I am nuts

Elections over, PAP starts

I can't believe the relentless hikes just keep coming and coming. First, its the electricity bill, then taxi, then buses & mrt(though its not confirmed yet offically but I confirm it for you here lah) and now even ERP also going up yet again. Sickening. Its really Paying And Paying.

What is more sickening of this raise, is that once again, residents living in the north, those that lan lan have to use CTE only as this is the only expressway to town from our world class infrastructure, those that is paying the highest rate of gantry charges, those that have to pay BOTH WAYS to and fro work, now have to pay even more.

Personally, I had been 'lucky' so far. Despite living and driving in the north for quite a few years now, I had never had to pay much ERP mainly because I don't work normal office hours. I have a friend that is not so lucky though, he lives in amk and due to his job nature, have to drive. His office is in Chinatown area, and even discounting the gantry fee into Chinatown itself, pure travelling along sets him back an average of $4-5 daily. (2x gantry on the way to work, 1x back). Sucks big time.

Why CTE always kena? Why all the people living in the north always being penalised? Reason is that this is where the majority of the people live. Though I don't have the figures on hand, I assume that mature estates such as AMK and Toa Payoh alone has a whole lot more residents than any other estates, and therefore more cars too. But its not the fault of these people that some 30-40 years ago, some guys come along and tell them to abandon their own 'unsanitary and unsafe' homes and move into these clean, cheap and safe housings. They were all told to gather there, to live there, and now that there is too many, just penalise them lor.

But is this constant raising of ERP prices really going to change things? I honestly do not think so. People that can avoid driving would have already done so, giving the already exhorbinate rates, is that $0.50 increase going to really going to make a driver say "Ok, thats it, I'm not paying that extra $0.50, I'm going to stop driving to work!" I don't think so. Most would simply shake their heads, sigh, and resigned themselves to their fate. Thats what I would do too.

So why the raise in ERP? Or the raise in everything in fact? Did the last election campaign used up too much resources? Or is it simply that it is believed that people would forget all the bad things that another few years down the road?

posted by Nutcracker @ 7:48 pm