SINGAPORE: Two years ago, Grab driver Muhammad Syahmi joined a ride-hailing industry brimming with rosy prospects.Buoyed by generous incentives dished out by firms, drivers cashed in on the lucrative business, where earning a decent wage was a relative breeze. “It was … easy money (then),” said Mr Syahmi, 25.For many drivers like him, however, the tide has since turned: Dogged by meagre incentives and fares in recent months, those bolting for the exit have found themselves in a quandary, as they struggle to land jobs after years in the driver’s seat.And they cannot say they had not been warned.It was not too long ago that observers and experts cautioned that providing a private-hire car service could harm drivers’ job prospects. It did not add to their resumes and offered little in the way of skills-building, they had said.But few were prepared to listen then, as ride-hailing firms such as Grab and Uber grew rapidly in Singapore after muscling into the … [Read more...] about The Big Read: Private-hire drivers face roadblocks as they seek way out of once-lucrative industry
Forward facing car seat age
Parents put kids at risk with risky driving habits
(Reuters Health) - Parents who talk or text on cell phones while driving with their kids in the car are also more likely to engage in other risky driving behaviors, including not wearing a seat belt or driving under the influence of alcohol, a small study suggests.More than half of parents in an anonymous survey admitted to talking on the phone while driving with their young kids in the car. Nearly 15 percent also didn't use appropriate child restraints every time they drove their kids, and these parents were more likely to use their phones and take other chances while driving."There are a lot of people on the road who are driving distracted and, usually, they are engaged in more than one dangerous driving practice at the same time," said Linda Roney of the Egan School of Nursing and Health Studies at Fairfield University in Connecticut, who wasn't involved in the study."Unfortunately, a lot of these people are driving children and they are sharing the road with us," Roney said in an … [Read more...] about Parents put kids at risk with risky driving habits
Saudi women in the driver’s seat — and in the crosshairs of change
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By Aya Batrawy The Associated Press Sat., June 23, 2018 RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA—Saudi women are in the driver’s seat for the first time in their country and steering their way through busy city streets just minutes after the world’s last remaining ban on women driving was lifted on Sunday. It’s a euphoric and historic moment for women who have had to rely on their husbands, fathers, brothers and drivers to run basic errands, get to work, visit friends or even drop kids off at school. The ban had relegated women to the backseat, unable to determine when and how to move around. But after midnight Sunday, Saudi women finally joined women around the world in being able to get behind the wheel of a car and simply drive. For nearly three decades, Saudi women and the men who support them have been calling for women to have the right to drive. The few women who tried to drive in past years faced arrest for defying the ban as women in other Muslim … [Read more...] about Saudi women in the driver’s seat — and in the crosshairs of change
You may be using your child’s car seat incorrectly
NEW YORK: When parents rate a child’s car seat, they’re usually thinking about how easy it is to carry, buckle or clean – and whether it has a well-placed cup holder. But experts look at whether it’s being used correctly to keep a child safe, and surprisingly often, it’s not.A 2016 report by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) found that up to 59 per cent of car seats were improperly used. And Miriam Manary, senior engineering research associate at the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute, said misuse estimates were even higher in other studies. Some of the errors are minor, she said, “but somewhere around 35 per cent of it is gross misuse where they’re not going to get any protection from that system – things like not securing the child restraint into the vehicle or not harnessing the child in the child restraint system.”Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death in children, and … [Read more...] about You may be using your child’s car seat incorrectly
Hot chicken and blistering guitars take centre stage in Nashville
By Lucas Peterson The New York Times Fri., Feb. 23, 2018 “Folsom Prison Blues,” the 1955 Johnny Cash classic, isn’t exactly a deep cut — anyone with even a passing familiarity with country music has heard it. So when the Don Kelley Band tore into the opening riff at the beginning of their set at Robert’s Western World — one of many honky-tonks on a brightly lit neon strip of Broadway in downtown Nashville, Tennessee — I nodded my head and tapped my feet along with the other hundred or so people in the joint. It was the musical equivalent of comfort food — nothing too surprising or challenging. I wasn’t quite ready for what happened next. Luke McQueary, a skinny 17-year-old in a plaid Western-style shirt, stepped to the front of the stage and, instead of delivering the workmanlike guitar break I was expecting, set the stage aflame with a blistering solo I would have expected from someone twice his age and … [Read more...] about Hot chicken and blistering guitars take centre stage in Nashville