I had a dream. I had become the new Minister for Transport.
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Dear citizens, I have great news to announce. As a small child, when I see that an average citizen has to pay up to $100,000 to buy an average Japanese car, I see something is not right. For a wealthy country like ours whose citizens pay $100 to watch World Cup at home, we deserve better. Therefore, I hereby propose to abolish the car tax system as well as the certificate of entitlement (better known as COE) that unfairly inflates the price of a car. I am also proposing to ban the import of the cheap cars. To retain the existing Cat A (car engine below 1,600cc) and Cat B (car engine above) COE concept, we shall have two types of cars on the road – Porsche 911 for the average citizens and Ferrari for the elite citizens. Trust me, I have seen the numbers. It works out more or less the same as what our citizens are paying today.
Some of you may challenge that without a quota or COE biding system – like we have today – it is hard to control the number of cars in our country. Let’s look at it this way. Even with such a COE biding system, for reasons beyond me, we still have problem in controlling the number of cars in our country. So what gives?
Some of you may express concern that our government will miss out a lot of revenue from the inflated car price. Oh please. We make more with Electric Road Pricing (ERP) than you can imagine. There are also some jokers who get miserably lost in around Singapore River during the ERP hours and get charged extra. Jokers like me.
Look at it the bright side. It is good for our image. Imagine rows and rows of nothing but Porsche 911 and Ferrari (OK, I may consider bringing in Porsche Cayenne for those who insist on a large family car). In the spirit of promoting Formula One, I would also propose to disable all the speed cameras when we are hosting the event.
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8 replies on “Summer Blog Episode 8 – I Am Your New Minister For Transport”
I will vote you as transport minister!!!!
G – On a more serious note, I would love to dedicate some time of my life to study the transportation problems in Singapore. The first thing I would do is to conduct a study on why there are so many accidents or incidents on our roads when to be frank, our roads are really easy to drive, comparing to say the roads in European countries.
I truly think it is our attitude.
This is prevelant to all aspects of our social life.
People refuse to signal, refuse to give way on the roads.
On the bus, people refuse to give up their seat for an pregnant lady or an elderly.
When you get out of the train, nobody allows you to get out first.
I bump into people daily as they push past me as I hop off the train.
Imagine the same bahaviour on the roads 🙁
G – That too. But if it is so, the design of our road system should take take into consideration. Draw more double or single white lines on the road.
For example in HK, I observe that there are tons of roads with double white lines. That forces drivers to select the lanes in advance (not saying that HK drivers have the same attitude as Singaporean drivers).
Fantastic ideas, I love it! Ok, you have my support, even though I don’t drive ;P
Heyzanne – Imagine, you would be likely to be driven in a Porsche 911 or a Ferrari!
YUMMY!! Now, I need a new wardrobe to go with the new image!! Would you, the new Minister for Transport be giving out some nice cash rebates too?? Lol ;D
Heyzanie – Sure thing! Vote me as your Minister of Tourism and I will hand out cash rebates to improve the overall image of our residents. Of course I will need to fine those who dress badly. I mean, money or budget has to come from somewhere right? Hehehe.