4/16/2013

Make car driving ‘tougher’



I am floored by the brilliant suggestion of Adjunct Associate Professor Paul Barter of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy that in order to improve the road conditions, one way is to ‘make driving less attractive and restrict it as a transportation option while making alternatives, such as public transport, more desirable than driving.’ Why can’t our super talents think of such a wonderful idea, and why is it that we always need a foreign talent to tell us the obvious?

Make driving tough, unattractive, difficult and expensive, higher COE prices must be one of them, or can make it more palatable by other similar schemes. Make price of cars more expensive also can. Erect more ERPs, make parking even more expensive, send the Traffic Cops to issue more summons, etc etc. Now, all these added together would definitely make driving less attractive and make the roads freer. How come it takes so long for the Govt to come up with such a solution really baffles me.

The same philosophy or mentality can be applied to other problems facing the country. Housing is a big problem. Everyone wants to buy bigger and bigger homes. The solution, make home ownership less attractive. Raise property prices, more taxes on more properties, higher stamp duties, more taxes on profits, etc etc, will definitely make the people stop buying properties and instead opt for rentals or just staying with parents.

What else can be made less attractive? Schools, branded schools, make it very difficult and expensive to be enrolled in branded schools. That will keep the demand for such schools low. Additional conditions like parents must be multi millionaires, millionaires would not do as many Singaporeans are already millionaires, or make them put upfront a million dollar deposit. That would surely work.

I think this concept has many applications and will definitely be very effective as well. I am skipping hospitalization as the concept has already been in practice and people feared being admitted to hospitals. But given the long queue, hospitalization charges can go higher to cut down the queue and waiting list.

Let’s do it, make everything less attractive when the demand is too high and causing problem. The criteria and conditions for running for Presidency is one good example, no big demand for it. Can also apply to running for MPs. Then there will be lesser hassle as many would not qualify or cannot afford to put down a big deposit to lose.

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Why not implement COE certificates for Foreign Talent?

Bidding will be open to both private & public organizations.
FT's can also bid for their on COE.

Money raised from such COEs can be used to hire more teachers to reduce student to teacher ratio.

Can also be used to pay unemployment benefits to Singaporeans made jobless by FTs.

Anonymous said...

RB, now u know why we need FT as locals are just incapable of coming out with new idea, I rest my case

patriot said...

"Why cant our super talents think of.........."

What are You asking Mr Hua aka Redbean?.

You certainly and surely know of 借刀杀人,
whence it backfires, all blames will go to the hired expert(s). No local will be responsible and culpable of any wrong.

Evil folks will find all means to exculpate themselves of any accountability. In Sin, almost all leaders are of such calibre.

patriot

patriot said...

My apology to Mr Chua aka Redbean for the Typo Error in Mr Hua.

patriot

Chua Chin Leng aka redbean said...

It's alright Patriot. I am no expert but I can think of all these great solutions too and even wilder ones.

patriot said...

Just that You cant bear to 借刀杀人( make others take the rap), which our Ruling Politicians are experts at doing.

It is a real curse to be under such Rulers; not just soul-less. No bloody conscience in them. Very scary.

patriot

Anonymous said...

In sinkie land, pricing is used to increase or decrease demand. Very effective knn I must say. But ignore the social cost of course.

Ⓜatilah $ingapura⚠️ said...

If they are really serious about making car driving tougher (and not bilking the car owners for max revenue) the the CHEAPEST most effective solution is to REMOVE all ERP, COE, high road tax, but double or triple parking charges.

You will have 24 hour traffic jams from Jurong to East Coast, from Shenton Way to Woodlands. In a very short time people will get so fed up, they'll sell their cars because to park it would incur huge costs.

See? A solution. And I'm not even "elite".

Anonymous said...

Why use carpark to make driving cost high when the car can be made to be uber expensive to own by having coe that costs a 100ks and more?

Want the woman and old folks to work? Easy, just make everything expensive and all will have to work like it or not.

No need to be talented or elite to come up with such evil ideas lah.

Anonymous said...

If they are serious about improving road conditions, they should convert all motor cars lanes to bicycle lanes. The DIY electric bike can hit 50MPH. No need coe, erp, parking, delay trains, increase road charges. The issue is the conyou party is never serious and they only want to con and con.

Anonymous said...

This person stays in condo or landed so is less impacted than those staying in hdb. this is still a world of masters and slaves. Public policies always harming the poor and benefiting the rich. Voters must learn to vote carefully.

The said...

/// You will have 24 hour traffic jams from Jurong to East Coast, from Shenton Way to Woodlands. In a very short time people will get so fed up, they'll sell their cars because to park it would incur huge costs. ///

The expressways and roads will become huge car parks. Free car parks - why not?

Ⓜatilah $ingapura⚠️ said...

@The 411:

>> Free car parks - why not?

True, that would work. But I decided in my 'model' to be the biggest asshole of all -- in keeping with typical PAP behaviour. They have to maintain their standards of contempt for the people who pay their "salaries", or they might end up being 'nice guys' and we simply cannot have that.

Making the ownership of cars cheap, but the parking horrendously expensive is a very effective way to fuck the people over, yet again.

I'm always happy to contribute.

Anonymous said...

Mark my words, this will be the route that is going to be taken by the PAP Government. It all boils down to money. Money is always the solution that they can think of.

How sad!

Ⓜatilah $ingapura⚠️ said...

@821:

>> It all boils down to money

How nice if life was that simple.

"If you can solve a problem by a form of payment, then it is not a problem, it is an EXPENSE".