In the battle against the car, space-starved Singapore has deployed road tolls, massive spending on public transport and a license fee that bumps the cost of an average vehicle to over US$80,000.
But urban planners looking for solutions to gridlock may find the draconian measures hard to replicate in other less-compliant cities.
Singapore has gone further than any other major city to avoid the monster jams that have blighted Asian metropolises such as Jakarta or Manila.
Photo: AFP
The tough approach has been possible as Singaporeans are used to strict control — with media closely monitored and harsh punishments for minor crimes — and are fearful the city-state will be flooded with vehicles without the curbs.
However the model faces mounting criticism thanks to rush-hour jams that have frustrated commuters, surging vehicle prices after a freeze on car numbers and public transport breakdowns.
“I think the system can be made better and fairer,” Joel Lee, a 28-year-old technician, said.
He said authorities should make “a distinction between those who need cars, be it for work or family commitments, and those who just want more cars as a status symbol.”
PRICEY CERTIFICATE
Authorities’ main tool is the Certificate of Entitlement (COE). Every potential car buyer must bid for a certificate and the cost is added to the vehicle price.
The current cost of a COE for an average family car is almost US$37,000, pushing the price of a Toyota Corolla to US$83,000.
But COEs fluctuate depending on demand and at their high point four years ago the same car was US$127,000 — six times the price in the US.
The certificates are valid for 10 years, after which the car must be scrapped or the certificate renewed. Despite the high price, many in the financial center, home to hordes of wealthy expats and millionaires, have bought cars, with some 600,000 on the streets — a considerable number for a limited road network.
Other key measures include controlling the number of vehicles on the road and charging tolls on main roads at busy times.
Authorities last month decided to freeze the number of private cars on the road from February for at least two years, citing land scarcity.
But the decision sparked anger and was followed by a jump in the price of COEs by several thousand US dollars, in what the Straits Times newspaper described as “panic buying.”
To mitigate its tough policies, Singapore has built a modern public transport network with a subway, overland trains and buses — the government recently announced a plan to spend US$20.6 billion to upgrade the system.
Ride-hailing apps Grab and Uber have helped those unable or unwilling to spend on a car, and the government plans to build 700km of cycle paths.
But the subway has recently been hit by repeated delays and breakdowns during rush hour. In the most serious incident for years a tunnel on the network flooded last month, crippling a main line for 20 hours, and sparking widespread anger.
IS ‘CAR-LITE’ RIGHT?
Some are now questioning the government’s plan to make Singapore a country where most people walk, cycle or take public transport.
“The government has been trying to make the city ‘car-lite’ but you have a train system that’s not very reliable,” Jason Lin, a 66-year-old retiree, said.
“If you take a bus, because there are so many cars, it’ll take a long time. It can be very frustrating.”
Speaking in parliament this month, Lam Pin Min (藍彬明), a senior minister of state for transport, insisted that significant growth in the transport network was planned and there would be “less need to own a car.”
Singapore has not heavily promoted electric cars as it pushes public transport — unlike rival financial hub Hong Kong — but an electric-car sharing scheme starting next month is a first step to changing that.
Other places echo Singapore’s approach — London has a congestion charge while Paris sometimes orders some private cars off the road due to air pollution — but they are unlikely to copy the city-state’s tougher measures as it would be too risky.
“COE is not a very popular measure, and any government that tries to implement this kind of a measure in any other country may lose elections,” Vivek Vaidya, a transport expert at business consultancy Frost and Sullivan, said.
Sept.16 to Sept. 22 The “anti-communist train” with then-president Chiang Kai-shek’s (蔣介石) face plastered on the engine puffed along the “sugar railway” (糖業鐵路) in May 1955, drawing enthusiastic crowds at 103 stops covering nearly 1,200km. An estimated 1.58 million spectators were treated to propaganda films, plays and received free sugar products. By this time, the state-run Taiwan Sugar Corporation (台糖, Taisugar) had managed to connect the previously separate east-west lines established by Japanese-era sugar factories, allowing the anti-communist train to travel easily from Taichung to Pingtung’s Donggang Township (東港). Last Sunday’s feature (Taiwan in Time: The sugar express) covered the inauguration of the
The corruption cases surrounding former Taipei Mayor and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) head Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) are just one item in the endless cycle of noise and fuss obscuring Taiwan’s deep and urgent structural and social problems. Even the case itself, as James Baron observed in an excellent piece at the Diplomat last week, is only one manifestation of the greater problem of deep-rooted corruption in land development. Last week the government announced a program to permit 25,000 foreign university students, primarily from the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia, to work in Taiwan after graduation for 2-4 years. That number is a
In a stark demonstration of how award-winning breakthroughs can come from the most unlikely directions, researchers have won an Ig Nobel prize for discovering that mammals can breathe through their anuses. After a series of tests on mice, rats and pigs, Japanese scientists found the animals absorb oxygen delivered through the rectum, work that underpins a clinical trial to see whether the procedure can treat respiratory failure. The team is among 10 recognized in this year’s Ig Nobel awards (see below for more), the irreverent accolades given for achievements that “first make people laugh, and then make them think.” They are not
This Qing Dynasty trail takes hikers from renowned hot springs in the East Rift Valley, up to the top of the Coastal Mountain Range, and down to the Pacific Short vacations to eastern Taiwan often require choosing between the Rift Valley with its pineapple fields, rice paddies and broader range of amenities, or the less populated coastal route for its ocean scenery. For those who can’t decide, why not try both? The Antong Traversing Trail (安通越嶺道) provides just such an opportunity. Built 149 years ago, the trail linked up these two formerly isolated parts of the island by crossing over the Coastal Mountain Range. After decades of serving as a convenient path for local Amis, Han settlers, missionaries and smugglers, the trail fell into disuse once modern roadways were built