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.