Moving to New Jersey from Singapore, where you can get by using mass transit, I thought I’d try to hold off on car ownership. My resolve lasted two weeks. With congestion pricing a current debate in New York and New Jersey, and Singapore being the first place in the world to charge motorists for driving at peak demand times on congested roads, I thought I’d share my thoughts.
Published by NJ.com, June 12, 2024
By Tom Benner
As New York Gov. Hochul stammers in her choice between responsible environmental policy and caving to political pressure, this bears repeating: Congestion pricing can work, just as it has all over the world.
But charging people hefty fees to drive into Manhattan’s central business district is only going halfway.
You also have to give people great mass transit, so cheap and easy to use that most of us would be thrilled to leave our cars at home. Singapore knew that when it imposed the world’s first congestion pricing scheme in the 1970s, and New York and New Jersey policymakers can learn from that experience.
I moved back to New Jersey a few weeks ago after living for 12 years in Singapore, where I was thrilled not to own a car. The Southeast Asian island nation has terrific mass transit – clean train and bus systems that go everywhere and run on time.
It might seem unimaginable for Americans who love their cars and the freedom that comes with a set of wheels, but life without a car was great. I was free from the burdens of car ownership – the purchase price and insurance, the gas and oil changes, the wear and tear, parking lot dings and dents. It was liberating.
Tom Benner Reports 