BY YEAR-END, the top of gantries will flash the Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) charges that motorists have to pay when driving on a road with heavy traffic.

Transport Minister Raymond Lim hopes that showing prominently how much they have to pay will help motorists to make a "considered decision". Currently, the information is given on signs at the side of the road ahead of some ERP gantries.
Sometimes, these are too small to read, he conceded.

ERP charges were a hot topic during the debate on the Transport Ministry's budget yesterday.

The topic was raised by at least nine MPs, two of whom argued against the effectiveness of the ERP as a tool for easing congestion. They were Mr Seah Kian Peng (Marine Parade GRC) and Mr Hri Kumar (Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC).

Their point: Why induce people to buy cars, make it very expensive to drive and then hope they use their cars only occasionally?

Added Mr Seah: "We should not give false hopes to car owners, especially the new and aspiring motorists."

Mr Lim acknowledged the unpopularity of ERP charges but maintained that they were still effective in controlling congestion.

Pointing to the stretch of the Central Expressway from Bukit Timah to the Pan-Island Expressway, he said cars were travelling on it at a low average speed of 34 kmh last October.

When a gantry was introduced a month later, the average speed rose to 50 kmh. The reason: 10 per cent of the 7,700 vehicles that were using it stopped doing so.

"For congested roads, the idea of ERP is to try to discourage people at the margin - a 5 to 10 per cent shift is enough to relieve pressure on that particularly heavily used road," he said.

But the minister stressed that the ERP is just one in a suite of measures needed to reduce congestion. Others include building roads, improving public transport and controlling vehicle growth.

"No single measure would solve congestion.

"Even if we were to cut the vehicle population growth rate to zero, you will still need the recently announced ERP changes to deal with existing congestion of the 850,000 vehicles," he said.

Earlier, Mr Kumar had argued that raising the ERP charges continually was ineffective in changing drivers' habits.

"We have had over 30 ERP rate adjustments in the last two years. That only proves how ineffective they have been.

"So why do we think that Singaporeans will significantly change their driving habits by raising ERP rates by $1 or even $2 or even $3?" he asked.

Use the Certificate of Entitlement (COE) scheme as a way to let the market decide how much people are willing to pay to own a car, he suggested.

Replying, Mr Lim said it was important to recall what had happened in the past. In 1994, for example, the COE premium was over $100,000 and there was "great public unhappiness".

"Many Singaporeans felt that we (Government) should also rely on usage measures... They said 'let's have a balance' and the Government did just that and introduced ERP in 1998."

Mr Seah wants the vehicle population growth rate to be reduced drastically. It is 3 per cent now. From May next year, it will be reduced to 1.5 per cent and held at that level for three years. But Mr Seah wants it cut to 1 per cent.

Mr Lim said his ministry would review the growth rate after the three-year period.

This article was first published in The Straits Times on Mar 7, 2008.