Apparently Singapore's Off-Peak Car scheme was introduced 15 years ago. The idea was you buy a car with a RED registration plate, and you can only drive it between 7pm and 7am on weekdays, and without restriction on Sundays and public holidays. It seems that the scheme has been tweaked by Singapore's Land Transport Authority (LTA).
The updated scheme kicked off on January 25 this year. Under the scheme car owners who convert their normal plates to OPC red plates receive $1,100 in cash for every 6 months the car remains an OPC. The new scheme also allows OPC drivers to use their cars unrestricted on Saturdays. If owners want to drive on days outside the licence they can pay $20/day for an "e-licence" in advance via internet etc.
The LTA envisages between 10 and 15% of all cars in Singapore will be OPCs. At present 8.6% of Singapore's car population are OPCs.
As you might expect things are more complicated than this. For example to buy a new car in Singapore (OPC) or not, you need a Certificate of Entitlement (COE). These are issued in restricted supply. This is a further means of controlling the population of cars.
But I thought the OPC was an interesting idea. A cheap way of keeping cars off the road. Auckland could do the sums on this....
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