Motorists to face five new ERP gantries
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This is the time I say having motorcycle seems to be the most cost saving transportation!
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Originally posted by ^tamago^:
more crap from Straits Times.
54% of drivers don't pass through ERP gantries on the way to work
By Maria Almenoar
EACH time the tolls on Singapore's roads rise, a chorus of complaints sounds from drivers across the island.
But the reality is that less than half of all motorists pass through Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) gantries on their way to work.
A Singapore Press Holdings survey of 295 motorists found that 46 per cent fork out money for the privilege of driving on the island's roads.
Of those, about 70 per cent pay $3 or less every morning.
The survey was done over three days in mid-November, about two weeks after ERP rates were raised by 50 cents.
That brought tolls on the Central Expressway from the Pan Island Expressway to $5 between 8.30 and 9am - making it Singapore's costliest road.
Read the full story in Tuesday's edition of The Straits Times.
well done. what an accurate survey. 295 motorists representing the hundreds thousands of motorists. freaking bull. we might as well start to move backwards to the times when roads were infested with bicycles. -
New formula for ERP charge
TO GIVE motorists a smoother ride and better manage traffic congestion, the Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) charges will be based on a new formula, which will kick in earlier when traffic speeds fall below the optimal range.The base rate will also go up to $2, from the current $1, and each subsequent jump will be $1, instead of 50 cents now.
These changes announced by Transport Minister Raymond Lim on Wednesday, along with the addition of 16 ERP gantries, are aimed at easing congestion in the city area, as well as on major roads island-wide.
Not only are more vehicles on the roads, but motorists are also earning more these days compared to 10 years ago when Singapore introduced its world-first system of managing traffic by charging for road usage.
Current charges are just not hitting motorists' pockets hard enough to keep enough of them away.
The result: frequent increases to ERP rates to keep traffic flowing - nine in 2006 and 25 last year. The year-long land transport review figured enough was enough.
Under the new formula, ERP charges will kick in when, in line with international practice, just over 15 per cent of vehicles cannot go at what traffic engineers consider the best possible speed.
The current threshold speeds, set 10 years ago, are 45 kph on expressways and 20 kph on major roads.
But motorists still find themselves getting caught in slow traffic, and even experiencing 'stop-start' conditions, despite fine weather, and with no accident in sight, said Mr Lim.
The current threshold speeds are closed to the point where traffic flow can deteriorate rapidly to what traffic engineers call the 'unstable zone', leading to 'stop-start' traffic flow.
'This is undesirable and we need to create a buffer to ensure better traffic conditions,' said the minister.
To address this, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) will no longer use average travelling speeds to determine ERP rate changes.
Instead, it will use the speed taken at the 85 percentile level, which will assure motorists of smooth travel on ERP-priced roads at least 85 per cent of the time.
The new formula, as well as the higher charges, will be phased in from July in the Central Business District (CBD) and Orchard Road, and then to other roads in due time.
The number of gantries will also go up in phases, from 55 now, to 60 in April, 65 in July and 71 in November.
Mr Lim said from feedback, motorists are willing to pay ERP charges if they can benefit from it.
'The changes will improve the effectiveness of the ERP system, so that each time ERP rates are adjusted, motorists who still choose to drive on these roads would see visible improvement in traffic flows,' said the minister.
On the five new gantries coming up in the CBD to discourage motorists from cutting through the already packed Suntec City, Bugis and Marina Square shopping areas, Mr Lim said speeds on major roads in the city area have fallen by more than 25 per cent.
For example, a motorist crossing the city from Bugis to Chinatown in the evening enjoyed travelling speeds of 25 kph five years ago. Today, the speeds have fallen by almost 30 per cent to 18 kph.
At major cross junctions between North Bridge Road and Bras Basah Road, as well as South Bridge Road and Cross Street, the build-up of traffic has resulted in motorists having to wait for three or more traffic light changes before they are able to cross the junctions.
'We cannot let conditions deteriorate further,' said Mr Lim.
The expected increase in ERP revenue will be about $70 million a year.
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Dealers expect more car sales as public avoid high prices from May 2009
By Satish Cheney, Channel NewsAsia | Posted: 30 January 2008 2224 hrsSINGAPORE: Some car dealers have said that car prices may go up as high as 30 per cent in 2009. This follows news that from May 2009, the government will halve vehicle population growth to 1.5 per cent.
Dealers said this will reduce the number of COEs - leading to higher prices.
Car dealers added that they don't expect frantic buying but a gradual increase in sales.
Another reason to buy now is due to the 10 per cent reduction in the Additional Registration Fee or ARF, from March 2008.
Edmund Gin, Manager of Mitsubishi Sales, said: "Looking at the reduction in ARF - that will definitely decrease the selling price of cars. For Japanese cars, it will range from S$1,000 to S$3,000 in terms of the selling price."
In 2008, around 13,000 car COEs will be issued at the current growth rate of three per cent.
But in 2009, when the rate is halved, only about 6,500 will be issued.
Dealers said replacement COEs make up the bulk of the total number of COEs available each year.
But such COEs have been decreasing gradually.
Honda dealers said there were some 63,000 replacement COEs in 2007 and they expect a drop to 58,000 in 2008.
They also expect COE prices to go up by about S$3,000 to S$5,000 in the next bidding in March.
Vincent Ng, Product Manager of Honda, Kah Motor, said: "People are keeping their cars longer. In the past, people used to keep their cars for three years and change to a new one. But now it seems like it is 5 years and that trend seems to be continuing. So people might be keeping their cars up to 7 years - purely for economic reasons."
Car dealers said they have to change their strategies come 2009.
For example, they will have to shift their focus more towards medium and large cars as first time car buyers looking to buy small cars may just decide to stick to public transport.
And it's clear the industry is set for some challenging times ahead.
Chin Kee Min, Manager of Kia Operations, said: "Unfortunately the margins for a small car is also not a lot, so you can't actually cushion the blow very much because the COE is increasing too fast."
Michael Wong, President of Motor Traders Association, said: "Traders have lived in very tough times and good times, so we will probably knuckle down. We will look at our entire operating costs and make our own operations more efficient, more effective."
Besides being effective, car dealers must also consider how a possible economic slowdown will affect demand. -CNA/vm
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with the increase of ERP gantries now and future, besides money being deducted, wonder radiation levels on the roads will have any effects on motorists?
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ERP for all HDB carparks.
Soon.
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Originally posted by HyperFocal:
The expected increase in ERP revenue will be about $70 million a year.
Small wonder why this sentence is placed at the last of the report... And small wonder why there is only 1 sentence on it :D
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just do it - nike
nowaday, what happen to the consultation?
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A lot of complaints here hor.
I also driver. Also get hit by new ERP charges.
But the question is - if don't raise ERP, then how to solve congestion?
Maybe they should just cut COE to a very small number?
Maybe they should just raise road tax by a lot to discourage car ownership?
Maybe they should just don't do anything and let congestion continue?
What's the solution?
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it will be best for them to raise the raise up to a real big value, e.g. $10-20 per entry, that will really cut down the traffic to the city.
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why comprain and comprain?
is this not what the majority support?
u asked for it? ha ha ha enjoy lah!!! I congrat you!
no where in the world like this.
what a f&*king wonderfool thing.
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[img]http://www.togoparts.com/showroom/misc/resized-20080201145428692.jpg[/img]
If i did remember correctly, did they also announce another pieces of news saying current road tax prices will go down 15% throughout the range?
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Originally posted by onlooker123:
A lot of complaints here hor.
I also driver. Also get hit by new ERP charges.
But the question is - if don't raise ERP, then how to solve congestion?
Maybe they should just cut COE to a very small number?
Maybe they should just raise road tax by a lot to discourage car ownership?
Maybe they should just don't do anything and let congestion continue?
What's the solution?
if ERP indeed solve the problem, implement it. It just like a pipe with many outlet. you block one outlet and the water will flow out in the other outlet coz the volume is constant.
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our roads are just like our blood veins, you use ERP to reduce the traffic on one road and the other vehicles will to other surronding roads and cause congestion Just like by-pass surgery to channel blood flow.
Example for Upper Bt Timah gantry , come Monday, Hillview Rd and Old Jurong Rd are going to be jammed as vehicles use these roads to by-pass to avoid the ERP gantry.
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rate of public road growth is unable to curb the rate of car growth. how to solve congestion?
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years back they lower coe prices to allow more cars to be on the road.
more cars = more ppl pay ERP = more $
Smart Government.
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Typical PAP style to use money to solve problem,but the ERP thing is not even effective but still they build so many more gantries.
Wow, so easy to be a transport minister, jam so solve problem build more gantries. Easy job but receive million dollar pay.
PAP should just stop using money to solve this jam problem, there are other alternatives they can go ahead to solve the problem. They could just limit the number of people buying cars during a certain period of time or people who avoid using the road during peak hours will get some kind of rebate.
Damn PAP, building gantries and collect more money is just helping them to be able to continue to draw overpaid salary. I don't recall they do anything that will not benefit them.
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... I think, what one writer to the papers suggested, should have been done long ago instead of waiting until countless increases in ERP charges...
... my point is; the buying of cars, was made too AFFORDABLE! Eg., "Low Downpayment of $3000 Only, Drive Home Today!" adverts are all over the papers!
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Ease jams, make upfront car cost exorbitantly high
Sat, Feb 02, 2008
The Straits Times
I REFER to the Transport Ministry's plan to substantially increase the number of ERP gantries and up the charges. The Transport Minister also said that the solution to growing fat is not to upsize the trousers. However, my question is why have we allowed ourselves to grow fat in the first place?Looking at how the vehicle population has grown 25 per cent over the last 10 years, it is no surprise we are hit by traffic jams frequently. The notion that just because the road network has grown by a certain percentage so we can accommodate a similar growth in car population is flawed because the increase in road network is mostly happening in outlying areas and new towns being built.
However, it is the same ECP, PIE, Jalan Eunos, Jalan Besar, etc, that will suffer the effects because these are arterial roads.
Something is also not right when I frequently hear from friends about how their young colleagues, barely months into their first job, are already getting their own set of wheels.ERP will control traffic flow to a certain extent, but it ignored one important but common human trait: When people run late in the morning, many would simply say 'hey, what the heck - just $5 to $8 more solves my lateness problem' and head straight for their cars.
So the most effective solution to congestion is simply to make the upfront cost of having a set of wheels exorbitantly high - like in the past.
The other problem with having such a huge car population but controlling movements only during weekdays is that driving on weekends is becoming a nightmare. I have been caught in no fewer than five jams on a typical Saturday afternoon because the CTE is jammed, Jalan Eunos is jammed, Paya Lebar is chock-a-block and the Bencoolen-Lavender area is choked.
A drive into any shopping mall or heartland shophouse area will entail joining a queue into the carpark, followed by a search within for a lot.
And now, with buildings having reduced number of parking lots, many drivers eventually end up rejoining the roads to look for another lot nearby.
The previous requirement for building owners to have a certain number of parking lots has now been relaxed. Why throw out something that had served us well?
To get back to the good old days of smooth traffic, the car population should be reduced - accompanied by measures to make public transport attractive.
Chiang Meng Lee (Ms)
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I think that Singapore's population should be reduced to 3 million+.
Too many people in a small place.
Looking for trouble only.
Hope our million dollar ministers can look into that.
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Originally posted by Poh Ah Pak:
I think that Singapore's population should be reduced to 3 million+.
Too many people in a small place.
Looking for trouble only.
Hope our million dollar ministers can look into that.
They will not reduce the size of the population. If they do so, they will not have more $$$$ from these foreigners or immigrants. I guess the reason why they want to increase the population is to earn more $$ for themselves. They don't care about the space for the nation, they only care for $$$.
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Originally posted by HyperFocal:
... I think, what one writer to the papers suggested, should have been done long ago instead of waiting until countless increases in ERP charges...
... my point is; the buying of cars, was made too AFFORDABLE! Eg., "Low Downpayment of $3000 Only, Drive Home Today!" adverts are all over the papers!
=============================================================
Ease jams, make upfront car cost exorbitantly high
Sat, Feb 02, 2008
The Straits Times
I REFER to the Transport Ministry's plan to substantially increase the number of ERP gantries and up the charges. The Transport Minister also said that the solution to growing fat is not to upsize the trousers. However, my question is why have we allowed ourselves to grow fat in the first place?Looking at how the vehicle population has grown 25 per cent over the last 10 years, it is no surprise we are hit by traffic jams frequently. The notion that just because the road network has grown by a certain percentage so we can accommodate a similar growth in car population is flawed because the increase in road network is mostly happening in outlying areas and new towns being built.
However, it is the same ECP, PIE, Jalan Eunos, Jalan Besar, etc, that will suffer the effects because these are arterial roads.
Something is also not right when I frequently hear from friends about how their young colleagues, barely months into their first job, are already getting their own set of wheels.ERP will control traffic flow to a certain extent, but it ignored one important but common human trait: When people run late in the morning, many would simply say 'hey, what the heck - just $5 to $8 more solves my lateness problem' and head straight for their cars.
So the most effective solution to congestion is simply to make the upfront cost of having a set of wheels exorbitantly high - like in the past.
The other problem with having such a huge car population but controlling movements only during weekdays is that driving on weekends is becoming a nightmare. I have been caught in no fewer than five jams on a typical Saturday afternoon because the CTE is jammed, Jalan Eunos is jammed, Paya Lebar is chock-a-block and the Bencoolen-Lavender area is choked.
A drive into any shopping mall or heartland shophouse area will entail joining a queue into the carpark, followed by a search within for a lot.
And now, with buildings having reduced number of parking lots, many drivers eventually end up rejoining the roads to look for another lot nearby.
The previous requirement for building owners to have a certain number of parking lots has now been relaxed. Why throw out something that had served us well?
To get back to the good old days of smooth traffic, the car population should be reduced - accompanied by measures to make public transport attractive.
Next thing you know, public transport fees will be raised again because many more people has turned to using it, and thus maintenance fees have increased. As a result, need to increase fares.
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Originally posted by eagle:
Next thing you know, public transport fees will be raised again because many more people has turned to using it, and thus maintenance fees have increased. As a result, need to increase fares.
That's for sure ... Every year they have to make higher profits for their shareholders because they're a public listed company , soon you'll have to wait 4 minutes in the peak hour for your train or pay more ... So either way , it's no horse run for Singaporeans
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guys and gals,
i think we may have missed the wisdom that lies within the gantongs...erm...sorlly, should be gantries.
you see, i thinked and thonked last nite...
i sudderly thinked how could the world's highest edicated and paid people be have no wisedom ? surely they must have wisedom.
so they no against the yee-arler-pee lor.
so, maybe they so elite and wisedom, we common peeper no see their wisedom leh?
i just like to know how the come all these world recordians no see the concerns each and everly one of yous mentioned de leh?
I also would like to know, in 3 years time, how much money will be income from the gantries and how many eventually would be installed as time gone the by not cheese the by.
and the mudder of all question is this : which talent acturely made the decision to implement the gantrys?
there must be 1 approver rite?
Other than Mbt, which other is the more decision of the making?
kllbccbtlptlppsopofjwnflkyks!
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I think the only logical way to ease traffic congestion is jack up prices of COEs to ridiculous amounts so that lesser people can afford cars. Lesser cars = lesser traffic. I don't understand how ERP gantries can improve the situation in a significant way.
COEs to be reduced from next year
Wed, Jan 30, 2008 - The Straits Times
TO reduce the car population here, the number of Certificate of Entitlement (COE) to buy vehicles will cut from 4 per cent to 1.5 per cent a year from 2009.
But this will not halve the number of COEs available, as most of the certificates are to replace deregistered cars.
Using last year as an example, the cut will result in 9.5 per cent fewer COEs.
There are now 850,000 vehicles on the roads today. In the last 10 years, the number of cars grew by almost 40 per cent, from 370,000 in 1997 to 515,000 today, each chalking up an average of 21,000 km a year.
Transport Minister Raymond Lim said the car growth rate will be reviewed after three years to assess if a further reduction is necessary.
Speaking during a visit to the Kallang-Paya Lebar Expressway on Wednesday morning, he said: "When I go to dialogue sessions, I often get questions like 'Don't you think there are too many cars on the roads?'???People tell me that it is not just the city areas that are getting congested but also suburban areas like Serangoon and Thomson, which they say get chock-a-block full of cars in the evenings.'
'One of the reasons for this increasing congestion is that in applying a 3 per cent growth rate to the current vehicle population base, we have been adding 25,000 vehicles onto the roads each year, compared to 16,000 vehicles back in 1990 when the Vehicle Quota System was introduced.'
'If we continue at a 3 per cent growth rate, we would have enough vehicles, packed bumper to bumper, to turn our entire road network into a giant car park in the not too distant future.'
'If we take into account that road growth will go down to 0.5 per cent a year, then clearly, the 3 per cent vehicle growth rate is no longer tenable.'
Source: AsiaOne Motoring
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That expected increase in 70 million of ERP tax revenue.... How are they going to use it?
So much tax revenues, can't they provide free healthcare services for those above the age of 85 instead of annuity? Seems like it is a crime for more people to live longer...