The cost of a car in Singapore
My colleague explained yesterday the precise mechanism of getting cars off the road in Singapore: you buy your car for about $100k, drive it for ten years, each year paying plenty in parking fees, ERP fees (they charge you to drive downtown during peak hours), and registration fees, as well as maintenance, insurance and gas. Then after ten years, you scrap it, and are reimbursed $30 – 40K. If you DON’T scrap it then, you pay some large fees, and the amount you are reimbursed dives precipitously. So this should mean that there are only nice new cars on the road, no beaters. It sort of works, except the taxis tend to look kind elderly, and the trucks and buses are pollute-o-maniacs. Even though the buses look clean and modern, they belch ungodly stuff from their tailpipes; and since there are a lot of them, the air is far from clear.
Better than Beijing, though, from what I hear!