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LETTER - No ALS licence - 17,200 booked.

282 words
1 August 1997
Straits Times
English
(c) 1997 Singapore Press Holdings Limited

I REFER to Mr Toh Seok Lay's letter "Too troublesome to exploit loopholes in shared licences" and
Mr Chua Hiang Soy's letter "Summoned twice, even with valid ALS coupons" (ST, July 23).

The Area Licensing Scheme (ALS) requires every motorist driving into the Restricted Zone (RZ) to
display a valid ALS licence issued to his vehicle.

As we explained earlier, non-transferability of the licence is necessary to prevent abuse, which will
reduce the effectiveness of the ALS and increase congestion in the CBD.

In the last three months, 17,200 motorists were booked for not displaying ALS licences. Of these,
about 7,300 (or 42 per cent) were able to produce a valid ALS licence subsequently.

Except for the very obvious cases of ALS violations, we have given them the benefit of the doubt
and waived the fines, as the Cisco guards might have made a mistake as related by Mr Chua.

We have reminded the Cisco guards again to be very careful in booking such offences.

But the number of motorists booked who showed up subsequently with a valid licence is far too
large to be attributed to wrongful bookings.

We have reason to believe that transfers of licences are taking place. There have even been
instances of motorists caught transferring the ALS licence in full sight of the Cisco officers.

In the interest of all motorists, we must guard against abuse of the ALS by some motorists.

Otherwise, they will reduce the effectiveness of the ALS, increase congestion in the RZ and affect
adversely those who abide by the rules.

ZAINUL ABIDIN IBRAHIM Assistant Director, Corporate Communications Land Transport Authority.

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