From Today paper,

HOT NEWS
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TO EASE THE GRIDLOCK …
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– Cost of road usage to rise – Improved highway system – Better public transport

Leong Wee Keat
weekeat@mediacorp.com.sg

FIRST the carrot, now the stick. After overhauls to make public bus and train services more appealing were announced, screws will now be tightened on drivers to curb road congestion here.

For a start, 16 new ERP gantries will be rolled out, including an outer cordon away from the city. Rates at new gantries will start from $2 instead of $1, and increments will be by $1 instead of 50 cents.

The trigger point for ERP rates will also be changed. Currently, as long as mean traffic speeds do not fall below a certain mark, motorists do not have to pay ERP changes. But from July, charges and increases will kick in if less than 85 per cent of motorists enjoy at least these speeds.

At the same time, the vehicle growth rate will be halved to 1.5 per cent each year for the next three years; the last tweak was in 1990.

This is a move some expect will push up COE prices – even as other costs of vehicle ownership will be reduced to make the point that this is not a revenue generating exercise for the State, which expects to see a $70-million-a-year increase in ERP revenue but a total loss of $310 million annually from reduced taxes.

“If motorists were to drive less, the Government would be happy to collect less ERP revenue,” said Transport Minister Raymond Lim as he unveiled the final piece of the jigsaw in the Land Transport Review.

These include, over the next 12 years, the Government spending $14 billion on new road projects, compared with $3.4 billion spent on roads in the last decade. But building more roads would not, on their own, solve the congestion problem, said Mr Lim who also announced more measures to improve the public transport system.

This includes, for the first time, allowing trunk buses to duplicate parts of the rail network – specifically, the North-South and East-West MRT lines – as well as more frequent buses and trains.

With rising affluence, not only are  more Singaporeans owning cars, they are also using them more intensively: Singapore cars averaged 21,000km a year, compared  to 9,100km in London and 13,900km in  Melbourne.

Said Mr Lim: “The effects are telling. Congestion levels have increased by about  25 per cent since 1999.”

Speeds on major roads in the CBD  have also fallen: A motorist crossing the city from Bugis to Chinatown in the evening  now averages 18kmh, down from 25kmh  five years ago.

The bottom line? Singaporeans must be persuaded to leave the car at home.

“Increasingly, given the more pervasive congestion today, the emphasis must be  on encouraging motorists to shift to public transport, rather than drive on alternative roads to their destination,” said Mr Lim.

And this, in part, involves making the ERP system “more effective”.

To deter drivers who use the CBD to get to another destination, five new gantries  will form the “Singapore River Line” starting July 7. This should reduce by 20 per cent such through traffic, which makes up nearly four in 10 vehicles that pass through the Marina Centre, Suntec City and Bugis areas.

And from Nov 3, the ERP cordon will be widened to include six new gantries, bringing the total number to 71.

The revised ERP rates and speed calculation criteria will kick in only after public transport improvements are rolled out by June, increasing train and bus passenger capacity, Mr Lim stressed. As a result of the ERP changes, the Land Transport Authority expects 6,000 fewer car trips to be made daily.

Even so, Automobile Association of Singapore president Bernard Tay argued that the authorities should wait for the changes to the public transport system to stabilise before reassessing whether it is really necessary for the ERP charges to go up.

“It may seem that the incremental ERP charges have no effect on motorists, but the fact remains that there are currently no better alternatives for them,” said Mr Tay.

But in Mr Lim’s eyes, a two-pronged solution approach was vital – “building up our public transport so that people will have a viable alternative to the car, and taking firm steps to curb excessive car travel demand”.

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An average singapore car drive for 21,000km per year? Why not just charge those who drive above average more!?!

This is indeed HOT NEWS… making my blood boil now. Alrite, I think I’ll wait for Mr Brown’s reply on this, I’m sure he has something to say.

[tags]ERP, Transport, Singapore[/tags]