Transportation Policy in Singapore

The island state of Singapore has a rather appealing transportation policy:

(1) Taxes – gasoline costs about twice as much as in the United States (this is fairly typical outside the United States), and cars themselves cost 2-3 times as much. SUVs are rare.

(2) Every car in Singapore is fitted with an automatic card reader. This provides the convenience of automatically charging in every single parking lot in Singapore, but is also used for congestion charging – driving into certain areas at certain hours incurs an automatic fee.

(3) People who purchase cars can receive a considerable discount (close to 20 percent, I think) for getting red license plates. These plates allow the person to drive on weekends and after 6pm on weekdays. To drive at any other time, the person makes an automatic on-line payment.

(4) The government has pledged to expand the metro system so that every Singaporean will live less than 10 minutes walking distance from a metro station.

This is just an example of what can be done when thinking about a sensible transportation policy – as well as reducing greenhouse gas emissions, these types of policies can facilitate a greater sense of community. Of course, Singapore’s government is fairly authoritarian, which possibly also shows the limits of democracy – and yes, recent events in the United States have some influence over this conclusion.