Chinatown ERP to be reviewed earlier

Aug 19, 2008
Chinatown ERP to be reviewed earlier
LTA to assess rates and timings a month sooner in response to
feedback
By Maria Almenoar

CHINATOWN businesses hit by falling customer traffic will know by
October if adjustments can be made to the timings or charges for the
new road tolls in the area.

The Land Transport Authority (LTA) will bring its quarterly review
forward by a month in response to feedback that takings by businesses
in the area have dived by up to half since five gantries went live
last month.

Under review will be the timings for Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) -
now levied between 6pm and 8pm - and the charges of up to $2.

Motorists' driving patterns would have stabilised within three
months, during which the LTA would have gathered enough data on the
volume and speed of traffic, occupancy levels of carparks in the area
and retail sales figures.

Where traffic speed is concerned, the LTA has noted 'significant
improvements' since the new gantries went up. Average speeds are up
by between 5 and 30 per cent along areas affected by the Singapore
River Line cordon, it said yesterday.

The Senior Minister of State for Transport, Mrs Lim Hwee Hua, said
after meeting Chinatown businessmen yesterday: 'If traffic conditions
warrant it, LTA will announce the review results in the later part of
September and adjust the ERP rates from early October.'

She had just spent about an hour with representatives of Chinatown
business associations at the Kreta Ayer Community Club yesterday.

Mrs Lim told reporters after the closed- door meeting that the
businesses accepted that the gantries, set up to reduce traffic
cutting through the city, would help ease congestion in the area.

The ERP scheme does this by discouraging through traffic and ensuring
vehicles which enter the area do so because they have destinations
there. Mrs Lim said: 'I think the challenge is to try and find the
right balance and the right trade-offs.'

She added, however, that the new gantries, collectively called the
Singapore River Line, could not be solely blamed for a slowdown in
business. A slowdown in the economy and higher fuel prices were among
the other reasons for fewer customers and lower spending.

Mr Wong Chi Keong, the chairman of the Chinatown Business Association
(CBA), agreed that the new gantries could take only so much of the
blame, but said that the ERP was an added reason people were giving
the area a miss.

CBA did a survey recently among more than 200 businesses and found
that sales had fallen between 15 and 50 per cent.

He said: 'The main problem is because Chinatown is like a heartland
town rather than a big retail area like Orchard Road.

'So every little cost for a customer will affect his decision to come
here.'

CBA has called for a shortening of ERP hours in the area, so charging
ends at 7pm instead of 8pm. It also suggested that the gantries be
moved closer to the entries of the Central Expressway and the Ayer
Rajah Expressway near Chinatown. These are the highways that traffic
going through Chinatown is actually headed to, said Mr Wong.

Mrs Lim noted that the meeting also showed up some areas for better
public education.

'A lot of people, including the operators themselves, thought that
the ERP hours were operational on Saturdays as well, which is not the
case,' she said.

She also noted that, though the Government had reduced road taxes to
help offset the ERP increases, people did not link the two policy
moves and often overlooked the objective of the tax cuts.