Spot quiz: what is the most populous European city? Singapore is about 4.5m people in 270sq miles. London is ~7.5m people in about 600sq miles so this city state has the higher population density by 30%. The next biggest European city, by the way, is Berlin with 3.5m making London the most populous by a clear factor of two.
What about cars? In 2006, Singapore had 800k vehicles on the roads, of which, about 500k were cars and 140k were motorcycles. That's about 9 cars per 100 people in Singapore, versus about 35 per 100 in London.
Spot quiz: how many cars were reported stolen in Singapore in 2006? You'll never guess. It was 63; one car stolen every 6 days. Motorcycles faired a little worse with 647 but then they are more easily taken and hidden.
They say in Singapore "Low crime Doesn't mean No Crime" but it seems it's all relative. Compared to my experience of vehicle crime, one stolen car every 6 days is not even statistically significant.
Apparently, this doesn't mean low insurance premiums and many bikers only have 3rd party cover, not even TPFT, but then every aspect of vehicle ownership is expensive in Singapore. The adaptive Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) is being steadily expanded in scope. It's simple capitalism, using money to determine who drives and who takes the bus.
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