Singapore has long had a reputation for being a city of fines, and such a status has probably helped it remain one of the cleanest cities in Asia. Forget to flush your toilet and be ready to pay up; drop litter in the street and you could be charged S$200 ($947) to S$1,000. Jaywalkers can be handed a S$20 on-the-spot fine or face a maximum $100 penalty if convicted in court.
Traffic police do enforce these fines - occasionally. During the first half of this year, 1,470 pedestrians were caught jaywalking, a 124 per cent increase on last year, but a drop in the ocean, really, as most people jaywalk daily.
Tourists who come to the Lion City always seem concerned about these fines, but the reality is that most Singaporeans just go about their life and ignore them.
One only has to stroll down Orchard Road in the early hours of the morning or along the river banks to realise how much littering goes on, and that the multitude of cleaners are really doing a superb job.
In other cities, such fines would raise a popular uproar, but in Singapore, however, that is not the case. Singaporeans can be law abiding to a fault. Letters in local newspapers regularly pop up, complaining that the police are not doing enough against jaywalkers. Some even demand stronger fines for those littering. (It is not a bad idea, if you want my view, but maybe I have already lived here too long).
Indeed, this summer, the police force felt compelled to answer a couple of complaints by saying that it took a 'serious view' of jaywalking and explaining again that pedestrians should never cross when the 'red man' is displayed.