Our stroller

All I’m missing are two excited boys.

This is what you do when you don’t have a car. with a trunk.

On this afternoon we picked up Noah from school, had a picnic lunch at the park, went to the library and walked home.

To have beautiful clean streets with no traffic on a small island of 4.9 million people takes some pretty strict road regulations. The Singapore government tries to limit the number of cars on the road by making them really expensive.

To buy a car you have to bid on a COE, a Certificate of Entitlement. The government only releases a certian number of these a year so depending on the demand the cost can be outrageous. Anywhere from $900 for motorbikes to $15,000 for cars.

But ERPs are fun. Every car has an electronic device on the dash. Every time you drive under a toll, a fee is automaticallly deducted from your account. BEEP! Tolls are higher during peak hours to discourage congestion.

So, cost of car + registration fees + COE + road tax + customs duty + ERPs + insurance + gas = no thanks, I’ll just catch a taxi.

Good thing Singapore has really good public transport. For now, we’ll keep packing up the stroller.