Apologies if you feel that I should not post this “sensitive” post, but I feel so strongly about it that I need to voice it.
I read with frustration of the revision of ERP prices again on CTE. As many of you already know, I have always been complaining about it and frankly this move just adds oil to fire.
A couple of weeks ago, I heard a comment on radio that the policy makers feel that ERP is an effective way of controlling car volume on the road and has also increase car ownership, making people happy. A few questions that are in my mind since then:
- How do they come to the conclusion that ERP is an effective way of manage car volume on the road?
- How has increase in car ownership make people happy? Oh, I am very happy that I own a car but I can’t afford to drive to work on weekdays and that makes me a very happy person? What about the depreciation of the car sitting in the carpark?
- Or making it easier for rich people to own more than 1 car is also part of the deal of increasing ownership?
Frankly, I dun drive to work, but I can’t say I am not pissed with it. I am not in the best situation now to take public transport, but still I push myself to take it. But here is my experience. The trains in the morning are packed like sardines, I urge the policymakers to try taking public transports at peak hours to understand how efficient our public transport system is. And the civic minded Singaporeans do not give up seats to people who need the seats more than them. This is especially true for those who stood in front of the entrance of the trains at Yishun MRT for 15 to 20 mins before they manage to grab a seat on an empty train. For the time they spent waiting, they are definitely not going to be willing to give up their seats. I have seen a pregnant woman who boarded at Raffles Place, she had to stand till Ang Mo Kio, when most of the crowd had got off before she got a seat.
Then I really dun want to take a cab to work. With the morning, peak hour plus the ERP charges, my journey from the north to town costs my more than $30 one way! Imagine how much it will cost me for a month! For us who are not considered the low income family and we are already feeling the pinch, I can’t imagine those who are really poor and yet for medical conditions need a seat on a train, how they are going to find an ideal solution.
Dun tell me you can leave home earlier and come to work earlier so as to avoid all the charges and the jam. If I reach office say at 7 and leave office at 7pm, I work for 12 hrs and that is before including 2 hrs of traveling time. Tell me how to enjoy quality of life, family time with such lifestyle. I really question if this is the society and lifestyle we want to be in.
Why penalize people living in the north. So what if you have 3 hospitals? U can’t even solve the fundamental problem on transport? Is that why more people have given up living in the north? Is that why prices of properties in the area have been so depressed? Come on? Really, go down to the ground. Understand the fundamental of what people need. Dun leave in a deceptive world thinking that everything is rosy from your narrow perspective. The solution is build alternative roads and not to impose more ERPs.
I love this nation, dun force me to leave cos of these incredible costs. I can’t imagine my next generation having to work so hard and still think that money is never enough for them to live comfortably.
BZ
Untouchables 