1. Every citizen & foreigner living here, rich or poor, must acknowledge WHY the need to control the car population & its growth - simply because Singapore is a small land scarce nation. Each tract of road built will deprive at least 100 families of homes. There is only so much land we have. Thus COE was born, as a means to achieve such - only for those who need the car & are willing to pay a premium for it, for any available qouta when a car is de-registered or new roads opened up.
2. However, with the COE bidding system, it had became a hot social issue instead, of the rich being the only ones driving on the road, & some using it only for groceries or trips a spa or to the hair-dresser, causing despair to many mid level aspiring executives & families unable to own a new car for their needs. They can still buy 2nd hand cars, mostly whom are 3 yrs old, with price in tandem with the COE rise & worse-in need of costly repairs, or be scalped by dealers to buy 'lemons'.
3. The cheaper Weekend red license plate car was a way to address & resolve the issue, to help families, but it is senseless as the costs are still high & worse, unable to use it daily but only for emergencies, & had to use cumbersome stickers & coupons - spending TENS of thousand precious dollars for a 'flower vase'. For sure, there have to be better use of hard earned funds...
4. Perhaps, it is time to reconsider the COE bidding system, & use a COE LOTTERY system instead, to ensure each & everyone is given a CHANCE to own a car in our country & stem the anguish faced by many whom need the car. This is how it works, only 3 conditions:-
A) New cars will be sold at Open Market Value & all citizens & foreigners alike, can participate & register their desire to own a car thru a LOTTERY system, with a $20 non-refundable fee to prevent frivolous registration.
B) Once a name had been picked from the participants, the COE is non-transferable for the car's life span 10yrs ( to prevent 99-1 issues), & will allow only SINGLE PARTY insurance cover ( which means no other person is allowed to drive the vehicle). He/She will have 6 months to register for a car, failing which, the COE is returned back to the authorities to be use for others.
C)After registering the car, should he/she have issues on owning the car such as financial or vehicle problems, he/she can only sell it back to LTA 10% below prevailing rates, whom will form an agency, to auction off the car. The 10% discount/penalty is for LTA to fund the administration of such an agency, & any profits from the auction will be returned to the National Treasury.
5) So as not to distress company CEOs whom are contributing to our country & creating jobs for us, most whom most certainly need cars in the conduct of their business, a different category of COE can be offered to them & only them, & not for their entire family or relatives.
6)For those whom had been unsuccessful in their application for lottery COE registration, they can always participate in the next one, & hopefully, they succeed should they really need the car. In the meantime, there are still low cost & seamless EFFICIENT PUBLIC TRANSPORT in Singapore, often held to demands by our elected govt whom are responsible to the electorate, to be productive & efficient even when worldwide inflation had shot to the moon, to serve the rest of citizens whom can do without a car & whom support our land scarce nation's policies.
7)As for private transportation companies such as taxi, car-hiring, car sharing, etc, they must not be allowed to participate in public CEO lottery system, because based upon their huge needs for cars & huge investments poured in, they will only cloud the demand & overwhelm the lottery system, depriving others of their needs.
Worse, should they win the bids, they have NO moral compulsion towards those whom rent their transport, as they are NOT charitable organizations, but to make profits for their investors. Thus, they will only raise their prices without batting an eyelid & may even progress to a point whereby citizens will wonder - is it not better to own one's personal transport than to support those firms, which are only sinking holes for their hard-earned money.
Singapore welcomes investments & innovations. Such companies do serve a purpose, but for sure, they are not charity organizations. To meet their needs, they will have to turn to the 2nd hand car market, as ultimately, rentals of such vehicle do not care about 'virgin' cars anymore. Furthermore, based upon their huge financial resources, they will have the ability to service the vehicles regularly based upon economies of scale.
These ideas are mere musing & coffee-shop talk from the insignificant nobody simpleton me. I am sure our elected legislatives will have better solutions. All the best to all..
