parking rates in town

i don't normally blog about stuff like that, but it disturbs me greatly how astronomically car parking rates have been going up in town... as far as i noticed, these new parking fees didn't just increase by 50cents or a dollar over their old rates, but almost doubled or tripled! take for example Cairnhill Place carpark just behind Heeren, which used to charge $1 for the first two hours and $1 for every subsequent hour or part thereof (making it one of the cheapest places to park in town)... since Dec last year however, it suddenly went up to $1 for the first hour and $1 every subsequent half hour! that is a full doubling of fees!

and just around noon today, while i was driving into Wisma Atria carpark to save on parking charges (since it used to charge a surprisingly low rate of a flat $3.00 after 12pm all the way till night), i realised that they have raised the fee to $1.30 for the first hour and $1.10 for every subsequent half hour until 5pm, where they will thereafter charge an additional $3.10!! this time more than doubling of the fees!

it has almost become impossible to drive to town and park for the whole day without spending a fortune, not to mention the additional expense of ERP and what-nots...(see a rather outdated list of parking rates in town).. it really is mind-blowing how expensive it is to have a car in Singapore... i really should just save up on all these auto-related expenses and spend the money travelling instead..

non sequitur: i enjoyed this Icon War thing very very much!! (via alb)