Rush Hour Takes Its Toll

Source : TODAY, Friday, August 24, 2007

Longer ERP hours, more gantries to ease congestion, as roads get more crowded









THE patients’ arteries are becoming clogged.

In the last two years, congestion levels have been building up with more thorough-fares jammed especially during peak hours.

The number of cars on the streets rose to 800,000 last year, up from 680,000 in 1998. And going by the shrinking costs of owning one — with lower road taxes and Certificates of Entitlement for smaller cars down by half in the latest bidding exercise — the road ahead looks destined to be even more crowded.

That’s not even taking into account the rapidly growing population, or the influx of city-bound traffic, once new developments in the Marina area come on line.

So, before the life-flow in the country’s arteries comes to a standstill, the Government is prescribing a booster dose of its favourite medicine, albeit one that has proved bitter to swallow in the past. And this time looks to be no different.

Yesterday, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) announced the extension of Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) hours at two gantries on the Central Expressway (CTE).

In addition, come Nov 1, four new ERP gantries will begin operation on the CTE, Bukit Timah Expressway (BKE) and East Coast Parkway (ECP) (see graphic).

Another five gantries will go up at Upper Bukit Road between Hume Ave and Old Jurong Road, Toa Payoh Lorong 6, Upper Boon Keng Road, Kallang Bahru Road and Geylang Bahru Road — to be activated only when traffic speed falls below 20kmh.

It’s a matter in which the authorities have “no choice”, said Transport Minister Raymond Lim after a visit to the new Kallang-Paya Lebar Expressway Phase 1 Tunnel.

“ERP is not popular, we know that, but... Singaporeans understand that if you want smooth-flowing roads and (a certain amount of) car growth, then there has to be some form of trade-off,” he said.

The new additions will bring the total number of ERP gantries islandwide to 62. Said Mr Lim: “Of all the different measures to deal with congestion, ERP is the only one that deals directly with the problem by requiring individuals to take into account the costs of congestion caused by their driving to others”.

And this method of hitting drivers in the pocket has proven effective since the ERP was launched in 1998. Average travel speeds between 8.30am and 9am on the ECP have risen from 36kmh to more than 55kmh today.

Along Orchard Road, average speeds on weekday evenings and Saturday afternoons have increased from 17kmh to 23kmh since road pricing was implemented in October 2005.

So, the ERP is the most direct medicine— but is it the best or only one?

Drivers such as deliveryman Yeo Kim Hock believe the extended ERP hours and extra gantries will not work in the long run. He uses the CTE to deliver laundry every day from Ang Mo Kio to the CBD and other parts of Singapore.

“I’ve been on the roads for more than 10 years and every time there are ERP price hikes, they would only work for a short while, then the congestion would come back again as people get used to the price,” he told TODAY.

“Pricing can be effective,” Dr Lee Der-Horng, an Associate Professor of Civil Engineering at the National University of Singapore, told Channel NewsAsia.

“But I think motorists or the general public are looking at whether we have a more comprehensive, integrated and overall solution.

“It will be too naive to expect that once you increase the price at this particular (area), the overall traffic congestion will come down. We cannot just expect car-owners to give up driving and switch to public transportation.”

On such criticisms, Mr Lim gave the assurance that the LTA was constantly looking at how to upgrade ERP technology for a more effective system. One such possibility includes using Global Positioning System technology.

The LTA will also see if optimal speed ranges need to be changed. And meanwhile, the Government will continue building new roads and expressways — it spent some $3.4 billion on this in the last decade. But here, there are constraints. Said

Mr Lim: “Our limited land resources have to be shared with other critical uses such as building homes for our people, industries to drive our economy and schools for our children.”






















And as land gets scarcer and road building costs increase, the LTA expects road growth to drop from 1 per cent a year over the last 15 years, to about half that rate over the next 15 years. Also to be reviewed: The annual 3-per-cent cap on vehicle growth.

One other solution looked at is developing a public transport system so efficient that drivers could be persuaded to give up their wheels. Last year, the Transport Ministry announced a comprehensive review of the land transport system — after noticing that between 1997 and 2004, there was a 23-per-cent jump in daily car trips, despite only a 10-per-cent growth in the car population.

But for now, the road pricing antidote is the most immediate fix — and not just for Singapore. New York has plans to charge motorists about US$8 ($12) when the city implements such a system soon, while Stockholm introduced congestion charging last month.

Putting one other misconception to rest, Mr Lim said the ERP was not a revenue generating mechanism. Were the roads smooth-flowing, “the Government would be happy to collect less”, he said. Annual ERP revenue collected is some $90 million