Published in ST Online Forum on 18 January 2012
To tackle the congestion on our roads, the Ministry of Transport is developing a new expressway and adding more lanes, flyovers and underpasses to existing roads.
Infrastructure development takes years to be completed and, in the meantime, the construction work aggravates the current situation.
There is another option to deal with this situation - encourage car pooling, car sharing and taxi sharing. If two people share a taxi or pool in a car, there will be less need for some many vehicles on our road.
When Mr. Mah Bow Tan was the minister in charge of transport, he actively promoted these concepts. At that time, the ministry clarified that car owners were allowed to collect a payment for car pooling as defrayal of expenses, and the insurance cover would not be compromised. His ministry also actively promoted taxi sharing. I am not sure if the current minister holds these views.
With the widespread use of smart phones with GPS location services, it is now possible to use technology to match people who are interested to share a taxi or to car pool.
It will be useful for the minister to re-confirm his stand on these issues, so that car pooling and taxi sharing can be actively promoted as another option to solve our problem of traffic congestion.
Tan Kin Lian
Infrastructure development takes years to be completed and, in the meantime, the construction work aggravates the current situation.
There is another option to deal with this situation - encourage car pooling, car sharing and taxi sharing. If two people share a taxi or pool in a car, there will be less need for some many vehicles on our road.
When Mr. Mah Bow Tan was the minister in charge of transport, he actively promoted these concepts. At that time, the ministry clarified that car owners were allowed to collect a payment for car pooling as defrayal of expenses, and the insurance cover would not be compromised. His ministry also actively promoted taxi sharing. I am not sure if the current minister holds these views.
With the widespread use of smart phones with GPS location services, it is now possible to use technology to match people who are interested to share a taxi or to car pool.
It will be useful for the minister to re-confirm his stand on these issues, so that car pooling and taxi sharing can be actively promoted as another option to solve our problem of traffic congestion.
Tan Kin Lian
2 comments:
The year in the article should be 2011 and not 2012?
Many cities have tried to encourage car pooling as a way to reduce their traffic congestion. While car pooling does not work for everyone, it can work for some, especially if there is an easy way to match people travelling to the same destination. We need clarity on whether the car driver can charge a fee to defray the expenses. This will encourage car pooling.
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