The scheme consists of ERP gantries located at all roads linking into Singapore's central business district - areas within the Central Area such as the Downtown Core. They are also located along the expressways and arterial roads with heavy traffic to discourage usage during peak hours. The gantry system is actually a system of sensors on 2 gantries, one in front of the other. Cameras are also attached to the gantries to capture the rear license plate numbers of vehicles. Currently, there are 80 ERP gantries in Singapore. New gantries are implemented where congestion is severe, like expressways and other roads.
A device known as an In-vehicle Unit (IU) is affixed on the lower right corner of the front windscreen within sight of the driver, in which a stored-value card, the CashCard, is inserted for payment of the road usage charges. The second generation IU accepts Contactless NETS CashCard and EZ-Link. The cost of an IU is S$150. It is mandatory for all Singapore-registered vehicles to be fitted with an IU if they wish to use the priced roads.
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd sold the IU technology to Singapore, and the project was spearheaded by a Consortium comprising Philips Singapore Pte Ltd, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd, Miyoshi Electronic Corporation and CEI Systems and Engineering (now known as CSE Global Ltd) in 1995 through an open tender.
When a vehicle equipped with an IU passes under an ERP gantry, a road usage charge is deducted from the CashCard in the IU. Sensors installed on the gantries communicate with the IU via a dedicated short-range communication system, and the deducted amount is displayed to the driver on an LCD screen of the IU.
The charge passing through a gantry depends on the location and time, the peak hour being the most expensive. Examples include a trip from Woodlands to Raffles Place via Yishun - CTE - CBD will cost about $15 during peak as the driver will pass about 5 gantries whereas during lunchtime, it cost about S$2. Foreigners driving foreign-registered cars on priced roads, during the ERP operating hours, could choose to either rent an IU or pay a daily flat fee of S$5 when leaving Singapore.
If drivers fail to have sufficient value in their CashCard (or EZ-Link), the owner receives a fine by post within 2 weeks. He has to pay the ERP charges plus an administration fee of $10 within 2 more weeks. On line payment is allowed, and just the vehicle Registration Number is required. Otherwise, a fixed penalty ticket of S$70 will be issued by registered post to the vehicle owner. This may rise to a fine of $1000 if not settled within 30 days or 1 month jail time.
3. Park-and-ride scheme
Park and ride (or incentive parking) facilities are car parks with connections to public transport that allow commuters and others wishing to travel into city centres to leave their personal vehicles in a car park and transfer to a bus, rail system (rapid transit, light rail or commuter rail), or carpool for the rest of their trip. The vehicle is stored in the car park during the day and retrieved when the commuter returns. Park and rides are generally located in the suburbs of metropolitan areas or on the outer edges of large cities.
Benefit
The aim is to reduce these problems by making it easier for people to use public transport in an urban area with traffic congestion, and to reduce the need for more central car parks where there are competing demands for land use.
Park and ride schemes are often marketed as a way to avoid the difficulties and cost of parking within the city centre. Park and ride facilities allow commuters to avoid the stress of driving a congested part of their journey and facing scarce, expensive city centre parking. They are meant for people who do not have ideal public transport from their home either because of where they live, the time it would take, or the hours they work. Some commuters have a free parking place provided by their employer, and those usually prefer to drive all the way to work.[citation needed]
Park and ride facilities may suit commuters with alternative fuel vehicles, which often have reduced range, since they may be closer to home than the ultimate destination. They also are useful as a fixed meeting place for those carsharing or carpooling or using kiss and ride (see below). Also, some transit operators use park and ride facilities to encourage more efficient driving practices by reserving parking spaces for low emission designs, high occupancy vehicles, or carsharing.
Most facilities provide services such as passenger waiting areas and toilets. Travel information, such as leaflets and posters, may be provided. At larger facilities, extra services such as a travel office, car wash, bike rental, cafeteria and a staffed laundry may be provided. These are often encouraged by municipal operators to improve the attraction of using park and ride.
Road Junctions
A major consideration in road capacity relates to the design of junctions. By allowing long "weaving sections" on gently curving roads at graded intersections, vehicles can often move across lanes without causing significant interference to the flow. However, this is expensive and takes up a large amount of land, so other patterns are often used, particularly in urban or very rural areas. Most large models use crude simulations for intersections, but computer simulations are available to model specific sets of traffic lights, roundabouts, and other scenarios where flow is interrupted or shared with other types of road users or pedestrians. A well-designed junction can enable significantly more traffic flow at a range of traffic densities during the day. By matching such a model to an "Intelligent Transport System", traffic can be sent in uninterrupted "packets" of vehicles at predetermined speeds through a series of phased traffic lights. The UK's TRL has developed junction modelling programs for small-scale local schemes that can take account of detailed geometry and sight lines; ARCADY for roundabouts, PICADY for priority intersections, and OSCADY and TRANSYT for signals.
A common failing of road traffic models is that they do not take into account the effects of changes in public transport on the demand for road traffic; thus, a new generation of traffic modelling software can now compare public transport with private road traffic and thus help inform demand forecasts.