What the fish.
Aiyoooo...., I mean, if car population is their concern, why make it so easy to finance the purchase of a car with 10 year loan schemes???
I think I feel stupid. Because I can never understand what they're doing actually.
3% VEHICLE GROWTH CAP MAY NOT BE LOWERED
Cap on car numbers may be raised
Limit to be reviewed next year and may be raised as S'pore can support a larger car population, but ERP may be extended
By Christopher Tan
NEXT year was to be one to dread for motorists. The Government had said it would review the 3 per cent cap on annual vehicle growth rate then - with a mind towards lowering it.
But now, it appears that the 3 per cent cap will remain, or even be raised, because of changed conditions.
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However, this might come at a price - an extension of the Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) scheme to more areas.
What a difference five years make.
In 1999, when then-Communications Minister Mah Bow Tan announced that a review would be conducted in 2005, he said that allowing a 3 per cent growth rate might not be sustainable.
He quoted a Land Transport Authority forecast then which predicted that congestion would worsen significantly despite improvements being made to the Republic's road network and public transport system.
The cap was put in place in 1990, when the vehicle quota or certificate of entitlement (COE) system was introduced.
A Transport Ministry spokesman told The Straits Times that 'based on current social and economic trends, a 3 per cent annual growth in vehicle population is possible'.
Singapore's vehicle population has grown by an average of 2.2 per cent annually since 1993, with faster growth in the first five years mitigated by much slower growth in the next five.
Car numbers have consistently outpaced overall vehicle population growth, chalking an average annual growth rate of 3.2 per cent since 1993.
Even so, a Remaking Singapore workgroup remarked two years ago that the growth rate needed to be raised substantially if the Government's aim of raising car ownership to one in seven residents by 2010 (from one in 10 in 1995) was to be met.
The Government had since said that it was sticking to its 2010 car ownership target; and that Singapore could accommodate a bigger vehicle population with ERP.
But the ministry spokesman said in no uncertain terms that 'a larger vehicle population is possible in the medium term' only if the COE system continues to be in place, and if the ERP scheme is extended.
'As the vehicle population continues to increase, traffic conditions on all roads will deteriorate if today's road network and ERP rates persist,' she explained.
She added that it would be necessary to implement ERP at locations beyond the current 45 gantries at 43 locations 'to maintain acceptable travel speeds while allowing vehicle population to grow'.