The first five of the 16 new Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) gantries for the year will start operating on Monday, and Toa Payoh will become the first heartland area to have an ERP gantry at its doorstep-.sg.news.yahoo.com/cna
There has been some discussion about the issue regarding opening of the 16 new ERP gantries since the last year. One of the most discussed topic was the opening of the gantry at Toa Payoh. Some stores in Toa Payoh town expect a negative impact on their businesses, “Nowadays people don’t want to go out. Remember, if you go out, you must pay. Go there, pay. Go here, also pay. So if people don’t have a reason to go out, they won’t. And that makes it tough on business,”, “It’s definitely going to affect the morning crowd… as they may not have time to come after work,”, while some had different opinions, “I open at 11, so (it) does not affect me so much,” said a small business owner .”Usually the crowds come here at lunch hour,” said another.(quoted from sg.news.yahoo.com/cna/)
These talks actually centralise around a main question concerning the setting up of the gantries: Is the new ERP gantries really necessary?
The main purpose of the ERP gantries is to ease the heavy traffic congestion at peak hours at certain location where vehicles always experience slow traffic (at least that was the reason LTA gave), by taxing people and discouraging ownership of personal vehicles. We are not sure of, or do not care much whether it is used for that purpose, but we can recognise a certain degree of success of the gantries in doing so. Of course, in every action, there is a both negative and positive impact; in this case the negative one is the undesired effect on the business in Toa Payoh town. There may also be other problems, such as people arriving late at their workplace late to escape the gantry fee, reducing their productivity.
Another issue brought up is the amount of tax to be paid. Some complained that the tax is constantly rising, while some affluent ones suggested bringing up the tax to a few hundred dollars to further discourage the ownership of cars.
Shouldn’t the government be intervening? Is this the best solution to easing the congestion?
Some people may ask these questions, but it is up to the government whether to answer them or to ignore them.
Khim Yang
