In this article they mention that in Singapore they use heavy taxes to prevent people from purchasing personal vehicles, and a Prius costs 154k because of it. So I am assuming Singapore must have a pretty impressive public transit system if they are that eager to push people away from private transportation.
Has anyone been there, and how efficient and well run is it (or not)? I have some experience with Chicago’s public transit system, how would Singapore’s compare to Chicago?
Singapore is an amazingly well run city, it’s public transportation is great. It is much newer than Chicago’s system.
I’d assume it is much better than Chicago, when I am in Chicago their public transit seems geared towards the poor whereas Singapore is probably geared towards everyone. However I was in a poor part of Chicago, so the fact that I saw tons of poor people on the bus could’ve just been a coincidence.
The train system in Chicago is fairly decent though.
Newer than most and better-maintained perhaps. That’s all. The Tokyo system is far superior, IMHO. Mere car ownership is not the only reason for the Singaporean Government encouraging use of the public system. One big problem in Singapore is private parking. That’s where they tax whallop car buyers: those who don’t have a garage for their prospective vehicles. You don’t have that problem in Chicago, do you?
Another problem is the densely packed population crammed into a country the size of a large city. The traffic jams would be epic if everyone owned a car. In Singapore, a modest family sedan (such as a Honda Civic) is equivalent price of a house. I can’t understand how the middle class can afford a car at all, and owners must by law keep their vehicles in road worthy condition. The only older model vehicles I’ve ever seen in Singapore have Malaysian plates. The transit system in Singapore is clean, modern, reliable, and safe. And because the country is so small, access to virtually anywhere you want to go within its borders is quick and transit stations are within easy walking distance. Singapore is itself the cleanest city I have ever seen. Virtually no litter and impeccably landscaped and maintained.
What kind of comparisons are you looking for? I’m a Singaporean, but have not tried Chicago public transit. In the US, I’ve tried public transport in San Francisco, but only in the city centre and not the suburbs (was on holiday). I’m also familiar with public transport in London (Zone 1-2 only, where I lived for 3 years), Tokyo (on business), Paris (on holiday), and a few other minor cities.
As transport, it’s comparable to London and Tokyo. Trains are relatively reliable (more reliable than London, about the same as Tokyo), but there have been a few upkeep issues lately. Bus service is generally acceptable with wait times of about 5-10 minutes, and gets you to almost wherever you want to go (as good as London, I didn’t take the Tokyo buses much).
It’s clean. London was a bit more grubby than Singapore, Japan on the whole was a bit more clean in some places.
It’s safe. Nobody I know of has ever been mugged on public transport here, although I expect some minor cases of pickpocketing probably exist, as in every public transport system in the world.
It’s relatively quick. Keep in mind that you can get across Singapore less than 1 hour by car, so it’s not a big place by any means. It would probably fit into Zone 1 and 2 of London alone. Taking a train across the country would take you perhaps 1 hour from East to West.
My parent’s place is in a “suburb” (if you could call it that), and door to door from home to workplace, I took about 1 hour to get to work (in the central CBD area). I would walk to the nearest subway line (10 minutes) wait for the train (5-10 minutes), ride the train (20 min), change lines, including waiting for the new train (5-10min), ride the remaining 3 stops (10 min) and walk to my office from the subway stop (5 min). All in, about an hour.
Currently, I live 15 min bus ride from my office, but that’s unusual.
Certainly, people do get by without cars. My mom doesn’t have a drivers licence, and she takes the train to work every day.
I have a weekend car, meaning that I can only drive after 7pm and before 7am on weekdays and all day on weekends. For this, I got a S$17,000 rebate off my Certificate of Entitlement (“licence to buy a car”). For the record, I drive a Nissan Latio (Versa in the US), and at the time it cost me S$43,000 (US$ 34,388) after the rebate. The COE is good for 10 years only, after which I need a new COE. The COEs are priced according to an auction market (you “bid” for a limited number of COEs, which drives the price up as demand increases), and the government has been reducing the number of COEs available. Thus, the price has gone up recently - a New Toyota Camry is now at about S$168,988 (US135,147).
I don’t really need a car to get to and from work, but it is nice to have one when running errands. Of course, I could just take the bus, but eh.
Since the cost of the COE forms the bulk of the price of a car, people tend to just buy new cars. My dad never kept a car past 3 years, and always bought new.
If there’s anything specific you’d like to know, just ask.
Well, the majority of Singaporeans live in government subsidised housing, in the form of big apartment blocks. They look something like this.
The shorter building you see in the foreground is a parking garage, for the surrounding apartment blocks. If you own or rent an apartment in these blocks, you are entitled to purchase season parking in these parking garages, for about S$60ish a month (IIRC, I live in a private condo and never had to buy season parking).
As for your workplace, generally the building in which you work would have season parking lots, or there would be a private garage nearby with season parking. When I worked in the CBD, it was about S$300 per month. I don’t think this is completely out of line of parking costs in other major cities (London in particular has INSANE parking charges and petrol taxes).
