when people buy cars, they say:
COE - to regulate/ limit the number of cars on the roads to prevent congestion
road tax - a levy imposed as form of amenity/maintenance for roads
when ERP was initially introduced, it was to replace the CBD zone fee collection. later, the ERP gantries spread outside the zones, reason cited to limit traffic flowing into CBD. later, ERP gantries introduced on major roads leading towards CBD, reason cited to limit traffic. later ERP gantries planted along highways, reason cited to limit rush hour traffic.
its a bloody pile of bull crap. slightly less than half of the dwellers on this island work in the city, and some r condensed in the CBD. they can put 100 ERP gantries on the same stretch of roads, the people die die have to crawl thru the gantries to get to work.
been nearly 12yrs since ERP was implemented, we don't see any improvement on the congestion issues.
clearly, the scholars have shit for brains. if they truly had brains, they would diversify & spread the economic network across the island, so to facilitate & minimize traffic.
when people live within 5-20km proximity to their work place, there'd be significant reduction of cars on the roads. the prefered mode of transport automatically shifts towards public transports. there wont be need to constantly widen roads, more land spaces to grow trees that wont fall when the storms come. create a greener environment, bringing the avg temperature down a notch or 2.