Originally posted by silv3rgal:
Watched the news just now? Govt is adding 3 more gantries at ORchard Road.. to EASE the traffic flow.. and saturday's an "ERP day" too...
Ya right! To ease the traffic flow is an excuse! It's the money. We all know that. Don't be surprise one day when you wake up from your bed, you see a big gantry outside your window. It will happen. Sooner or later.
In Singapore, our life is pretty much guided (like I've mentioned before). A year or so ago, the government wants to make car much more affordable, hence COE is lowered. And now, they say roads are too congested! Why was COE implemented in the first place? To stop the oh-so-average or the poor from buying cars as not to further congest the roads? Ok, COE was implemented because the government says "Need to control, too many cars will congest the roads!". And what happened a year or so ago (and still are going on)? They said "Oh, we want to make cars more affordable". And what happened now? Too many cars! More gantries, more gantries!
And guess what! Do you seriously think the gantries will help ease the traffic jam (when most of the time especially in the afternoon there's still heavy traffic on the CTE to the city)? No! Why? Because we've got no choice already. We'd probably set up business in the city and bought the car when the COE was low and before the grantries was errected! Will COE really help cut down on people buying cars? Again no. If it would, why are still so many cars?
And the cigarettes price hike issues. How many of you smoke? Hardcore smokers (more than 5 years or so) would not likely to quit, no matter how expensive the ciggies will be. Ok, maybe I am exaggerating. They would probably travel up north to buy/smuggle when the prices here becomes unreasonable! What does this lead to? More traffic jams at the causeway. Then what? Granties? Another problem. Smuggling cases will rise too.
Oh, so they increased the ciggie prices so as to discourage the youth from picking up the habit? Why didn't they think of that 20 or 30 or even since indepence? If smoking is so bad and harmful, why can't the government ban smoking just like they've banned chewing gums? They can't right? Why? Some sort of revenue to the country?
Sorry for being so long winded - all I want to put across is, it's the money!
Thank you.