Comments on: Re-tune the COE quota

By: Hugo Spahlonglong

Hugo Spahlonglong — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 14:33:33 +0000

Guys wake up!

Regardless! if the price of car is the most expensive in the world, which is the present singapore situation, or the car is as cheap as those in europe or america or else where, i believe the situation will be the same if not comparable to the extent that having coe or erp or not can be the same situation of traffic jam on CTE and other expressways or roads.

I like to know who would like to challenge me on this?

By: Are You Serious?

Are You Serious? — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 13:18:47 +0000

“Without the COE the car is “cheap” considerably. Car owners therefore won’t feel pained if they leave their car at home and routinely take public transport. This is the re-tuned thinking into allowing car ownership without causing car congestion.”
TOC – you got the formula right!!

By: from_mon

from_mon — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 18:14:38 +0000

//Punggolsouth resident
well said.
We have been made to pay for these pigs’ mistakes

By: Punggolsouth resident

Punggolsouth resident — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 14:53:47 +0000

i used to support the present party.
of late, i have been pissed by their actions, words, thoughts, attitude.
so, i am voting for a party who ultimately appoints a minister, who is paid a million bucks in singapore dollars, to tell me that they made a mistake by releasing more coe against the number of cars taken off the roads?
so, am i also right to say that the erp is not justified?
why is this so?
i mean, it is not our mistake and we are made to pay for it?!
side track a bit. i am staying in compassvale link. there are insufficient parking lots. it is obviously hdb’s mistake and apparently, i, as a resident, have been affected.
so now what? again their mistake and i have to pay the price for their mistake?
so what is next?
i have had enuff of this stupid party. i am beginning to hate, not dislike or disagree but hate, this present party.

By: damagedDNAs

damagedDNAs — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 08:12:35 +0000

i tell you a joke on lta based on MY realive experiences..i decided to go on GIRO payin the roadtax last year..1st 6 month ain't no problemo... this year insurances dued..so as usual paid my insurance on time 1 month ahead before the expired time frame...don't know whose fault in coordinatin...insurance did not update nor linked ( i didn't even know i must linked the insurance and lta to be dancin partners)..so my GIRO was not deduct simply because lta expect me to do all the necceesarry procedures...in the end i was fined $60 extras because i failed to intro the dancin insurance company to lta..i asked lta why i bothered to settle by GIRO if i hav to pay a penalty thru no fault of mine? lta callanswerer says pay FINES 1st..than appeal... this is singapoor..a real FINE city.... ~sigh~

By: FaceTheFact

FaceTheFact — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 15:24:38 +0000

@lim,
Government will be daft if they implement my suggestion…haha. Don’t forget, I am a driver too and although is jam, I have no complaint because the more we complaint, the more they raise the cost of driving.
@myviewsarestillbetterthanfacethefact,
Good to know that there is a “My Views” supporter, another PAssP ball lickers.

By: myviewsarestillbetterthanfacedthefact

myviewsarestillbetterthanfacedthefact — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 14:48:17 +0000

Also, what’s to stop people from turning to motorcycles.. It is still much cheaper… and what did the shortlegg minister do? he says 1 car= 2 motorcycles..so he raise the road tax for motorcycle from an average $30/annum to more than $100/annum... than again..it was the harley davidson gang that taunted him shortleggs and all bikes above 800c.c. paid a premium roadtax which is equalvalent to a car...remembered the 3 wheels motorcycle that cost importer more than $80,000 that have a roof which looked liked a flyin plane without a wings?...lta decided to class it as a car simply because it had a steerin wheels instead of a handlebar...

By: lim

lim — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 03:06:40 +0000

@Jeff and FaceTheFact

Well, the $ faced pap ministers won’t agree to your suggestions, simply because they will collect less $… and also, what happens to companies in logistic business, construction business, etc.. They will pass the cost to their customers.. So will stagnant pay/decreasing pay for majority of singaporeans, who’s going to afford those price hikes..
Also, what’s to stop people from turning to motorcycles.. It is still much cheaper…
Just think, with expensive cars, couples will think trice before having children.. knowing that they have to reach childcare centre before 7pm to pickup the kids..
What then? More foreigners.. At the way things are going, I am just wondering why we still need schools.. Just let china, india educated their people to degrees, masters degrees and phds, and we just need to import them, instant engineers, scientists, managers…. Imagine how much tax payers $ can be saved.. Of course, all those lecturers, teachers, principals, MOE staff will be out of jobs…

By: FaceTheFact

FaceTheFact — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 17:52:39 +0000

@Jeff, 1.6L Honda Civic was ard 120K included COE during ’94 if I’m not wrong but the jam was equally bad, not forgetting that the population was not that high then. To effective reduce the car number and jam, eliminate the current bidding system and each COE should at least priced at $200K and above so that people will think twice before buying. Current road tax is way too low, should increased by 200% so that we could force current driver to give up driving. Whereas for the HDB car park, the fee should not be flat charges across the whole Singapore, prime and mature estate should be charge more since these estate are more expensive. Also all car owner should also pay for carbon tax and lastly, any household owning more than a car, the next car’s COE will be double the price . With these implementation, I am sure you and me will be happy driving with no jam :)

By: koo koo bird

koo koo bird — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 16:49:53 +0000

COE or ERP has NO EFFECT on the Rich.

So does this mean , by jacking up COE price and ERP price, will address the issue?

If COE for a basic car like kia goes to $100K, i am sure no need ERP also solve traffic congestion problem as most of the 85% flat lease certificate owners would not be able to afford a car in such a scenario. And these are the main bulk of the population and drivers on the road now.

But does this not mean such a system is ELITIST in that it does not deter the rich to own cars even if COE is $100K? There are still many rich in singapore even though majority are flat lease certificate owners.

So, ERP or COE is not the answer.

The solution is to build more road space. Straight away, i know some of you may say sg limited road space. That is not true. multilevel underground and flyovers can provide several 100% more road space. Assuming a finite population of 6.5 million, just have that much road space to cater to 1 car per family. No one left behind without a car. haha.

So, u can by now see my point is its not the excuses, its the solution that is not yet there.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 16:34:18 +0000

I liked it when COE prices were insanely high… When a 1.6L honda civic was over 100K.
That meant only those who could afford it could buy a car. Less cars on the road, less jams.
When the COE prices plummeted, every tom, ah beng and mohd bought a car. What happens when there are too many cars on the road? YES… TRAFFIC JAMS…
Worse still was the introduction of the cherrys and kias and chevrolets. 30K with no downpayment could net you a car… even if you don’t need one. More cars…. MORE TRAFFIC JAMS…
Reducing the number of COEs is a good idea. Too little too late because there are already too many cars on the road, but at least there won’t be that many new cars.

By: Strategist

Strategist — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 16:18:57 +0000

Way to solve road congestion is to build more extensive mrt network and build faster.

Shanghai is a good example. It has about 10 mrt lines now. The network covers wide areas of Shanghai. Do not be overly calculative on profit and loss for MRT.

By: Money

Money — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 09:18:20 +0000

Compared to 10 years ago, COE prices are dirt cheap currently. Then again, you’ll hardly get anywhere in Singapore without encountering a traffic jam nowadays.

By: ScrewRomania

ScrewRomania — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 07:40:33 +0000

Insurance companies make money by investing what they collect from policyholdes. Almost all lost their pants during the financial meltdown and one way they can recover these losses is to overcharge customers in markets where regulators make insurance complusory, including motor insurance, public liability insurance, etc.

By: ACACIA

ACACIA — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 04:53:44 +0000

By cutting down the COE another problem will come up, more overcrowding of our public
transport system! I can’t imagine taking away 50,000 vehicles from the road, this is just a low figure, and pushing all these people to public transport. It won’t help when they reduce the frequency for maximum capacity.
It’s very normal for this government to fight fire with fire and more often they also fail down the road too. There are plans too for a GSP based invehicle devise. When that comes, your car effectively becomes a “taxi” , you pay for the physical car to directly tax you for usage on the roads!

By: chemgen

chemgen — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 04:11:16 +0000

FeverGuy – I think the “pay as you drive” is a good idea as it is relatively “fair”. With the IU in cars, it should be a matter of time. And every time before elections, the governments can give car usage rebates for lower income car owners.

lososay – Yes, “bad maths” is merely an euphemism. But for the thousands who bought cars recently, I don’t think they are complaining much as they have benefited from it.

Whose fault? – No doubt that the government is making money out of both ERP and COE. The problem for me is that it is tolerable if they want to make money, but give me the quality of service e.g. no traffic congestion. Paying high price for COE and ERP and yet there is traffic congestion still sounds like a plan for losing a GRC to me.

Ler Kan Neo – I can’t think of any major city that has no traffic jams. There can never be enough roads and enough planning. However, building roads is only part of the solution, and it is important to both decrease car congestion and improve the quality of public transport as well.

JW – Exactly. Improve the public transport system. Our public transport is not the worst and every major city has public transport woes but still SMRT and SBS can do much better to deal with the peak hour crowds. There is somehow just not enough trains. The easiest way to improve public transport is to allow real competition to the incumbents’ oligopoly.

Jason – ERP is a powerful instrument to regulate traffic but it is not executed properly I feel. I think ERP should be more expensive so that cars can kept out of certain roads at certain times, but the alternative roads should be free of ERP so that people who don’t want to pay can take the free road and live with the jam, so in a way, all expressways should have ERP but none on the regular roads.

lim – Good points on the design of exit and entrance to expressways. I think in the US there are parts of highways that only cars with at least 3 people can use the fastest lane? But I’m not sure how they implement it.

By: darkeststar

darkeststar — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 03:31:36 +0000

Lim,
LTA is the most obnoxious stat board.
any ideas not thought up by them, will be rejected as “not feasible”

By: lim

lim — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 02:30:58 +0000

One reason for the jam we see in expressway is due to the design of exit/entrance to expressway.. LTA should have designed the exit to come before the entrance, so that cars exiting the expressway do not have to merge with cars entering the expressway…

In the US, they have a traffic light system for cars entering expressway, timed such that at most one or two cars can go at intervals of couple of seconds, thus regulating vehicles joining the expressway.. I believed someone suggested this some time ago, but lta rejected the idea..
Also we should implement the malaysia system of counting down to the green light, so that drivers can get ready to move off once the light turns green, instead of wasting few seconds to put down newspapers, release handbrakes, engage clutch, etc… But this suggestion was also rejected by lta..
Somebody suggested to refund parf value in cash to owners who deregistered their vehicles, but was rejected by lta also, citing reason that it is difficult to estimate number of vehicles that will be deregistered and thus budget for the refund.. But now this is implemented, so how come lta is able to budget for it now?

By: myviewarestillbetter

myviewarestillbetter — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 01:19:34 +0000

ok here is where the problemo rised…low COEs wow whoa great..low low $1000 deposit as 1st payment..largi best..even our homeless mr yusof can also buy a brand new car…
so if you,me,my nephew start buyin brand new cars..what do we do with it? parked @ home liked the shortleggs minister onced mentioned in parliament donkeys years ago?
lets all go cruisn..thats where the bips beeps started..soon it will be followed by honkin…
than highway blue/red cisco 3 wheelers light flashin..accident here..accident there..largaed everywhere..even texis are lanecuttin everywhere..meself almost had an accident yesterday..when 2 different coloured texis refused to give way…

By: Whose fault?

Whose fault? — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 01:11:23 +0000

I think the high COE was in place, car population wasnt that much. But the government needed $$$, so they decided to go for low COE with high ERP, pay as you drive and now the population has grown beyond control, the whole SG is congested and they are reverting back to high COE scheme. But ERP will only get higher and higher in the name of regulating traffic in a huge car population country.
Honestly, we are all pawns, there is no need to discuss, a lot of motorists are entrapped. After getting cheap COE cars, you asked them not to drive? ERPs to regulate traffic? Really? They are trying to maximise $$$ with a balance, the whole singapore is congested, there is nothing you can do. Some places they set up Electronic pricing for car parks, then few cars go into these carparks and they tore them down? Why? It is all about making $$$.
Even MRT and Bus frequencies are reduced to ensure carriages are packed like sardins. They are done on purpose, they want every carriage to be full. We have become very kiasu.