Owning a car in Singapore, one of the world’s most expensive countries, has always been something of a luxury. But costs have now soared to an all time high.
My GF is just getting her license as an adult and the number of times she’s been asked “So have you been driving without a license for a while?” is incredibly troubling.
Then you need to cancel the whole countryside… because there won’t be any « fantastic public transportation » outside of large cities… and living in the countryside doesn’t mean one is rich.
The other guy is wrong. For people living in the actual countryside, there’s no reason to go after their cars. We don’t need to provide top-notch public transportation networks to the tiny percent of people that live in the actual countryside. You scale what you offer to the population that exists. Some places are too remote to even get twice-a-day bus and that’s fine: the kind of people that live in the actual countryside aren’t simpletons and know what the bargain is. No one is charging them congestion taxes or coming for their cars.
But it’s also irrelevant. These legitimately rural places… hardly anyone lives there. They’re practically a rounding error. It doesn’t really matter towards how the future needs to look if we want it to exist at all. Leave them alone. Country people aren’t simpletons. They made their choices and understand the bargain. They know that they have to maintain their own roads, water systems, septic fields. Get satellite or cell internet. Generate most of their own power. They know they have to cook their own meals and that their options for shops are limited. They know that country life isn’t supposed to be just the same as city life but with more space of your own.
This idea that some huge population of people living in the country is under threat – or indeed even exists – is just a bad faith invocation to reject actual sensible town planning policy. Because the reality is, nearly everyone lives in towns and the size and population where a town is “large” enough that it makes no financial sense to build for cars above all else is a lot smaller than you think. My experience is that nearly every American who claims to live in the country is simply mistaken. They actually live in the suburbs of a small town. A small town that is likely facing the barrel of a gun in the form of the financial sustainability of its current, car-first design patterns. A small town that is going to have to contend with either forcing suburban and “exurban” drivers to finally start paying their fair share to maintain roads, sewers, utilities, police, fire, and all these things or else accept that these services are going to increasingly fall apart and go away.
Always pleasant to be called a « rounding error »… Policies at country level generally applies to those living on the countryside same as urbanites save for some funky parking taxes that select cities elected to add on top of the global incentives to reduce the overall car park. This applies obviously to my local context in europe.
Man you seem to live in a paradise if those living in the countryside have to maintain their own roads or networks… here that’s all guaranteed to be at least minimally covered.
Make up your mind, guy. Which is it? Do we need to increase transportation spending for people in the countryside or not?
You can’t have it both ways here. Either there are tons of people in the countryside meaning it makes perfect sense to fund transportation projects for them or there aren’t and it doesn’t. You can’t have it both ways.
Policies at country level generally applies to those living on the countryside same as urbanites
Sure, in Singapore they do. Because Singapore is a city state on an island. Its countryside is a different fucking country.
But everywhere else in the world, that’s total bullshit and you know it. Just utter tripe. You don’t run the same policies and projects for the countryside as you do for the cities.
I’m tired of the wealth transfer from cities to the countryside. I’m tired of the tax dollars of the 85% of people that live in cities being used to build more roads and highways for the <15% of people that live in the fake “exurban” countryside and sprawling suburbs and lack the imagination to see that even there, the car doesn’t need to be a religion.
Erh I don’t think you’re making sense… and generally your argumentation is a lot of rebuttals and no sources either.
So as an example let’s take the taxation in my home country - Belgium. We generally decided that cars are a source of pollution and that everyone should move away from the more polluting ones. To do that taxes were generally raised for cars not matching a given norm.
That you are rich or poor, from the north or south, countryside or city-side we have the exact same taxes.
If you’re poor and in the relative countryside you’re screwed ; public transport offer is getting shittier each years and soon older cars will be banned effectively or way too expensive to be affordable for the less fortunate / those that cannot already swap to compliant cars.
But I see that you’re an angry dude - you should redirect that energy into something more positive.
Are you against those taxes then, cause the premise sounds fair. Cars are dangerous and pollute a lot, whether they’re in the countryside or in the city.
They’re also expensive, especially older ones that you have to repair constantly. Seems you’ll do more good for the poor in the countryside making the public transit better than getting rid of the tax. You know, direct your energy into something positive like sustainable public transit, instead of a technology that’s slowly killing us.
Yeah it seems so… and it’s not only the barren countryside that is set aside - anything smaller than metropolis or conurbations isn’t relevant to them.
2 buses a day and 1 train every hour - one direction at a time. You miss one due to whatever reason especially cancellation by an operator or delays and suddenly you lose 2 hours.
Singapore is an island city-state. The rural part of Singapore is Malaysia, a different country – and one that is also famously pretty damn dense where the people live.
Obviously you’ve not taken it during peak periods, or you wouldn’t say this. Standing with your face near someone’s armpit (because people keep holding the bar not the handles) is a bad time, especially if the trip is > 1.5hrs.
Not to mention the inconsiderate fucks who will lean on the vertical bars which are meant for people to grab.
But I guess fuck me if I want to be able to afford a “luxury” that people in almost every other country can, right?
Edit: fuck me I guess there’s a lot of overly patriotic Singaporeans here who see Singapore with rose tinted glasses.
Fuck me, what MRT ride takes more than 1.5 hours? I’ve done Tampines to Admiralty before and it was less than that.
You need to travel more, perhaps you’ll appreciate our public transport some more. There’s a reason why you’re not getting support here. You’re just sounding like an entitlted person who wants a luxury mode of transport in a small city state that’s already pretty crowded with cars despite the stupid prices on them.
Lol I’m guessing you’ve never taken bart or the mta. Singapore’s mrt is leagues better.
On the other hand, can you even comprehend what traffic and parking would be like if Singapore had US car laws? You should come to the states and try commuting daily into downtown SF or NY and see what that’s like.
There’s a cost to cars that most people don’t pay, in terms of their pollution and negative impact on the world. I wish others had to pay it as well, but it’s not bad to make the person who will pollute a bunch pay for that ahead of time
I mean on the other end of the spectrum, you NEED car because there’s no public transport. Just cross the island and you will see why that wish is quite a monkey’s paw.
Is there sufficient public transportation options there? Is the cost the same for rural as for urban populations?
The rural population of… Where?
think of the highrise-dwelling rooftop farmers!
The mole people living in the sewers of course
If you read the article, it says twice that the public transport is fantastic
We need that in the states. Fantastic public transportation and the ability to own a car should be expensive and hard to obtain even for the rich.
The amount of horrible drivers on the road in the states is crazy and way to easy to get a car and a DL.
My GF is just getting her license as an adult and the number of times she’s been asked “So have you been driving without a license for a while?” is incredibly troubling.
Then you need to cancel the whole countryside… because there won’t be any « fantastic public transportation » outside of large cities… and living in the countryside doesn’t mean one is rich.
The other guy is wrong. For people living in the actual countryside, there’s no reason to go after their cars. We don’t need to provide top-notch public transportation networks to the tiny percent of people that live in the actual countryside. You scale what you offer to the population that exists. Some places are too remote to even get twice-a-day bus and that’s fine: the kind of people that live in the actual countryside aren’t simpletons and know what the bargain is. No one is charging them congestion taxes or coming for their cars.
But it’s also irrelevant. These legitimately rural places… hardly anyone lives there. They’re practically a rounding error. It doesn’t really matter towards how the future needs to look if we want it to exist at all. Leave them alone. Country people aren’t simpletons. They made their choices and understand the bargain. They know that they have to maintain their own roads, water systems, septic fields. Get satellite or cell internet. Generate most of their own power. They know they have to cook their own meals and that their options for shops are limited. They know that country life isn’t supposed to be just the same as city life but with more space of your own.
This idea that some huge population of people living in the country is under threat – or indeed even exists – is just a bad faith invocation to reject actual sensible town planning policy. Because the reality is, nearly everyone lives in towns and the size and population where a town is “large” enough that it makes no financial sense to build for cars above all else is a lot smaller than you think. My experience is that nearly every American who claims to live in the country is simply mistaken. They actually live in the suburbs of a small town. A small town that is likely facing the barrel of a gun in the form of the financial sustainability of its current, car-first design patterns. A small town that is going to have to contend with either forcing suburban and “exurban” drivers to finally start paying their fair share to maintain roads, sewers, utilities, police, fire, and all these things or else accept that these services are going to increasingly fall apart and go away.
Always pleasant to be called a « rounding error »… Policies at country level generally applies to those living on the countryside same as urbanites save for some funky parking taxes that select cities elected to add on top of the global incentives to reduce the overall car park. This applies obviously to my local context in europe.
Man you seem to live in a paradise if those living in the countryside have to maintain their own roads or networks… here that’s all guaranteed to be at least minimally covered.
Make up your mind, guy. Which is it? Do we need to increase transportation spending for people in the countryside or not?
You can’t have it both ways here. Either there are tons of people in the countryside meaning it makes perfect sense to fund transportation projects for them or there aren’t and it doesn’t. You can’t have it both ways.
Sure, in Singapore they do. Because Singapore is a city state on an island. Its countryside is a different fucking country.
But everywhere else in the world, that’s total bullshit and you know it. Just utter tripe. You don’t run the same policies and projects for the countryside as you do for the cities.
I’m tired of the wealth transfer from cities to the countryside. I’m tired of the tax dollars of the 85% of people that live in cities being used to build more roads and highways for the <15% of people that live in the fake “exurban” countryside and sprawling suburbs and lack the imagination to see that even there, the car doesn’t need to be a religion.
Erh I don’t think you’re making sense… and generally your argumentation is a lot of rebuttals and no sources either.
So as an example let’s take the taxation in my home country - Belgium. We generally decided that cars are a source of pollution and that everyone should move away from the more polluting ones. To do that taxes were generally raised for cars not matching a given norm.
That you are rich or poor, from the north or south, countryside or city-side we have the exact same taxes.
If you’re poor and in the relative countryside you’re screwed ; public transport offer is getting shittier each years and soon older cars will be banned effectively or way too expensive to be affordable for the less fortunate / those that cannot already swap to compliant cars.
But I see that you’re an angry dude - you should redirect that energy into something more positive.
Are you against those taxes then, cause the premise sounds fair. Cars are dangerous and pollute a lot, whether they’re in the countryside or in the city.
They’re also expensive, especially older ones that you have to repair constantly. Seems you’ll do more good for the poor in the countryside making the public transit better than getting rid of the tax. You know, direct your energy into something positive like sustainable public transit, instead of a technology that’s slowly killing us.
A lot of urbanites simply cannot get their heads around that.
Yeah it seems so… and it’s not only the barren countryside that is set aside - anything smaller than metropolis or conurbations isn’t relevant to them.
Most would get around by bike and bus. And take the train to the city.
They wouldn’t need a car if there was decent public transport.
~sincerely someone from the country side in Europe.
2 buses a day and 1 train every hour - one direction at a time. You miss one due to whatever reason especially cancellation by an operator or delays and suddenly you lose 2 hours.
How’s that acceptable ?
~ someone else from europe in a small town.
It’s Singapore man, we don’t have a real rural population any more.
Singapore is an island city-state. The rural part of Singapore is Malaysia, a different country – and one that is also famously pretty damn dense where the people live.
Their metro rules, smoothest ride I’ve ever felt on a train, including airport people movers
Obviously you’ve not taken it during peak periods, or you wouldn’t say this. Standing with your face near someone’s armpit (because people keep holding the bar not the handles) is a bad time, especially if the trip is > 1.5hrs.
Not to mention the inconsiderate fucks who will lean on the vertical bars which are meant for people to grab.
But I guess fuck me if I want to be able to afford a “luxury” that people in almost every other country can, right?
Edit: fuck me I guess there’s a lot of overly patriotic Singaporeans here who see Singapore with rose tinted glasses.
Where are you on a train in Singapore for that long?
Not OP but it’s possible if you stay in the north like CCK or Sembawang and need to travel to Changi Business Park for work.
public transport journeys get less comfy as demand increases, but car journeys just take longer
like a 30 minute journey taking 2-3 hours kind of longer
idk about you, but I’d rather endure some discomfort than spunk hours of my day down the drain
Fuck me, what MRT ride takes more than 1.5 hours? I’ve done Tampines to Admiralty before and it was less than that.
You need to travel more, perhaps you’ll appreciate our public transport some more. There’s a reason why you’re not getting support here. You’re just sounding like an entitlted person who wants a luxury mode of transport in a small city state that’s already pretty crowded with cars despite the stupid prices on them.
Name a city with decent public trans that isn’t super packed during peak periods. I’ve never seen one.
Lol I’m guessing you’ve never taken bart or the mta. Singapore’s mrt is leagues better.
On the other hand, can you even comprehend what traffic and parking would be like if Singapore had US car laws? You should come to the states and try commuting daily into downtown SF or NY and see what that’s like.
Which trip can be that long?
Pioneer -> Pasir Ris,
Or trips where you need to change lines multiple times? Not everything is point to point.
That takes an hour, and would be a weird journey to do regularly.
I do. Because I work there and need to go every day. And no, it doesn’t take an hour.
There’s a cost to cars that most people don’t pay, in terms of their pollution and negative impact on the world. I wish others had to pay it as well, but it’s not bad to make the person who will pollute a bunch pay for that ahead of time
I mean on the other end of the spectrum, you NEED car because there’s no public transport. Just cross the island and you will see why that wish is quite a monkey’s paw.
The entire country is about the size of New York City.
Singapore’s public transport system is fantastic. I lived there for 2 years and never felt like I needed a car. You only get one as a status symbol.