SINGAPORE: In a recent video, a Singaporean student calculated how much it costs to drive a car to school in Singapore.
After adding up the prices of ERP and the parking rate at her school, she concluded it costs her S$20.59 to get to school using a car (fuel/electricity not included).
“You wanna know how expensive it is to own a car in Singapore?” asked the beauty, fashion, lifestyle, food and travel content creator, who was seen making her way out of a car park.
“Firstly, I drive to school, so in the morning, I have to pay for ERP (Electronic Road Pricing). So the first is S$5, and the second is S$3. So that’s already S$8.”
@naploes ERP + Parking rly adds up… im gonna cycle to school next time 😭 #cartok #driving #ERP #parking #singapore #tiktoksg
The ERP, an electronic toll collection scheme, was implemented in 1998 to manage road congestion.
After factoring this in, the content creator then left viewers with some suspense as she waited to see how much her parking fee would be.
“And I park in school for four or maybe five hours. Now, I’m trying to exit the car park, and I’m going to see how much the parking costs,” she went on.
She panned her camera to show the total as she reached the payment point. “S$12.59 for a few hours. That’s crazy,” she said before completing the math problem:
“So S$12 plus this morning’s S$8… so in total, I paid 20 bucks just to go to school (excluding fuel/electricity).”
Before ending her video recording, she teased, “The moral of the story is don’t go to school. Just stay at home.”
The actual moral of the story
Given the drastic contrast between such fees and those of public transportation, it’s no surprise that many responded to the video by encouraging the young woman to find alternative ways to get to school.
“The moral of the story is to take public transport,” said one. Another argued, “The moral of the story is go to school. Please take a bus or MRT if you are still a student.”
Many others expressed their sentiments on the high costs of owning a car in Singapore. “That’s why owning a car will forever be more of a liability than an asset,” said one.
“If you’re not making S$20 to 30K a month, I see no reason to own a car (transport shouldn’t take up more than 10 per cent of your pay),” argued another.
