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THE latest Government proposal reported on Monday, 'LTA to consider returning cash for scrapped cars', which is to offer a cash incentive to get people to switch to public transport - does not address the root cause of Singapore's traffic problem.
There are too many cars on the roads and the only effective way is to reduce the number of cars by reducing COEs to produce a negative growth in the vehicle population.
I agree that a holistic approach must be taken and, this being so, the recent proposal with regard to improving public transport is essential.
However, if the vehicle population is reduced by 10 to 15 per cent, it would make traffic more free flowing and make the use of public transport more efficient.
One has only to go to major shopping centres during the day to see queues of empty taxis waiting for passengers, which is a wasted resource.
Singapore has a superb road system but it is not being used efficiently because too many vehicles have been allowed on the road. Given the size of Singapore, this leads to congestion caused by a series of choke points.
All peripheral actions such as the cash incentives and raising ERP will not have an impact as the root cause of Singapore's congestion problems remains.
J C Myles
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