SINGAPORE: This low-income family did not renovate their Bedok flat when they moved in. Neither do they go on holidays. But there is one sacrifice the Hans are unwilling to make: Give up their car for public transport.
So on an income of about S$3,000, which is the average income of the bottom 20 per cent of working households, they spend up to S$500 every month on car expenses like petrol. And they are not alone.
Some 16 per cent of these households own at least one car. Among the top 20 per cent, meanwhile, who earned an average of S$25,000 a month last year, 61 per cent owned at least one car.
Singapore may be one of the world’s most expensive places to buy a car, but to many Singaporeans, the costs involved are not reason enough to forego owning one.
The Hans, for example, felt that they had no other option but to buy a second-hand Fiat, for which they paid up front last year.
As Mdm Joanne Marie Sim explained on the Mediacorp series Talking Point, “It’s quite (difficult) trying to travel with two young children on public transport.” (Watch the episode here.)
With the nearest MRT station about a 10-minute walk from her home, she added: “If I want to go to the MRT station, I have to either walk in the sun or squeeze onto a bus.”
CONVENIENCE OVER COST
The Hans are not the only ones to have also factored distance into the decision to drive.
According to the Land Transport Authority’s Household Interview Travel Survey, 71 per cent of those living within 400 metres of a station would primarily use public transport to commute.
This is compared with 67 per cent of those living 800m from a station, which is a 10-minute walk, and 55 per cent of those living more than two kilometres away.
发表于 30-11-2017 04:36 PM
变色卡
千斤顶
一楼访问的家庭似乎如此，但他们买的是二手车，可能coe只剩三年。）
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