect on road safety.
In general, they have been installed on the incoming side of intersections only, so there are no lights on the other side of the intersection. They are also placed about 5 metres back from the intersection corner which means one must stop 5 metres before the intersection so you can see the lights change. This means you must look at a weird angle to see the lights change and a lot of the time, you can not see vehicle movements on the cross street. 4 out of 10 for no lights on the outgoing side of the intersection and 2 out of 10 for not being able to see traffic in the cross street.
They are sometimes working and sometimes not, sometimes on permanent amber, sometimes not.
There are a couple of intersections where the lights are respected but others where they are pretty much ignored. I had expected that they may be vandalised by now but I have seen no evidence yet of this.
All up, provided you ignore them at select times, I doubt they have any effect at all. If you observe them, probably a negative effect. At this stage, UNPol do not pick you off for ignoring the lights which seems the common sense response to me.
Many think that street lighting would have a much bigger positive effect on general road safety and crime.
There goes the job in police public relations.
hello,
we are two people planning on going to dilli in july. could you please offer us words of wisdom on how to get there.
we would like to fly to indonesia, then to west timor and cross overland to east timor. what can you tell us of this route?
also, we want to contact people in dilli before hand. what connections could you share with me?
regards,
jp gural
I have never done the route you suggest. The more common way is to fly Merpati from Bali to Dili but your way sounds more exciting. Maybe someone else can help.
Forgive me for encroaching on your territory Squatter, but your correspondents could do worse than try the following links:
http://www.dutchpickle.com/east-timor/
http://easttimortourismassociationnews.blogspot.com/index.html
cheers
FOS
I’ve done a similar trip a couple years ago. I flew into Kupang, West Timor from Denpasar, Bali. From there I took a bus to Kefamenana (aka ‘Kefa’) and slept there the night.
The next day I hopped on the back of a motorcycle to the border, walked across the border into Oecussi, and took a microlet into town. After a few days there I jumped aboard the ferry at midnight and got into Dili at around 8am.
Other options include taking a ferry from Sanur, Bali to Kupang. I hear that is about Rp. 250,000 but I’m not sure. I hear you can also go to Atambua and then over to the border and cross at Balibo, but I haven’t done that one yet.
Things were a bit more calm when I did my trip then it is now. It took much longer than flying Meripati and wasn’t without its trials but that’s what helps make it an adventure.