Singapore To Increase Road Capacity By GPS Tracking Vehicles
Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:
The densely populated island state is moving from what it calls Electric Road Pricing (ERP) 1.0 to ERP 2.0. The first version used gantries - or automatic tolls - to charge drivers a fee through an in-car device when they used specific roadways during certain hours.
ERP 2.0 sees the vehicle instead tracked through GPS, which can tell where a vehicle is at all operating times.
"ERP 2.0 will provide more comprehensive aggregated traffic information and will be able to operate without physical gantries. We will be able to introduce new 'virtual gantries,' which allow for more flexible and responsive congestion management," explained the LTA.
But the island's government doesn't just control inflow into urban areas through toll-like charging - it also aggressively controls the total number of cars operating within its borders.
Singapore requires vehicle owners to bid for a set number of Certificates of Entitlement - costly operating permits valid for only ten years. The result is an increase of around SG$100,000 ($75,500) every ten years, depending on that year's COE price, on top of a car's usual price. The high total price disincentivizes mass car ownership, which helps the government manage traffic and emissions.
Between ERP 2.0, a plan to one day charge based on distance instead of per gantry entry, improvements in mass transit links, and evolving" traffic patterns sparked by an increase in flexible work arrangements, Singapore reckons it can handle the extra traffic from 20,000 cars.
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