Time to Overhaul the transportation system?

[TeeKee]

Higher charges for driving won't get motorists to switch




I REFER to Tuesday's report, 'More cars, so public transport trips down', which can only mean years of certificates of entitlement (COEs) and Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) have not achieved the desired effect of getting more motorists to use public transport.

Public transport operators have not improved matters either with more overcrowding on buses and trains, more train breakdowns and unavailability of taxis when they are most needed.

The buses rattle and jerk with less experienced drivers speeding and then slamming on the brakes.

The only successful part of the transport system is the millions of dollars collected in COE premiums, ERP prices and train and bus fares, with the main transport operators keeping a far closer eye on their bottom line rather than the comfort of commuters.

A complete review of the transport system's priorities and the COE and ERP structure is overdue. Commuters will not change their habits just because charges are raised.

The COE pain may be self-inflicted by buyers of new cars, but the extent of this pain is in turn controlled by the Land Transport Authority's (LTA) tweak of the quotas.

The LTA must recognise that raising more revenue will not solve problems - other measures are needed.

Denis Distant

 

[TeeKee]

Thursday, October 8, 2009
May 6, 2009. Wednesday: The countERProductive erp system
In the middle of the evening peak hours, I was on my way with a passenger to Bayshore Park. He had boarded my taxi on Shenton Way and asked me to go by ECP.

As is often the case at this hour, the section of ECP that skirted the city center, and miles beyond, was packed to capacity. Thousands of cars crawled bumper to bumper at a snail’s pace, making the highway look like a giant conveyor belt carrying a seamless layer of tomatoes to a distant processing plant. An imposing, strategically located ERP gantry stands across the highway before the exit to Rochor Road, triumphantly collecting $2 from every car passing under it.

As far as I know, ERP is not a mere toll system that cares nothing but money. It is actually designed for the greater good: a smooth traffic flow characteristic of the efficiency-minded Singapore. Money is only a means to an end, so to speak. The ERP system, as I remembered, is a world’s first, uniquely Singapore invention for fighting traffic jams, and has been hailed as a genius answer to a common problem in large metropolitan centers around world. A wonder remedy for a disease brought about by advancement of civilization, very much like the cholesterol-clogged blood circulation in human bodies.

However, I can’t help being perplexed this time. How could a highly celebrated system like ERP become so hopelessly impotent in regulating traffic nowadays? And more importantly, how could the system be allowed to continue to operate when it is so plainly clear that it is not working? What happened to “money is only a means to an end”?

By the definition of the ERP’s function, when traffic flow reaches the capacity of the roads during peak hours under the gaze of the bright LED lights on ERP gantries, this is exactly the time the system should be turned off. This is the logic that underlies the system. It should not be allowed to operate when its existence does not make a shred of difference.

In fact, allowing something useless to stay in position pretending it’s useful is counterproductive, because it sends out a wrong message to the public. A message that can be perceived in many ways other than the one we the good, altruistic, and humble citizens have been led to believe.
Posted by Mingjie Cai at 10:34 AM

 

[TeeKee]

MY COMMUTING experience may illustrate why public transport usage has dropped.

For the past three years, I travelled by bus daily from my home in Bishan to work in MacPherson. Service 13, a direct bus, dropped me off at Upper Serangoon Road, after which it is a 10-minute walk to my office.

But because service 13 passed Bishan MRT station, I had to shove my way to get a place on the bus every morning. Once the bus has pulled out from Bishan station, it would be half empty.

The return trip in the evening was equally frustrating because of the low frequency. The long wait, poor road planning and bad bus management made it a very unpleasant trip for me and many commuters every day.

So that is why I am bidding goodbye to public transport.

Johnny Lam

 

[oli9]

The LTA must recognise that raising more revenue will not solve problems - other measures are needed.

Denis Distant

Other measures -

Heavily subsidised public transportation that motorists will be tempted to give up their vehicles.
The repercussion will be Rymond Lim wont be the most popular person in the eyes of LKY.

 

[hairylee]

Raymond Lim have failed.

 

[TeeKee]

one forummer mention that it is not the transportation that needs an overhaul....

but the entire gabramen....do you agree?

 

[Ramseth]

one forummer mention that it is not the transportation that needs an overhaul....

but the entire gabramen....do you agree?

I think that the government thinks that the entire population needs an overhaul.

 

[TeeKee]

I think that the government thinks that the entire population needs an overhaul.

they are halfway through now....

 

[Seee3]

How can ERP system work if every main road has a ERP gantry? Isn't it the same as not having any ERP at all.

No, I am wrong, it is not the same. Without ERP gantries there will be no money. Do they really care about the jam? Maybe more jam better - good excuse to increase ERP rates so that the vicious cycle can continue.