MOTORISTS got two pieces of good news yesterday.

One was that five of the six Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) gantries slated to be set up in November will not be built. The other is that some ERP charges in the Shenton Way-Chinatown area will be reduced by up to $1.

The first move, hinted at by Transport Minister Raymond Lim this month, could be made because traffic conditions in four of the five roads to be spared ERP charges have improved in the last few months, said the Land Transport Authority (LTA).

The roads are Commonwealth Avenue, Jalan Bukit Merah, Alexandra Road and the westbound Ayer Rayah Expressway.

The LTA has also observed that traffic flow along the fifth road, Serangoon Road, is 'less than optimal'. It defines 'optimal' flow as having 85 per cent of vehicles moving along at 20kmh or more.

But rather than put up the ERP gantry, the LTA said it would 'look into improving the physical infrastructure there' to ease the congestion, by working with other government agencies like the Urban Redevelopment Authority on this.

This is the first time the Government has pulled back on ERP plans that it has announced.

Only one more gantry will be added in November, bringing the total number to 66: It will go up along the westbound Pan-Island Expressway near Eunos, as announced earlier this year.

The LTA has judged traffic conditions there to be 'below the optimal speed threshold' during the morning peak hours.

The ERP charge and the timings during which it will be levied will be confirmed later.

As for the reduction in ERP charges in the Shenton Way-Chinatown stretch, the 'discount' comes as a result of the gantries there having done their job to regulate traffic flow.

They went up in July to reduce the number of vehicles passing through the city en route to destinations elsewhere, and to ease congestion in the area between 6pm and 8pm.

Levying the ERP charge has ensured that vehicles which enter the area do so because they have destinations there.

'Traffic monitoring over the last three months has shown that traffic conditions have improved significantly in the Shenton Way-Chinatown cordon,' said LTA chief executive Yam Ah Mee.

Chinatown retailers complained last month that they had suffered a 15 to 50 per cent drop in earnings because people were staying away.

Responding to the lowered rates, the Chinatown Business Association's general manager Victor Ong said: 'To business, it is definitely good news. We hope this will translate to more movement in the area, and business done.'

mariaa@sph.com.sg