Enough of the cars! Unless you want more vehicles than roads to drive them on

You may want to think twice about buying that second car as LTA aims to cut down annual vehicle population growth amidst average annual road growth of only about 1%.

The Land Transport Authority said, “The annual vehicle population growth rate will be lowered from the current 1.5% to 1.0% in 2012, and then to 0.5% in 2013 and 2014. For 2012, the 1% p.a. growth will be front-loaded, with the current 1.5% p.a. growth rate maintained for the first half of the quota year (February 2012 to July 2012), followed by 0.5% p.a. growth rate for the remaining half of the quota year (August 2012 to January 2013).”

Overall, the growth rate for the new 3-year quota period is 1.5% p.a. for the first 6 months, followed by 0.5% p.a. growth rate for the remaining 2.5 years, said LTA’s announcement.

According to LTA, the current annual vehicle population growth rate of 1.5% has outstripped the average annual road growth of about 1% in recent years. LTA noted, “As road growth is expected to slow down to about 0.5% p.a. on average over the next decade, it is not sustainable to maintain the vehicle growth rate at 1.5%. The lower vehicle growth rate will be more closely aligned to the pace of road growth going forward.”

The annual vehicle population growth rate will be reviewed after three years.