Transport Minister Jeffrey Siow says car population can't grow much more, but Singaporeans have a lot to say

SINGAPORE: In Parliament last week, Jeffrey Siow said that the number of cars in Singapore cannot grow much further since, at present, over 12% of the city-state’s land area is already occupied by passenger cars and roads.

Mr Siow, Singapore’s Minister for Transport and Second Minister for Finance, said this in the context of a proposed Certificate of Entitlement (COE) scheme that would include rebates and surcharges on vehicles.

The minister said on Nov 3 that the majority of respondents support the proposal on the changes to the Certificate of Entitlement (COE) categorisation for cars.

The Land Transport Authority had sought views from the public from Oct 8 to Nov 2 on whether vehicles in Categories A and B should be merged into a single passenger car category, with a fee-and-rebate (“feebate”) system based on the value of the car, and if so, how this feebate scheme should be designed. 

Mr Siow answered questions in Parliament, including one from MP for Marine Parade-Braddell Heights Tin Pei Ling, whose question involved support for large families that need a vehicle.

And while the minister said that the government is studying a transport grant option, Mothership also quoted him as saying that there are 660,000 passenger vehicles at present, and adding, "The reality is that we cannot even grow the car population much further."

On Reddit, Singaporeans responded to Mr Siow’s statement with concerns and questions of their own.

“No more cars + 10M pop + Ageing & slow MRT. LIFES GOING TO BE FUN,” one wrote.

“See, that’s the thing. I think if MRT were faultless and the best in the world, the pressure to get cars also decreases,” another agreed.

“Granted, but is your public transport infrastructure capacity sufficient? Would be interesting if any minister takes public transport to/fro work (during peak hour),” a commenter chimed in.

“MRT has gotten noticeably worse, unfortunately. It’s slower, more crowded, and less frequent,” a Reddit user fretted.

“30 minutes by driving. 90 minutes by public transport. 8 lanes for cars and 2 tracks for public transport. No express train, no cross-island express bus. Take the ageing EWL. People want cars to save time, but cars are space-inefficient, hence COE. 

So when ‘express’ transport gets limited to the hands of those who can afford it, isn't it unsurprising that Singaporeans are frustrated?” another added.

“The reality is that we cannot grow the population in Singapore much further,” writing that they "fixed it” for Mr Siow.

A foreigner, however, wrote, “I can tell you Singapore MRT is one of the best in the world, without any doubt.”

However, others had rebuttals to this, including one who pointed out, “Ok, but cars from wherever you are cost like minimally 1/3rd the price of the same car here, plus you can use it indefinitely until it dies.”

“One of the best isn’t good enough. When it’s one of the few publicly affordable options available. It needs to be the best in the world,” another added. /TISG

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