Do you think that the constant increase in ERP rates has alleviated road congestion?

Question

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Answer 1

Obviously not! And the trend is this - as ERP increases, traffic congestion gets worse. ERP is an income generating system! It feeds the government with lots of money ,just to lose them ALL in overseas investment.

I think this is a very bad time to increase ERP rates, and it is really insensitive and inconsiderate of the government to do so. During such a difficult time of rising inflation, i thought that our government should not eat more into our diminishing income by increasing our burden through a higher ERP rate.

This shows how much MONEY means to the government than the welfare of the people. I have a suggestion here:  Why not the LTA disclose how much they generate from ERP bi-annually, and i suggest we use the money generated from the ERP system to better improve and facilitate the roads in Singapore. Obviously our transport network now is highly inadequate to accommodate the total traffic volume.

Remember MM Lee said last week that it will take 5 years to bring down this country if the people continue to support the opposition? I would say i'd rather risk losing everything in 5 years, then to live miserably forever.

Answer 2

YES. Definite.

Moreover Increase in ERP rates is one of the main reason causing drivers to divert their usual route to the destinations in order to save cost but WILL definitely cause heavy traffic and conjestion to other roads.

Others WILL still use the same route probably it is the shorter road to their destination even it still cost a higher cost after taking into consideration of longer travel distance/traffic junctions/more fuel consumption etc. In no time traffic conjestion still occurs at the same route even increase of ERP rate.

It will never helps to reduce traffic conjestion in Singapore traffic mainly due to

1 - Afterall drivers already paid so much for their cars and

2 - public transport is not conventient to all working people due to location

3 - Time taken will be longer than usual to reach the destinations

4 - Even increase in ERP gantry will not solve the road conjestion, it makes the general public dislike the way government handles the situation and cause negative views, etc

5 - Public transport is not cheap either with the frequent increase in the fare too;

The alternate solution to reduce road conjestion is to

1 - increase taxes and vehicle price to double or even triple fold.

2 - Stagger the school time and worrking time

3 - Stagger different working hours for some business and industry;

4 - Relook in the development of city and town planning including industrial and recreational areas, etc

5 - More MRT route esp LRT interlink between a few areas/towns rather than within a HDB town;

6 - More

3 -  

Utilmately, only the government (LTA and related government bodies) benefits from all these system, esp from ERP fees collected.

Answer 3

No it does not. Basically, this would create a greater pressure for the cost-of-living to go up. So, inflation would increase at a greater rate than present. Across the board taxes such as ERP are a great way for governments to raise revenues. But as Confucius say "Don't use cannon to kill a mosquito." It could be that the Singapore government is doing just that, to ensure that their coffers will be full when going into the global recession within the next year. The rise in ERP tolls at first would cause a short term fall in number of cars on the road. But as salaries increase to combat the rise in cost of living the cars will come back on the road. So, one must ask? is it really necessary to increase the ERP tolls? In essence, you are just increasing the inflation that is inflicted on the country as a whole. If you want to reduce congestion make the barriers to owning a car higher, such as private car - tax, monthly tax for having a car, etc. Tax the car and not the usage, at a much higher rate than now. Make it too expensive to even consider owning a private car. In Tokyo, parking is so expensive that even if you have a car its too expensive to park near the office (can be more than SG1000 per month) . With the ERP method of congestion control, the net expands to Public transport which should not happen. As much as we want to argue and state that raising ERP rates is not conducive for economic growth. Inflation dampens growth. It is a quick as effective way for the government to increase revenues and spend more money on improving road networks to alleviate congestion.

Answer 4

In Singapore, the price of car ownership is sky high with many taxes that the government imposed. So, if you spent a bomb to buy a car, of cos, by nature, you would want to drive it everyday.  With ERPs virtually on  every part of the island, People would seek alternative routes to reach their destination. This cause jams on those alternative routes and ERPs are set up to reduce the traffic congestion. Cycle will go on and on until it there would be ERP gantry no matter which path you chose.

To me, ERP would not solve congestion problem and traffic congestion would always be a problem that all major cites have to live with.

Answer 5

Constant increase in ERP rates, gates, time gap and too many blocking along Express are really  ways to cause more stress, unhappiness, more usage of oil and more adjusting of petrol price (how many more to come).  Why not be thinking of how to cut down ERP, travelling choices, reduce volume of cars to marked roads by destination (as done in Beijing) and create a free-flow way or ring road round the city with filter ways  to part of city with charges.  So if you dont pay, travel along the ring express to a stop-by car parks and change to public transport --Train, Bus or Taxi to cover the city short distance to cut cost (all costs you can think).  This idea borrowed from oversea long ago but fail at that time and it can be practical now in a different environment of needs.  Use the old wine--- it can taste good for all.  Only problem --less collection.

Answer 6

Will increasing rates and additional gantries significantly reduce road congestion? In the short term but it does not alleviate the cause.

In my travels along expressways I have noticed that the areas that is congested are mainly near entries and exits of expressways.

Tthese are due, firstly, on the close proximity of a entrance into and exit out off, with traffic crossing, it slows traffic causing a reduction in speed overall. These can be seen along the CTE and PIE. Secondly, by managing the ERP charges to encourage motorist who have other alternate routes to use them rether then using the expressway to reach home/ office  will also easy congestion. For those staying closer to the CBD, they can use alternate routes and still reach home / office in a short time while those staying further with no or limited alternate route to use the expressway and getting home / office faster.

Have our ministries and authorities concerned consider other alternative or have they a mind set that the only way (easy) to ease condestion is to build more gantries and increase ERP rates.

In my view, by managing and building entrances and exits into and out off expressway would alleviate some of these slowdowns and congestion.

Answer 7

Certainly it will to a certain extend, but what would come next? The chain effect is costs increase for those living in the CPD areas, business overhead increase leading to another round of price hike. Increase in cost/overhead will then pass on to the consumers.

And next, more people go for public transports, leading to congestion in MRT stations and longer waiting time. And to solve the problem, more flights might need to be injected, hence providing the service providers another excuse to increase the fare for the operating cost has increased. In the end, price hike, cost increase, expenditure increase but not pay and consumers suffer.

Answer 8

Definitely the answer is No in the long run. I think the best way to control the traffic is to find the root to the problem and solve it from there. Government should control the number of COEs issued as this will be the most suitable way to control the number of cars on the road instead of implementing ERP.

For example, It is the same as the birth rate in China. Previously most of them have more than one children and this has caused an increase in the population and till to the extend that the Government could not control the birth rate. Thus the Government starts to introduced penalties (eg. ERP) to penalize those who have more than 1 children. But this doesn't help until the China Government comes up with the one Child Policy (Eg at most 1 car per household) only then, the population is under control.

Answer 9

The answer is already very cleared. This is an on-going problem which has been surfaced since ERP implemented. In fact, the government should look in another alternative factors to reduce the congestion rather than increasing the rates of ERP since they should know this solution is not going to work for long term. Reducing COE also will not ease the traffic, we have high COE before, and people still afford to buy cars. Traffic congestion still occurs.

One of the keys factors, I noticed so far it has not been mentioned: "Traffic Police". There are so many motor-vehicles either has been hogging the overtaking lanes or not driving in a proper road manner.

The authority should really consider watching this issue.

Another key factors; they can also implement driving bonus. Like e.g: If not driving your car, you may able to get a monetary reward or bonus points, like purchasing daily grocies or some other household items. In this way, we can also save the planet as well as substaining on price inflations.

Solution needs not require monetary to solve all the times. But to solve something should really concern not only on small whole but for everyone's needs.

Increasing may only solve for the timebeing, but it will and can never be a long time solution. People may get more discourage and disappointed with the governments rather than supportive for future caused.

Answer 10

In my option, increase in ERP will not alleviate road congestion as there are constantly increase in vehicles.  If congestion is really a main issue for Singapore.  Government should have thought of ways to decrease the number of vehicles by emphasizing only to those who really need vehicles like businesses (delivery), sales person and etc.... and increase the COE or increase road tax (eg. luxury car).  ERP increase not only have affected the lower income earner (eg. other than increase in petrol, higher rental, now ERP cost and more gantries have been transferred to the cost of basic food) but also higher business cost for small to medium businesses.

Answer 11

Jams will still be seen and this will not solve the traffic congestion problem in the long run. After a few months, people will get used to the amount of money to be paid when passing these gantry and they will forget about it just like the scenario of price increase in cab fares. People will refrain from taking cabs when the prices first increase and gradually, they will eventually continue to take cabs when they forget about the price increase. Therefore, this constant increase in ERP is not feasible at all and they should think of a better way to reduce the traffic jams rather than keep on increasing the charges or number of gantrys.

Answer 12

The current heavy traffic is aggravated when there was an  absolute increase of about 9%, during 2007, to the car population instead of the planned 3%.  The increased to road network had most probably not in tune with this sudden growth. During September 2007, although it was a bit late to to address the problem by cutting the COE release, there was no attempt to do so. Government talked about the ideal, aspiration, the risk of brain drain and car ownership was quoted as one of the aspiration.

Singaporean are pragmatic and agrees that Singapore being an island state has limited capacity towards supporting too big a car population.  

Thus the COE system has been widely accepted to control population with an equitable system that you should only own a car if you can afford it.  Also, it is a waste on resources for Singaporean to unnecessary own cars and cannot used them.  It is also does not contribute well environmentally.

Constant increase to ERP rates will not help:

- it does not help a country with limited resources

- it is illogical to buy a car and leave it in the car park.  In any case how many more car parks can we built

- soon even Sundays and Public Holidays will see ERP implementation.

Recommendation:

-  continue to manage with the current COE system, project the maximum capacity and communicate this.  Build expectation that the cost will rise and not all can afford

- look at public transport to cope as the population grows further.  The current North South Line with 6 carriages will not be able to continue to take the peak hour crush.  There is limit to shorten the waiting time. Its about time to look at maybe a 8 carriage train.  There is not much time and most probably it will take at least 2 years to do structural changes to accomodate extra carriages.

- commercial vehicles which are used for business to support the economy should not experienced too high a cost as these would ultimately have a repercussion on overall cost. Of course the category of Lifestyle Commecial Vehicles cannot be lump into this category.

Answer 13

Yes i agree with some of the users here. By  placing ERP in certain area will only alleviate some other parts of the roads congested. Singaporean are street smart in some ways and will try all means necessary to avoid paying more so instead of increase ERP rates there are many other solutions for these such as increase parking rates or even going to the root of the problem by setting higher price tag for cars. Well i'm not a politician but it doesn't seems fair for road user using public transport. Due to the ERP, companies such as SBS or even comfort cabs are affected because the government is trying to curb the problems of transport going into the areas involved. So if the above article stated by Mr Tan quoting as soon as we leave the carpark there will be a beep sound, i feel it has become worse because public transport users such as myself sometimes don even feel like going out of my house let alone users such as Mr Tan  because even the transport is expensive.

Answer 14

No

Answer 15

The ultimate motive for the increase of ERPs is to push more drivers to use public transport. The government knows very well that with an increasing of Singapore population and the expanding of knowledge base citizen that commend better pay , more and more people would be able to affort car. If this goes on for the next decade in tandem with the population reaching 6mln, there would be a chaos to the nation transport network.

And looking at singapore's transport infastructure plan, it is explicitly clear that the government want more people to use the public transport (the MRT network to be increased to 278km by 2020). With the increasing nos. of ERPs, the only group of people that is affected are mostly the middle income group (the lower income group of course cannot afford to drive)which by no choice, some would switch to public transport (I foresee more will be using public transport). The higher income group (CEO, Ministers, Bankers and etc) of course would not be affected as badly as the middle income group and with their high stipend, they can afford this extra charges without any gripes.

More ERPs would be installed in future, and more and more complaints will be surface in the forum and discussion board, but that would not deter the government to budge as this is the only way the governement can solve the congestion problem in Singapore >>> To make the general public to use the public transport. This is the ultimate vision.

More and more drivers would have to switch to alternative roads to avoid these gantries, but with more and more gantires are being built, and switching to other roads would be a naught effort, eventually more people would be force to give up driving.

Answer 16

To ease traffic congestion, the LTA needs to evaluate the location of ERP gantries.

LTA should adopt putting the ERP gantries from roads leading into the expressway. So every expressway user has to pay for using it and this is fair equation.

The rates should vary with those nearer to the CBD area paying the most. The reason is the urban users has more alternative routes as compared to those in suburban areas having less like those in Sembawang.

Putting ERP gantries across the expressway is not a fair and equitable to those living in the suburban areas like Yishun and Sembawang.

Within the CBD, the impending traffic congestion is due in part to the construction of flyovers and roadworks.

Hence increasing ERP rates will not help ease the traffic congestion

Answer 17

Don't think it'll stop those people who have a NEED to pass by to stop travelling that route. In fact, it's penalising them, if not burdening them.

There's currently too much construction going on and they're the ones causing congestion (big trucks taking up space, especially when making turns).

If you want fewer cars on the road, increase car prices, or limit car entitlements. ERP is not the way to alleviate congestion. It simply causes bottleneck situations at certain times.

Answer 18

Does the ERP rates alleviated road congestion? Yes and No. To a certain extend, the ever increasing ERP rates does deter motorists from entering the ERP areas, if it is not necessary. But what is the long term objective? And how much is needed to "alleviate congestion?" Of cos you can keep raising up the ERP charges from $1 to $2.50 till it is $10 per entry, maybe $20 or perhaps $30...

The key to alleviate road congestion is giving incentives to motorists not to use the road.

For example, for someone whom is working in Jurong, give him added rebate, if he/she were to buy a house in Jurong area or 5km within the working place. That way, travelling time will be greatly reduced and it gives the motorists a stronger reason to leave their veh behind and take the public transport or the company shutter services.

Answer 19

I just don't think how it will work. These moves are just increasing the cost of living. Inflation is already at it's peak and people are living on the line. Poor people are getting poorer while the rich are getting richer. The wealth disparity is definitely going separate directions.

Think about those who really need to use the car, people who are salesman, it will increase their travelling expenses, and a bigger share of their income.

Income generated should be used to widen expressways, so that the ERP charges can be temporany, eg 5 years.

After 5 years, the income generated can be used to widen expressways to improve the travelling conditions. I think it will be a fairer options to all road users.

Answer 20

Every reason LTA is going to give will be to improve on the road traffic flow by increasing more ERP gantry. Sometimes I am really frustrated about all this. The solution from LTA for road congestion will always be increase ERP gantry or increase ERP charges. Is there any better option other then this? Although I am not a driver but it seems to me that LTA must come out with a better plan rather then this. If this is the case anybody can just sit in the office by just implementing ERP increase when this problem arise again.

By setting more gantry and increase ERP charges, is it a solution in the long run? To improve by encouraging people to take public transport what are the measures done?Did LTA done a good job in improving traffic flow? All this will be in peoples mind.

Public transport in Singapore is definately better you can find in anywhere else but I believe that it can improve further so that more people will be encourage to take public transport. So far I have seen improvement in the bus transport activity. SMRT has also been helpful by introducing the lunch time rush of waiting time just 3.5 mins only. I believe this is what the people in Singapore wants to see. New action being taken rather then keep using the same old method by just increase the price, which is ERP.

Answer 21

I think controlling the COE will decrease traffic flow.

Car registrations can be further divided into different cat:

1) Daily cat

2) Leisure cat

Daily cat would required owner to register and pay the car with proof of employment from their company/biz requiring daily commuting with car/van/lorries. This would require renewal if job changes or unemployment takes place. Of course this would require higher payment. This 'license' would be transferrable for a fee.

Leisure cat would require owner to pay for daily usage other than during leisure hours/days, if not owner will only pay for parking and car petrol/maintenance.

I think this would be a better concept , as in Japan, the high traffic volume is controlled by the authority approving the owner to buy a car only when owner is able to apply for a parking space near their house and working place.

ERP would only 'force' people not to use thier cars, but it does not reduce the numbers of cars on the road. It would probably be a very good excuse to generate more revenues. Just look at Europe, they are implementing the gantry system (thanks to Singapore), but yet it's not improving at all.

Answer 22

I do agree with other road users.  Increase the ERP rates and gantries do not resolve the road congestion problems.  

The only objectives are increase revenues for LTA/Local Authority.  If they really wanna to control the road congestion problems, LTA SHOULD reduce the quota of cars every months till the "Correct numbers" of cars are "ADJUSTED" on road.

If LTA control the quota on the road, lots of car dealers need to wind up their business.  These group of people also generating tons of money to the Govt.  The Govt. will not forsake them.  LTA will be bitting their own bullets.  

  

Have anyone look into "How Lucurcative" the ERP gantries have generated per second per minute per hour per day per week per month and per year per gantry. These collected money were not annouced to the Public.  Where have these money gone to?  You can count the Gantries on the road.

Also, we need to know where have these money go to?  No one have ever reporting to the public about the flow of the monies.  Did the money being audited?

Since the Local authority are collecting these "Road taxes" and ERP charges, IT's their responsbilities to provide the road users a world class type road.  It's their responsbilities to resolve the road congestion problems and NOT forward the paints, problems and cost to we the road users.  They have PHDs, Masters, schools of talents.  If all problems and paints are still forwarding back to we the road users, why should we have these "Elites" sitting in the cosy and comfortable office?  These Elites should be removed from the OFFICEs.  

Its' all chicken and eggs issue.

Answer 23

the government has stated in an earlier press conference that the erp gantries have improved the traffic condition from 15 kmph to 18 kmph*(may not be exact quote given).

this however is a very slight increase in speed along a highway. or for  that matter, the cbd area.

it has however, caused many traffic jams when:

1. drivers forget to insert their cashcard and are forced to stop in front of the gantry to insert their card into the IU unit.

2. drivers are forced onto other roads that are connected to roads that have piled up due  to the gantry.

this causes more pollution within an area as it takes more time to get to a location, and more importantly, increases the chances of accidents.

it may also have an effect on the economy.

the government has no intention of solving the bigger issues and make new problems so they do not  have to face it.

raising more gantries give them more revenue, but wouldn't reducing the number of cars on the road be more effective?

yet car sales are on the rise, given the affluent can afford more than one vehicle. bigger cars, higher prices, soaring economy.

yet on the downside, traffic congestion, increased road tax, higher COE, the list goes on. the poor will get poorer, the rich will get richer.

when will the government make a decision that will benefit the people, and not their pockets?

when will the people of singapore realise that the decisions and solutions the government makes is not always in our best interest?

Answer 24

Yes, I believe ERP rates will alleviate road congestion simply because it will cost more to drive. Singapore (and all major large cities) will always have limited roads, but question is who has priority of using?

Limited supply and unlimited demand - so cost or price be determining factor, and in that I believe that ERP is "fairer payment system" then flat tax or car ownership. And is much better than congestion as in other cities.

The increase price will influence people to look for alternatives, like roads less used, or non-peak hours or public transport (Busese & MRT). The best advantage of ERP is that at least when in hurry, you can pay for less time. We can always use the income from ERP to subsidise lower income population's public transport. So I will continue to support the ERP. Anyway car owners are usually from higher income.

Answer 25

It seems like when there are congestions. The ERP goes up.  I think the best way would still be to reduced the car population drastically. This car growth is also in tandeem to the increase in population. Back 20 years where the population is lesser, the vehicle population is also lesser. With more foreign workersand immigrants entering into Singapore over the years, it is inevitable that the car population would go up... Perhaps it is time to maintain or have a reasonable public transport cost where most would take them like in Hong Kong. Efficient and reasonable transport cost.  If they can do it, we should be able to do it also.

Answer 26

Definitely no, instead of spending so much unnecessary money building up ERP gantries and increasing rates, going earlier and longer ERP operating hours, why not concentrate on helping the country in becoming a more better country for tourism?

Maybe we would like the government to take attention to our living cost, as majority of the living population in singapore are not that rich after all. Perhaps, our dear government thinks that singaporean spending power is high but do take note that more and more people are spending on credit monetary.

Without subsidising the petrol already leaving our government a very very bad impression and we can see that more and more capable people migrating because of increasing of living cost. Seriously, if i have the means and have the chance to be posted overseas position, i would not even hesitate to go.  

Lastly, ERP will not help in reducing traffic but only by controlling the number of COEs been issued out will definitely reduce the number of traffic. But i doubt so it will happen.

Answer 27

Depends on whether you are a rich or poor vehicle owner.

If you are rich and could well afford it then this is well and good.

However, if you are not that rich but need a vehicle to bring you about in doing your business then it becomes a burden financially.

Alternatively, public transportation should be improved to attract this group of vehicle owners to switch over.

The current ERP system looks after the rich by elbowing out the poorer cousin from entering the restricted area meant for the rich.

Answer 28

My ans is NO lorrr......

When there are too many vehicles in Singapore, they came out an solution called "Road Tax" to prevent road congestion like Thailand or other country.

When there are still so many vehicles in Singapore, they came out another solution "COE" also to prevent Singaporean from owning vehicles. By the way i also don't know why now they make it everyone can afford a vehicle.

When almost every Singaporean can afford a vehicle, they came out this solution that is "ERP" reason to ease the peak hour.

In the end i should say that with all this kinda of solution'S' and suggestion'S' it's getting harder to breath in Singapore.

Answer 29

Is this a formality survey or something would be done should eveybody feel likewise? Its obvious right that the continuos increase has not stopped the vehicle congestion. Where is the stop point for the increase. The public transport would follow suit to keep the marginal difference low should ERP be increased more and more and blame it on the oil price. This should be seriously considered as people without cars are also affected. What are the perks of public transport except for a few cents saving.

Answer 30

If you have x number of cars in a defined space, there is no getting around the congestion. Initially the expressways were congested then ERPs were erected to discourage its use during peak periods. Obviously the x number of cars were moved to arterial roads. Then these roads were ERPeed. These x number of cars will divert or continue to use these roads with no alleviation in road congestion.

To decrease congestion, you either enlarge the space or reduce the number of cars. In Singapore's confined space the answer is obvious. However, LTA has allowed the car population to increase and then justify for those ERPs.

Answer 31

It will reduced congestion when the rates are not really affordable by the public. Given the present situation with inflation on food prices and oil price rising, the public will

already have a 2nd thought about owning a car due to the money involved in using and maintainaining the car which includes car park etc..

Now with the ERP increasing, people would want to try and avoid the gantries by taking "a longer route" which will waste time and once they found out that public transport is a better option, the public might choose to give up the car and that will reduced the number of cars on the road.

You can talk about controlling the COE prices but i feel that nothing is more costly then an increase in daily expenditure like petrol, ERP etc. in the long run.

Actually, i am thinking the government is working on the mindset that many people are driving to work which cause congestion and therefore trying to build more MRT for the public to use and encouraging the public to use because its "GREENER" and saves the environment and the earth.