Singapore: Right to own a car starts at $76,000. And that doesn’t include the car
In this city, the right to own a car starts at $76,000. And that doesn't include the car | CNN Business
With a fully functional, affordable, universal public transport system, owning a car is a luxury, not a need.
It never was a need. This is a myth build by the car manufacturers. They lobbied for the car centered model with oil companies. This never was the model.
The same applies for suburbs full of houses.
I'm not going down that slope.
As someone who has lived in a large city, with a fully functional public transportation system, I was thankful for it, although it took me 2 extra hours of my life every day.
But living in a city, packed and stacked like merchandise in shelves is not a good way to live.
I got out the first opportunity I could take. Cost me family, friends and lower income but I don't regret it.
Metropolises are not the way for civilization and CoViD was a cruel demononstration of how flawed the concept is.
That is all I have to say.
With a fully functional, affordable, universal public transport system
Y'all got any of them magic carpets? They're just as real as this mythical perfect public transport system. And cars will always be more convenient. Convenience wins every time.
Of course it's based on money and not need based or a lottery system or anything like that because fuck the non-rich, amirite? I mean, if you don't have a net worth in the seven figures are you even a person?
You don't need a car in Singapore. Public transit is quite good and it isn't that big of a city
I'm not disagreeing with you. But the only people that get the right to travel in a car are the rich. Rather than it be based on a needs-based system or lottery system. The rich get the right, but normal people don't. That's the point he's trying to make.
There's lots of things you don't need. Like freedom, space to move, privacy, the ability to travel outside your city.
It's going down. It was $106,000 yesterday https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/04/singapore-cost-car-certificate
If you read the article, it says that price is for any car over 1.6 litre
To add to the other comment, COE has multiple categories, 106k is for cars with 1.6L engine displacement (or a certain amount of power for EVs) and above.
MFW a honda fit cost as much as a tesla
I think the car itself is on top of this, but even the car is more expensive because they're harder to get
So getting closer to Aston Martin prices for that Honda.
Fuck cars!
Is there sufficient public transportation options there? Is the cost the same for rural as for urban populations?
The rural population of... Where?
think of the highrise-dwelling rooftop farmers!
The mole people living in the sewers of course
If you read the article, it says twice that the public transport is fantastic
It's Singapore man, we don't have a real rural population any more.
Singapore is an island city-state. The rural part of Singapore is Malaysia, a different country -- and one that is also famously pretty damn dense where the people live.
The entire country is about the size of New York City.
Singapore’s public transport system is fantastic. I lived there for 2 years and never felt like I needed a car. You only get one as a status symbol.
Well fuck Singapore, you can't even do drugs there. What's the point of living in a freedomless police state that costs a fortune? Masochism?
Cars are a significant source of pollution, and Singapore has space issues. Honestly, this is probably a good thing. The cultural thing we have going on with burning oil in the form of gasoline is going to kill everybody in the next few decades if we don't work to stop climate change.
I'm not one to defend Singapore much, but owning a car there is a very unnecessary luxury, so this is a pretty unfair reason to dislike Singapore (I can give you some better ones if you'd like).
Honestly in other big cities (NYC, London) most people would benefit from a COE scheme keeping car traffic under control.
I mean, as far as movement is concerned there's a lot more freedom than in most of the US.
Singapore, you can pretty much get around anywhere you want quickly, safely, and cheaply using any of a variety of transportation modes.
US you're forced to use a car and if you can't afford one you can use someone else's (taxi or rideshare) at a markup. Most people live in places that have no other viable modes, even though 80+% of people live in towns and cities that would have tons of alternatives pretty much anywhere else in the world (and would save money on their municipal budgets in so doing).
Charging people for the social cost of their personal luxuries, especially luxuries that have immense social cost like cars, in order to fund social goods is not something so ridiculously unreasonable. You should probably pick something actually bad if you want to criticize Singapore.
I have total freedom of movement in the USA. I have a car and a motorcycle that are both paid in full, reliable, and efficient, and I live in a beautiful rural area where there is almost zero traffic congestion.
I can drive anywhere I want with total control over my own direction and destination. That is actual freedom.
It's one of the safest places on earth?
Lol, an American thinking they know best again.
Meanwhile I took a rideshare from a site visit at 5:30pm and there was already some congestion on the expressway. I cannot imagine what it'd be like if it was a free-for-all for cars.
Well here in my part of the USA, I can hop in my car and be at the front door of several restaurants or grocery stores within 5 minutes because I live in a nice area with low population density. Traffic jams almost never happen in my area. I have my own house and land where I can do anything I want. I work from home most of the time and don't have to travel at all. On the days when I choose to work from the office, it's an easy 20-minute drive from my home with zero traffic jams.
On top of all that, I can have any kind of alcohol I want and medical marijuana is legal. I can criticize my government leaders in public without fear of reprisal. I could be gay and have anal sex with men legally if I wanted to.
Which is like... The majority of countries.
good tbh, their metro kicks too much ass to have everyone driving around, their system has it's problems but not driving isn't one of them
Honestly, as much as I wanted a car as a 20-something, I do think this is for the better. There needs to be some adjustments as a lot of the buyers are commercial entities trying to corner a somewhat unsustainable ridehailing market, but overall I'm happy with the tradeoff, especially with the improvement in public transport in recent years.
I've only visited once and that was several years ago, I'm surprised to hear the public transit has actually gotten better. I'm from Chicago, which is one of the few US cities with a functional metro, and it's blown out of the water by the mrt just on comfort alone
I owned my first car at 17 and oh… the hours I spent waxing it. Unwinding car culture in the US would take a long, long time.
what a lot of people can't understand is that a car I'm singapore is a ball and chain. it's not freedom by any stretch of the imagine there.
it's a status symbol or a job requirement.
And why is this exactly?
Has it to do with the close to no parking spots in Singapore? Or something about fuel being expensive or something?
Yea cars make so little sense there that I’m glad to see they treat it like first class on the airlines: it costs such an exorbitant amount that it’s basically just there to subsidize everyone else.
not even almost everyone in the US can afford it, no chance buddy
Instead you have an even better luxury, a decent PT system.
Not only is this luxury cheaper for you, it also does more to be environmentally conscious.
Oh sweet Jesus you're being serious aren't you?
You do know how small we are right? Even with COE and ERP we still get traffic jams, and they can be quite bad during peak period.
What do you want to get out of owning a car?