By Christopher Tan, Senior Correspondent

RISING fuel prices helped put the brakes on driving in Singapore last year, new Government data suggests.

The average car owner covered 20,840km last year, about 1 per cent less than in 2006, said the Land Transport Authority (LTA). Based on Singapore's car population of about 500,000, that works out to a cumulative cutback of 116.5 million km.

This came as pump prices jumped almost 50 cents a litre - or roughly one third - between January and December last year.

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