This is one of the first things I noticed on arriving in Singapore -- the ride from the airport to city I would normally expect to pay $30-40 US dollars for, and yet it consistently costs no more than SGD $15-20 (I usually just round up to 20).
Yet I understand that gas is not cheap, and car taxes are ridiculously high here.
What is the explanation? Is it a public service helping to make up for where public transport does not serve well, or to make people like Singapore even more??
Singaporeans view the taxi service as a subset of public transport, we certainly understand that there is a premium for the door to door service, but the whole concept of paying for "service" is quite alien to us...
Moreover, Singapore is for the most part well connected, too high a premium could perhaps lead to a precipitous loss in ridership to the "BMW"- Bus MRT Walk :P
But my family has a car, so I hardly take taxis anyway. :P