Predicting The Future?

SINGAPORE: Some six years ago, former Speaker of Parliament Tan Soo Khoon took a peek into the future when he spoke on the hot topic of Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) during a budget debate.

He said then: "Sir, the Government’s policy has been that the cost of ownership of cars would be reduced over the long run, but the cost of usage will increase. Hence, we have increases in ERP charges. We have ERP almost everywhere, or soon—to—be everywhere, (and) we are going to have ERP day and night. I think very soon, ERP will mean ’every road pay’.

"Sir, the day will be quite soon when the only safe place to leave your vehicle is at home, if you are lucky enough to own a landed property. You can well imagine that, one day, if I drive out of my house, the first thing I hear would be this ’beep’ sound coming from the little device on my dashboard, and everywhere you go, you will be hearing ’beep, beep, beep’, instead of car horns."

Does it reduce traffic jams?
I doubt... the jams just shift to a later time.

Every Road Pay?
Soon to come true

Predicting the future?
Definitely did!