Public transport and commuting

Hi Mr Tan!
I happened to come across an article by Mr Alex Au, and I think you'll agree with him with many points in a new article he wrote recently. It will better support your arguments for living near one's workplace and I'm a keen supporter of this idea along side with you.


http://yawningbread.wordpress.com/2011/05/22/rail-interchange-upgraded-transportation-issue-much-wider-than-that/


Edward


Quote from the Yawning Bread article

It’s also time to rethink the sacred cow of home-ownership. The fact is, people switch jobs. Unless people can easily move to live closer to their new job, any hope of reducing commuter load will not be realised. As economists have known for eons, home ownership is a serious drag on residential mobility. Once committed to a huge purchase, it is very difficult to consider selling and moving. It gets impossible at certain times when prices dip below the historical purchase price of a home; who would want to sell at a loss? Therefore, a high ratio of renters in a population allows greater ease of matching people to jobs.

In any case, as I argued in an earlier article, everyone who is living in public housing today is deluding himself, thinking he “owns” his flat. He does not. What actually is happening is that he has paid 99 years’ rent in advance. In that case, if we’re actually renting anyway, why can’t we pay a month at a time? That allows people to move easily, enabling them a wider choice in the job market. People will naturally choose to live closer to their jobs, thus reducing commuter load.

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