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Taxi evening surcharge in the city should go

AsiaOne News:

INSTEAD of introducing new Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) charges along the Singapore River, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) should look at abolishing the evening taxi surcharge in the city.

Since the implementation of the evening city surcharge, congestion in the city has worsened because many taxis enter the city to pick up passengers who leave their offices in the evening.

Once they are in the city, many taxis would cruise around empty or form long queues at taxi stands, especially in the Raffles Place and Shenton Way areas.

They hope to pick up a passenger in the city so that they can earn the $3 evening surcharge.

Some even resort to waiting illegally by the side of the roads.

The congestion in the city is also made worse by motorists who stop their cars indiscriminately along narrow lanes to wait for their passengers.

- The taxi surcharge may be very attractive for taxis to stay inside the CBD area and ERP charges are passed on to the passenger. However, it will not solve the real problem by removing the taxi evening surcharge.

The real problem is too much new COE given versus numbers of car scrapped. There are simply too much cars on the road and this should be a huge concern to LTA, I saw plenty of cars parked in HDB areas during weekdays!! Imagine if there is no control over the total number of cars approved the COE…all the carparks will be filled and illegal parking at narrow lanes will become very common.

Consumer have a lose lose situation as the LTA plans to CHARGE MORE for road use…higher charges for public transport, higher ERP charges and higher fines for illegal parking..hehe.

The worst is yet to come…when they review roads that have no ERP got jams because of diverted traffic from ERP routes…they will set up ERP there as well!! This is going to affect ALL ROADS! NO roads will be spared! Maybe 3 ERP per road!! Maybe more!!

Hmmmm I read about Malaysian pushing boulders away from blocked road to force them to go to the highway that have toll charges…I wondered if Singaporean might one day push these pesky ERP down…hmmm Maybe not!

Hey, government!! Listen up…you have chance to make it fair and profitable to stay in Singapore…but you now had to squander it away! If you raise public transport cost…it will be hell for the poor. Stick to your job and give us a proper public transport!

MRT going North East lines have good signage of next station names at all cabins but not for the older routes…not convinient for those caught in the blind spots during peak hours…In Japan, there are female cabins that prevent guys from taking advantage during peak hours. The seat are way to small for people with wide shoulders.

If you want to make it more extreme, set up a bicycle lane for people who want to cycle to work. It will be similar to bus lanes and hopefully it can be implemented without much disruption to the cars.

Motorised bicycle should be legalized with lowering the speed to non-threatening level and more bicycle parking points!! Japanese have high tech bicycle parking centre in the city area…if I am not wrong. All MRT points should build larger parking centre for bicycle or even have bicycle facilities there so that people can park and ride MRT. (Good for their business too)

That’s all I want to rant for now.

See Also
Policies on ERP and COEs seem contradictory

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Categories: Others
30 June 2008 at 12:12 - Comments
  • Sherry
    Hi Simon, I have a concern regarding female passengers onboard crowded MRT especially in the morning and peak hours. How do I tell if people touch you or put their body against yours, stick their body to yours etc.. is by accident or they are trying to take advantage of the crowded train to molest us. I think LTA has to come out with a plan to resolve this or is unfair to female passengers.
  • Sherry
    Hi Simon, I have a concern regarding female passengers onboard crowded MRT especially in the morning and peak hours. How do I tell if people touch you or put their body against yours, stick their body to yours etc.. is by accident or they are trying to take advantage of the crowded train to molest us. I think LTA has to come out with a plan to resolve this or is unfair to female passengers.
  • Simon Tay
    Firstly, thanks for reading my blog! :)

    Ok, for the complains about molesters is to first be brave to stare at the molester in the eye…like a killer. Then if it does not stop it, scream and shout molest.

    The current idea is to bring a sling bag that can cover vital bottom and use hand to cover chest area.

    LTA or MRT in charge should be getting feedback letters in the dozen to make a cabin specially for females only….put this out in the newspaper if you want more support.

    Japan had this for sometime because of rampant molest case on trains and buses.
  • Simon Tay
    Firstly, thanks for reading my blog! :) Ok, for the complains about molesters is to first be brave to stare at the molester in the eye…like a killer. Then if it does not stop it, scream and shout molest.The current idea is to bring a sling bag that can cover vital bottom and use hand to cover chest area. LTA or MRT in charge should be getting feedback letters in the dozen to make a cabin specially for females only….put this out in the newspaper if you want more support.Japan had this for sometime because of rampant molest case on trains and buses.