I have been out of Singapore for two years now, and the whole ERP/taxi peak hour surcharge system has become completely baffling to me. Even the taxi drivers cannot tell me what the charges are - they are just drivers, they say. This explains why there is an almighty effort, at all hours, to avoid the dreaded ERP charge by taking the most circuitous of routes, resulting in taxi fares higher than if they had just gone through the gantry.

Here's the thing - the $4-00 taxi peak hour surcharge operates until 11.30pm. This beggars all reason - is it really 'peak' hour until almost midnight? Are we having to work that hard? Or is this a PR stunt to convince us that we are a 'happening' island?

The ERP surcharge operates until 9pm. In the rush hour, the peak hour surcharge plus ERP amounts, in some cases, to more than the actual taxi fare. On the CTE to the CBD there are two gantries, making it the most expensive highway to use - and there are, I might add, no alternatives for those living in the north.

Now, another question - all car owners pay road tax for the priviledge of using our wonderfully maintained Singapore roads. So in actual fact, for any trip during a normal workday, we could be charged several times for the same act - getting to work in our own cars.

Something else - I understand the infamous COE, that precious piece of paper that we buy in order to be able to even own a car in the first place, is at an all-time low. Result: more cars on the road, one might assume. But hang on - is that really true? When the COE was high, the demand for cars was fairly inelastic - we just bought smaller cars.

Taken together - the ERP, peak hour surcharges, COE prices - with the fact that the alternatives to private transport are the sardine like tin cans called the MRT, or the buses which are infrequent and often require a change of buses to get to our destinations, mean simply that the only difference this has made is that we are being taxed several times for simply having to go to work.

Having the ERP operate until 9pm simply taxes our need to get home to have dinner with our families. How many people stay in the office until past nine so they can avoid the surcharge? So much for the call for work/life balance.

The irony is that with taxi costs being so high and COEs being so low, it is actually now cheaper to buy a car (or another car) than it is to use public transport. So much for reducing the car population - something has got screwed up here.So much for reducing fossil fuel emmissions (oops, another tax in the offing...)

You know, I think this knee-jerk reaction of 'let's tax them!' from a government led by the most brilliant minds in Singapore is getting a bit old. Whatever it is, when it comes to our car population, all the existing measures simply are not working to control or reduce it. We have always known this.

I think perhaps some lateral thinking might be in order. Perhaps more vocal disgruntlement from our hard-done by population might not go amiss either. Otherwise, it seems to be that all these measures are a means to fatten the government coffers, and not help the constituents our leaders are supposed to serve - and I do use the word deliberately. Not represent, serve. That's why it is called the civil service, and not civil representation.

(Our PAP has been in power for so long that I do believe that our MPs are part of the civil service - there seems to be the principle of lifetime tenure in operation here).

There is a speak English campaign going on - methinks it's time to get out the dictionaries for our illustrious leaders.