Expats in Singapore unhappy about government anti car strategies

Expats planning to head to Singapore should note new, tough measures to minimise the numbers of cars on the city-state’s roads.

Nowadays, it seems all major world cities are having problems with the density of traffic on the roads, but Singapore is going further than most in attempting to deal with the issue. The majority of expat professionals heading to the city-state on assignment are used to using their cars to get around, but due to new rules they’ll need to be earning massive salaries to avoid being stuck with public transport.

In the past several years, Singapore’s battle with the car has reached new heights, including the introduction of road tolls, licenses fees boosting the cost of an average car and massively increased spending on public transport. However, daily gridlocks are still the norm in a city where space is strictly limited. In general, Singaporeans are well used to being controlled by the government, but newly arrived expats might be less willing to have their chosen lifestyles manipulated by politicians.

Public transport in the city isn’t as reliable as it reputation suggests, with regular breakdowns causing rush hour chaos and forcing more cars onto the roads as a result. The freeze on new car numbers hasn’t been popular, and the traffic control model is now facing increasing criticism by both residents and expats. One expat told local media the government should make a distinction between drivers who really need to use their own vehicles either for family commitments or work and those who regard having several cars as an essential status symbol.

The mandatory certificates of entitlement for those wishing to buy a car add huge amounts to the purchase, with the on-road price an average family vehicle costing around $83,000, almost half of which is the cost of the COE. The certificates expire after 10 years and are renewable at the same price, but the only other option is to scrap the car. At present, there are around 600,000 cars on the city’s streets, with the number of private cars due to be frozen from February 2018 for a two year period.