The Land Transport Authority (LTA) recently announced some good news with regards to Electronic Road Pricing rates recently.

Firstly, the much derided night time ERP on the Northbound CTE has been abolished. From now on, the ERP gantry on the Northbound CTE before the Pan Island Expressway will operate until 8pm, like every other ERP gantry, instead of the ridiculous 10.30pm.

And now, there is joy for those who take the same expressway Southbound towards town in the morning, as the LTA has announced reduced rates for the gantry before Braddell Road in the morning, going down from $2 to $1 between 8 and 9am.

But is this really good news?

On the surface, yes it is. I mean, any breaks that drivers get when it comes to cutting down driving costs has to be savoured and cherished, because they don't exactly come often.

But there has been doubts raised already with regards to the reduction in ERP rates, especially in the evening.

Some people forsee a return to congestion during that time, as motorists flood the CTE once again once the gantry has been turned off after 8pm.

But others argue that it is their perogative as to whether they want to be stuck in a jam when going home anyway.

Personally, it doesn't affect me directly as I don't travel on that particular route often, but I think it's yet another example of the Government's indecisiveness when it comes to traffic control.

It appears that Singapore wants to go back to the days where cars are prohibitively expensive, but usage costs are reduced.

Whether this will actually work to reduce congestion remains to be seen, especially with our island's population now nearly reaching double of what it was during the last time this happened (namely the 1990s).

But it's certainly going to be interesting to see how the Government deals with Singapore's transport problems in the next few years ahead.