VALUE OF TRAVELLING TIME IN SINGAPORE

Abstract

This thesis has found that ownership costs do affect the modal choice between car and public transport and the value of travelling time in Singapore. The deliberate efforts of the government to control the vehicle population through the Vehicle Quota System (VQS) have caused the fixed costs of owning a car to be enormous. However once a car is owned, the marginal cost per car trip is relatively low in terms of time and usage costs. Though parking costs in Central Business District areas cause a substantial impact on the marginal cost, the breakdown of the nested legit model has shown that people who own cars would not be deterred to drive to work. In addition, the values of time estimates from the binomial logit model are found to be dependent on income levels which illustrate the importance of income effect on modal choices

The most conclusive policy implication from this thesis is to support the implementation of the VQS in Singapore. Though in recent years, there has been a policy shift towards usage taxes like the Electronic Road Pricing (ERP), controlling the number of vehicles on the road still remains as an important policy tool. As affluence is expected to rise over time, VQS will continue to manage the vehicle population while road pricing schemes like the ERP will become a tool to internalise congestion externalities. In addition, improving the public transport system will also be the long term solution to the land transport system on such a compact city like Singapore.