Increase ERP Rates, Please

Edric thinks that motorists should be charged more under Electronic Road Pricing. Is he nuts?

- Edric Pan

CAN we please increase our ERP rates? They’re too low. Wait, hear me out.

The long-touted rationale for car prices in Singapore being among the world’s highest, is that road space here is in such short supply that allowing everyone to buy cars would result in hopeless gridlock.

Except the rationale overlooks the fact that it’s vehicle usage, not ownership, which causes congestion. After all, who contributes more to traffic jams – the office-bound chap who only drives to work in the morning and back in the evening, or the Grab driver who spends all day plying the roads (and occasionally stopping randomly mid-junction to let his phone’s sat-nav app catch up)?