Straits Times, Leong Chan Teik, Friday, 16 April 1993
THERE will be no hassles for motorists when the Electronic Road Pricing system is introduced.
The proposed systems tendered by three short-listed consortiums will allow motorists to drive at their usual speeds without needing to slow down when they approach ERP zones.
Nor would they need to keep to one lane. They can change lanes to overtake, for example, when approaching the gantries. Motorcyclists who hope they can ride in the electronic shadow of large vehicles, such as buses, will be disappointed to know that the system has special provisions to detect them.
Charges will be automatically deducted from their stored value cards in the in-vehicle unit (IVU) fixed to the front of the vehicle. The balance will be shown on liquid displays on the cards.
The ERP systems are not designed to detect vehicles travelling at more than 120 kmh. Given that toll charges will be levied only during hours of congestion, it is unlikely that vehicles would be able to travel at such a speed.
Officials from the Public Works Department (PWD) and Registry of Vehicles (ROV) gave details of the programme at a technical briefing this week for the press, academics and senior officials of the transport industry.
Scheduled public buses and Scheme B buses - private buses allowed to ply assigned routes during peak hours - will also need to be fixed with IVUs although they need not pay road charges.
The IVUs will be programmed so as not to trigger enforcement cameras meant to capture cheats.
How will bicycles be treated? The PWD official said the underground detectors will not be sensitised to detect bicycles which need not pay toll.
Mr Gerard Ee, the vice-president of the Automobile Association of Singapore, asked whether the ERP would be able to vary charges on-line according to fluctuations in traffic congestion.
The PWD official said the technology for that is not available at the moment . The ROV spokesman, however, added that under the ERP, different charges can be fixed for different times or in different pricing zones.
The ERP system will impose charges for every entry into a pricing zone, in contrast to the existing Area Licensing Scheme which charges a one-off fee for unlimited entries in a day.
Does that mean, asked Mr Ee, that the ERP charge per entry would be as low as a few cents?
The ROV official replied: "Our objective is not to keep vehicles off the road but to keep traffic free-flowing. The rates are not going to be so prohibitive that the roads become under-utilised."
Mr Lim Hung Siang, deputy general manager of Singapore Automotive Engineering, suggested that ERP cards function as credit cards so that charges could be paid for later, instead of upfront, as proposed. The advantage, he said, is that motorists need not worry about remembering to top up the value of their cards.
The reply from the ROV official: "One of the concerns of the ERP is the issue of privacy. If you have a mechanism for central settling of the charges, the authorities will be able to know when and where you have been. "We have got around that by opting for the pre-paid smart card, so all the information is in the card and not with the authorities managing the system."</p>
Apart from contributing to more equitable road use, the ERP will also usher in the wonders of smart cards. The stored value cards will have the potential to be electronic purses, said the PWD official. Given the necessary infrastructure, they could be used for a variety of othe r purposes such as buying petrol and paying parking charges in shopping centres. The ERP will also mean the end of the weekend car scheme. The existing red-plated cars, which enjoy huge tax reductions, will not be restricted in usage as they are now but will instead pay toll charges like normal cars.