Singapore gets more people out of cars

Singapore, sun is setting, and the cost of using this motorway is getting cheaper. Singapore - like London - has a congestion charge approach to state highway management. This gantry shows the price you will pay for access...

In this closeup you can see what the time is, but more importantly you can see that a car will be charged $2:00 Singapore (about the same as $2:00NZ), for access. While a truck will be charged $4:00. That rate applies between 6:30pm and 7:55pm. It's more expensive earlier in the evening (peak rush hour), and cheaper later. Once you're at this point there's no going back I suspect, but it's a constant reminder how much your driving will cost at the time.

Just up the road from the tolls gantry is a major building site. (You can just make it out in the top picture). Many of the workers come by bike, and many also come by bus. I think you do take your life in your hands to an extent biking in parts of Singapore downtown, but just outside the city urban area are cycleways to die for. But what really tickled me about Singapore transport was the idea of Off-Peak Cars. Imagine buying an Off Peak Car.... See more....

Apparently Singapore's Off-Peak Car scheme was introduced 15 years ago. The idea was you buy a car with a RED registration plate, and you can only drive it between 7pm and 7am on weekdays, and without restriction on Sundays and public holidays. It seems that the scheme has been tweaked by Singapore's Land Transport Authority (LTA).

The updated scheme kicked off on January 25 this year. Under the scheme car owners who convert their normal plates to OPC red plates receive $1,100 in cash for every 6 months the car remains an OPC. The new scheme also allows OPC drivers to use their cars unrestricted on Saturdays. If owners want to drive on days outside the licence they can pay $20/day for an "e-licence" in advance via internet etc.

The LTA envisages between 10 and 15% of all cars in Singapore will be OPCs. At present 8.6% of Singapore's car population are OPCs.

As you might expect things are more complicated than this. For example to buy a new car in Singapore (OPC) or not, you need a Certificate of Entitlement (COE). These are issued in restricted supply. This is a further means of controlling the population of cars.

But I thought the OPC was an interesting idea. A cheap way of keeping cars off the road. Auckland could do the sums on this....