ERP rates, more gantries to go up - Road tax cut by 15% (like wah,big deal)

[iScoupe]

Originally Posted by Oilman

Lai lai, bring it on! I'll go to work a little earlier and pay nothing.

Jason - I vote for you also. Meantime, the Sinkapore gahment better take a long hard look at addressing inflation soon... this is so getting out of hand.

'We cannot let conditions deteriorate further,' said Mr Lim.
Yeah hell, you can say that again.

u wake up early , others wake up lagi early..
notice lately even 630am traffic start to build up..
knn soon ERP start from 6am ends 11pm

[marklee]

Originally Posted by DoggieHowser

Provided the MRT and bus are up to scratch

Wife says that she has to wait for at least 3 trains to go before she can get into the 4th train.. and always kena groped.

4th train?? Wow...luckily I stay in Pasir Ris.

what I used to do during my internship was use the park and ride scheme. Pay $30 a month to park near the old national stadium along nicol highway and take a bus for 3 or 4 bus stops into CBD area. No need to pay ERP and save on parking. Going home is a hassle though..especially when you are feeling damn tired from work..

[gadgets]

Originally Posted by totoseow

its gonna b good for big car owners....who come into work early...

er, how come only big car owners come into work early lei?

[delrosa81]

Originally Posted by marklee

Good idea...but a bit extreme lol. Need to have a bike license to ride one of these right?

No need license bro but even genna summon is once in a long time ma, so overall still got high cost savings wat hehehehehe

[kai82]

die already.......

[hoks]

Juz saw this on the news
- first statement made by some guy "consider taking public transport"
-first statement made by some aunite "this is not to increase revenue"
- then they hv to interview some auntie who agrees with the increase!!!!

Haiz....also wonder on the significance on the change in the manner they consider what is deemed to be "free flowing traffic". Sounds like more excuse to increase ERP rate.

[///M3]

just asked my mom,she say its good..coz she doesnt drive pass any ERP everyday to work..so no prob for her..but then again..ERP sucks!

[jawzsg]

I've been reading these articles and read it again between the lines.. here's my very just for fun... except that it is not really that funny... but still enjoy it if you will...

ELECTRONIC Road Pricing rates for cars at 14 gantries will be up by 50 cents from this coming Monday.

The latest rate hike is part of the Land Transport Authority's quarterly review to achieve optimal cash flow from expressways and roads, said a spokesman...

AFTER announcing sweeping changes to improve the bus and train services markedly, Transport Minister Raymond Lim on Wednesday spooned out the substantially expanded electronic road-pricing (ERP) coverage to keep the department's income moving up smoothly.

There is good news too - vehicle taxes will be cut, more expressways will be built and the Central Expressway widened to ease the perennial traffic woes among the northern corridor...as we do need some measure to offset the anticipated income surge.

The trigger point of ERP implementation or rate increases will change too. Currently, as long as average speeds on expressways and arterials roads are within 45-60kmh and 20-30kmh respectively, all is fine. Fortunately, we have habitual road hogger like Jawzsg that helps slow the commute speed giving us the very reason to make the abovesaid implementations.

To show that ERP is not for raising Government revenue, Mr Lim announced excuses that road tax will be cut by 15 per cent across the board, a move that will cost the Government $110 million a year, anyway the remaining 85% or $734 million is still our annual income. The ERP collections with 850,000 contributing an average of $5 per day is likely to see an annual income in the region of more than 1.0 billion. You cannot call this as raising income.. the term is hyper-escalation, he said.

To curb vehicle population growth, the minister also announced that the 3 per cent annual allowable growth rate - a minor component in a formula that determines COE supply - will be halved to 1.5 per cent from April 2009. He however did not comment on how the compounded 3% allowable growth would lead to 850,000 instead of just 470,000 vehicles from 15 years back at 300,000 when the COE was first launch. He speculate that it may be a calculation error from his predecessor along the line.

# The Tampines Expressway and perennially congested Central Expressway will be widened from July to 2011. Widen road means widen ERPs income as well as Jawzsg who hog these roads daily will give the necessary excuse we need to put up the gantry.

But he cautioned that increasing road capacity and deploying traffic engineering measures will not in themselves guarantee smooth flowing income... huh??... Oh you were asking about smooth flowing road.. heard wrongly.

In fast growing economies like China, the car population grows at more than 20 per cent a year and peak-hour traffic in mega-cities like Beijing and Shanghai crawls at 5km an hour. However, all these are irrelevant statistics for now till we find a system to convert them into income, nevertheless they are good excuses for now, he said.

And so the vehicle population has grown steadily to the 850,000 vehicles today due to a calculation error mentioned earlier. COE has set the department's income into high profile but the post millenium recessions are bending the graph downwards. Additional COEs above the allowable growth is needed to beef up the income, else, my predecessor will not get his promotion and me not mine.

The effects are telling. Congestion levels have increased by about 25 per cent since 1999, with more roads congested during the peak hours. A December 2007 Singapore Business Review article entitled 'Gridlocked Nation' warned that 'if Singapore's growing traffic problems were not solved soon, the surging economy could feel the crunch.' The Biz Review people probably didn't know about the beefing of COEs' income without proper infrastructure support to go along.. however, its the kind of review our department loves.

Si beh heng hor..they neber askz me to be the reporter.. else my chief editor will be spending CNY in jail liao...kekekekekekke....

[ezmobile]

well very soon ,there will be no more weekend car.and slowly i think there will be no road tax, road tax will be charge thru erp charges. Most car will be drove during weekend,weekday too ex! who suffer? salesman, taxi driver, vans...etc. so end of the day prices for goods go up again! and we have to pay for the increase! poor become poorer. rich feel a pitch. stress stress stress

[ACS6]

We are farked. I knew this day was coming since the company making these gantries was last seen churning out huge numbers of these since late 2007....believe me mates, we have not seen the last of these gantries. More on its way. Soon, all of us need to install gantries on our shoulders, charge us every single time we blink.