LTA Scholarship Interview Afterthoughts #2

I remember that we discussed about making public transport as fast, convenient and comfortable as private transport. And I found out that the panel members were basically drivers, rather than public transport users! To me this seems to contradict with what they are supposed to do, which is to promote public transport over private transport! If you drive to work, how are you supposed to come up with policies that aim to limit what you are doing on a regular basis?

And even though some of the panel members do take public transport occassionally, occassionally is really not good enough. Taking public transport on weekends is not representative of the situation on weekdays. And if you are not able to stand in the shoes of public transport users, how can you understand the urgency of improving public transport?

When I said that we needed to make public transport as fast, convenient and comfortable as private transport to attract more users, I thought that the reverse might have the same effect, which is to make private transport expensive and slow. Technology like ERP and IU parking makes things very convenient, and convenience is a factor that can affect people's behaviors; just look at how iTunes managed to reduce music piracy with convenient ways to pay for music tracks. Thus maybe we should make driving very inconvenient? Perhaps we could set up toll booths instead of ERP gantries? Could long queues and congestion then discourage people to drive more effectively?

And what if we could make private transport even more expensive? Perhaps multiply all ERP charges by 10, and earnings could go to the building of new MRT lines? Could increased costs then help to push more road users into using public transport?