LAND TRANSPORT POLICY

6.31 pm

Encik Othman bin Haron Eusofe (Geylang Serai): Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, I have obtained the right to raise a matter of great public interest on the Motion for the Adjournment today. The recent steep increases in road taxes, additional registration fees (ARF) and preferential additional registration fees (PARF) have generated a great deal of unhappiness among car owners, potential car owners and the non-car owning public as well. Car owners became even more aggrieved when the increase in petrol prices followed the road tax increase. With effect from 1st January 1984, car parking charges will also be increased.

Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, I feel that the Ag Minister for Communications owes the public a full and clear explanation of his Ministry's land transport policy, particularly on private car ownership, traffic management measures to ensure a smooth flowing traffic on our roads, even during peak hours, and the upgrading of the taxi and bus services. Statements such as, "it is not the Government's intention to prevent people from owning cars" and "the problem is not car ownership, but traffic congestion", need to be more clearly explained.

Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, in land-scarce Singapore, there is indeed the obvious need to control the car population, as we need our premium land for our housing and industries. Having said that, I feel that the Ministry of Communications should work out a total or comprehensive solution to tackle this problem. Fiscal measures work on the assumption that they will be adequate enough to discourage potential car owners as well as encourage existing car owners to give up their cars by making it expensive to own and maintain private cars. However, the car owners value the mobility and freedom of movement which a car can give them and may well make sacrifices of other needs and pleasures to continue to be able to own cars. Their cars make travelling convenient for them. Besides not all areas in Singapore are easily accessible by public transport services. These factors should be carefully weighed in the formulation of the land transport policy and particularly the question of private car ownership. Sharp increases in road taxes and other fiscal measures increase the financial burden of the car owners to maintain their cars but by itself it is rather doubtful whether it will eventually help curb the car population.

Since 1972, fiscal measures were introduced from time to time to curb the increase in the private car population. Yet the number of cars brought into our roads continue to increase. Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would be grateful if the Acting Minister for Communications will give this House his considered assessment of how confident he is on the effectiveness of the recently imposed fiscal measures to check private car ownership increase. Could he also enlighten the House on other measures which he has considered but were kept in reserve. It was reported that he has a repertoire of some 35 ways to check the increase in car ownership.

In my discussions with my community leaders and constituents on this issue, they have expressed the view that the Government should first look at other ways to curb car population. They have asked why a system of quotas for purchase of new cars cannot be introduced. They pointed out that the easy availability of car loans on attractive terms for car purchases have encouraged or persuaded many to purchase cars. Why has the Government not tighten this availability of soft loans up to the full purchase price as a way to discourage purchase of cars? They have also asked why the Government has not considered restricting purchases on replacement basis only, that is, on a one-for-one basis. In this connection, is the present PARF system effective and, if not, how could it be improved so that car purchases will be mainly on the PARF basis of replacement only? These are some of the more common measures which have been raised, and I hope the Minister for Communications will explain why they are not considered feasible or appropriate.

The fiscal measures have affected both car owners as well as non-car owners. It came during a period when there are increases in the charges or rates administered by other Ministries as well. We have just heard today that hospital charges will be revised from the 1st January 1984. Could the Acting Minister for Communications enlighten the House whether he has assessed the inflationary impact of the fiscal measures introduced to control the car population? In my discussions with my constituents, some have pointed out that the increase in the maintenance cost of a car brought about by road taxes and petrol price increases will start a chain reaction leading to increases in the prices of essential goods and services. This will make life difficult for the workers, particularly the low wage earners. Why should they suffer because of the need to control the car population?

As I have mentioned above, it was said that car ownership is not the problem. Rather it is the traffic congestion on our roads. The Acting Minister has stated that the current private car population is large enough to cause severe traffic congestion on 12% of our key roads during the peak periods. Yet the Acting Minister has not come out with any traffic management proposals to solve this traffic congestion problem. The fiscal measures will not be able to do much to clear the traffic congestion quickly. It is crucial that the Ministry of Communications work out a plan to alleviate the traffic congestion which is counter productive and causes unnecessary lengthening of travelling time to and from work and fuel wastage.

Perhaps the Minister can explain how much land we can afford to set aside for road space, car parks and related facilities. What are his Ministry's plans to maximize the utilization of the existing road space? This may require more innovative measures like the Areas Licensing Scheme (ALS) and there is the speculation that this Scheme will be extended if the road congestion does not improve. The Acting Minister has hinted of more drastic measures if the fiscal measures do not work. It will be better if the traffic management measures could be considered together with the fiscal measures so as to give those who want to buy cars and those who can be persuaded to give up their cars ample notice of what is in the future for car owners and the price which they would have to pay to maintain their cars. The fiscal measures, traffic management measures and improvements in public transport systems must be taken together, not separately.

The private car population amounts to 42% of our motor vehicles and the other vehicles also contribute to the congestion. What steps are being taken to regulate their usage on the road? There is the general feeling that while the increase in car population has to be firmly controlled, the measures to do so should only be taken after improving the existing transport modes. Car owners and potential car owners can be persuaded to give up their cars if they see the taxi and bus services improving. There is already a new transportation mode which is now being built, i.e. the MRT, which will be in operation (at least the first phase) in 1988.

Questions have been asked regarding what measures have been taken to upgrade the existing taxi and bus services. For taxis, the usual complaint is that it is difficult to obtain them during the peak hours. At present 38% of taxis are equipped with radio phones. More of our taxis should have radio phones. It will help the taxi service to be run more efficiently and it will cut down aimless plying and bring taxis directly and quickly to the commuters. What the public wants is a taxi service which is reliable, comfortable and available at a reasonable price. At the same time, ta)%i drivers must be given incentives to go on the road. The Ministry of Communications has set up a Taxi Task Force to look into the taxi service. It should work towards upgrading the service to make it more reliable, more comfortable and easily available, especially during peak hours, at a reasonable price.

Our bus service, besides being comprehensive in its route coverage, must be able to meet the high expectation of a comfortable ride at reasonable prices. Would the Minister enlighten the House on measures which are in hand to improve the bus service? Is there sufficient competition for the Singapore Bus Service to push it to provide a better service? It may be necessary to give the buses more road space, like the introduction of dual bus lanes, but this will also contribute to the traffic congestion. There must be a judicious balance of road space usage among public transport vehicles, private vehicles and commercial vehicles. Unless the bus service is modernized to provide fast and comfortable service at reasonable prices, it will be difficult to encourage those who are presently using their cars to take buses instead, because of the convenience of driving their cars.

In 1988, the MRT will come on stream and it is geared to cater for Singapore's long term transportation needs. What will be the position of private car ownership when the MRT is operational? Will more stringent measures to control private car ownership be introduced then? Will traffic management measures, like the extension of the ALS, be imposed to curb car usage on our roads also? Will the questiOn of ownership of private cars then be left as an individual's choice based on his ability to pay? Could the Minister paint the scenario on the future of private car ownership when the MRT is fully operational?

Sir, I would like to urge the Acting Minister for Communications to prepare a comprehensive report on the land transport policy for public debate. Let the report be available for public discussions in the same way as the Medisave Scheme. I feel that in this way we can get the public to examine thoroughly the implication of private car ownership on our limited area of land. The question is whether we should set aside so much of our premium land for roads, car parks and related facilities. We have other critical uses for our limited land - housing, industries, catchment areas, to name a few. As our economy develops and incomes increase, our people will look forward to purchase their own cars. They must clearly understand why the car population must be controlled. Fiscal measures merely frustrate them but the message is not clearly conveyed to them.

To conclude, there must be a total and comprehensive solution to curb the car population. Ad hoc measures, fiscal or otherwise, will not be sufficient enough to lead to a slowing down of car population growth.

The Acting Minister for Communications (Dr Yeo Ning Hong): Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would like to thank the Member for Geylang Serai for his very thorough analysis of the problems confronted by us in Singapore regarding land transportation. He has raised a total of about 25 points and in the 10 minutes allotted to me I shall attempt to reply to him, not on a point-by-point basis, because I do not think it will be possible. But I hope, in the 10 minutes available, to outline the principles that govern the policies on land transportation and traffic management.

Sir, the Member is right in putting his finger on the nub of the problem. The so-called car problem in Singapore is not really a car problem at all. It is really a problem of shortage of land. In Singapore, we all know that we have a very limited amount of land, some 620 sq km. On this limited amount of land we must provide homes for our people, factories and offices to generate jobs, open space and greenery for recreational purposes, army camps, naval and air bases, training areas for security and defence, catchment areas and reservoirs for collection and storage of water and so on. To this very long list of competitive economic uses of land must be added roads and car parks for transportation.

In Singapore, we have been very fortunate that over the last two and a half decades of good government, we have rapid increases in disposable incomes for all Singaporeans. Our Government policy is to make easily available subsidized HDB flats to our citizens and this has added and reinforced what we have already noticed, which is, the rising expectations of our people as well as the rapid increase of disposable incomes. As a result of these factors, large numbers of people are now able to afford cars. Just over the last five years alone, there has been an increase of 42%.

While the Government can and has undertaken to make easily available homes for everybody, it cannot undertake to make easily available cars for everybody. This is because the car is a very land-intensive mode of transportation. A car requires approximately 150 square metres of roads to service it. That is the amount of land required for a terrace house. Just for comparison, at peak hours, the bus with a capacity of up to 100 passengers, is about 50 to 70 times more efficient in the utilization of roads than the average car with an occupancy of one or two. Imagine instead of having one bus, we have 50 to 70 cars on the road carrying approximately the same number of people, with the same passenger capacity.

Sir, Singapore has reached a stage of development where rapid increases in cars are no longer possible. Our roads cannot accommodate the increases. As a result, serious traffic congestion occurs regularly on our roads, especially during the peak hours. Many Singaporeans realize it as they encounter traffic jams every day. What many Singaporeans do not realize is that we have twice as many vehicles per square kilometre of land as Hong Kong and four times as many vehicles per square kilometre as Japan. And both Japan and Hong Kong are considered landscarce countries. Furthermore, we have about one-third more roads per square kilometre of land in Singapore compared to Japan and about four times as many kilometres of roads compared to Hong Kong.

Sir, our projections over the next five years indicate that our increase in roads will be approximately 1% per year. So just a matter of simple arithmetic, any increase in the number of vehicles over and above that percentage increase can only add to the already severe congestion we are currently experiencing.

Over the past two months, after the announcement of the increases in road tax, I have met hundreds of Singaporeans at every level - from the hawkers all the way to the managing directors - and I have found Singaporeans to be practical and realistic in their understanding and appraisal of the problem. This speaks well for us in Singapore. It speaks well for the intelligence and the sense of reality of the typical Singaporean. Except for a handful of people with a vested interest in the motor-car industry and who are totally unconcerned about the national consequences of severe traffic congestion, Singaporeans, by and large, do not dispute the need to slow down the increase of cars. Anybody on a bus or in a car, caught in a traffic jam which occurs daily, knows that the situation cannot be allowed to deteriorate. Where there has been a difference of opinion, they have centred round how this growth rate can be reduced.

My Ministry welcomes suggestions from all quarters. Various suggestions have been made by our Members of Parliament as well as members of the public. Many of the suggestions are useful. They have been considered by our Ministry and will be implemented in due course at the appropriate time. Other suggestions, however, are not practical because they do not take full account of the total problem. Still, other suggestions are biased, extremely so, particularly towards a certain sector of the population, namely, the existing car owners.

My Ministry has worked out detailed explanations on the various suggestions made. In the coming weeks, they will be made public to give Singaporeans a better understanding of the pros and cons, the advantages and disadvantages of each of the many suggestions made.

Mr Deputy Speaker: Dr Yeo, you have exactly five minutes to wind up.

Dr Yeo Ning Hong: Thank you, Sir, My Ministry has always taken a comprehensive approach in working out the problems of land transportation, liaising with the other relevant ministries and taking full account of the implications of policies made. Such comprehensive studies of the problems will continue. However, I must stress that having a comprehensive plan does not mean that all the measures must be implemented together at one and the same time, on a once-and-for-all basis.

The recent measures on ARF, PARF, road tax, parking fees, petrol tax as well as the streamlining of the bus routes, the increases in the number of taxis, the widening of our roads and the increased computerization of our traffic junctions, all these plus many others reflect the comprehensive approach that we are taking towards traffic management. Other measures will be implemented at the appropriate time.

It should be stressed that land transportation is a constantly evolving problem. It is not a static problem. There are therefore no solutions or combinations of solutions that will give it a permanent effect. Therefore, the management of the problem must be dynamic. It must adapt and respond to the changing circumstances and demands.

Sir, I wish to assure the House that my Ministry is carefully studying the problem of land transportation in Singapore not just for the near future but for the longer term future. We will continue to make improvements in public transportation, to make it as cheap, as convenient and as comfortable as possible for users of public transport, be it the bus or the MRT. On the other hand, the cost of ownership and usage of cars must eventually take into account the social and economic costs of such land-intensive mode of transportation, Singaporeans are free to choose and will always be free to choose their preferred mode of transportation. If they prefer to use the bus, they would save themselves a lot of money which they can spend on themselves, on their children, on their home or even on their holidays. If they choose to own a car, then they must be prepared to pay the economic cost of the extra convenience and comfort that comes with owning a car.

The Member for Geylang Serai raised the possibility of the use of the Area Licensing Scheme. Sir, this scheme has been found to be effective after implementation, and it is indeed the intention of my Ministry to extend the ALS both in time and boundary as and when the need for such extension arises.

The Member asked if tax measures to-date have been effective. Our records over the last decade indicate that together with other measures implemented progressively in a comprehensive manner, the increases in road tax and ARF have indeed been very effective. Following the tax increases in 1975 the number of cars com- ing on to the roads in 1976 and 1977 showed a decrease of 5.6% and 0.4% respectively. The recent increases have also reduced the rate of increase by about 30% and this has been achieved in spite of the strenuous efforts by car dealers to get rid of their old and existing stock during this pre-festive season.

The Question having been proposed at thirty-one minutes past Six o'clock pm and the Debate having continued for half an hour, Mr Deputy Speaker adjourned the House without Question put, pursuant to the Standing Order.

Adjourned accordingly at One minute past Seven o'clock pm to a date to be fixed.