Singapore’s transport successes are well known, but its transport system could be greener, with easier access for the old and infirm.
A new study of urban transport in 15 cities, conducted by consulting firm Accenture, came to that conclusion about Singapore and what it terms as fellow ‘laboratory’ cities, such as Seoul in South Korea.
Such cities already use effective solutions, such as congestion charges and car-pooling incentives, but they can go even further, said Accenture managing partner Lee Won Joon.
He oversaw the Asian segment of the study, which looked at a wide range of cities picked for their different sizes, stages of development and locations.
The study will be used for Accenture projects on urbanisation and intelligent cities - urban centres which use technology to cut energy consumption, become more sustainable and respond faster to residents’ needs.
Mr Lee pointed out Singapore’s successes in using congestion charges and cutting down the car population with quota schemes, and acknowledged its attempts to beef up its public transport network.
But Singapore’s population is burgeoning and commuters’ expectations are higher, he said.
The popular sentiment is that roads are crowded with too many cars, while buses are too slow and trains too crowded or infrequent.
Last year, customer satisfaction with public transport fell, according to the annual Customer Satisfaction Index by Singapore Management University’s Institute of Service Excellence.
Also, transport should be made more environmentally friendly - not just by cutting back on the number of private cars, but also by improving on public transport.
In Mr Lee’s native Seoul, for example, most public buses run on natural gas, whereas many here run on diesel.
National University of Singapore transport researcher Lee Der Horng supported the use of clean-energy public transport, and suggested that Singapore aim for large scale shared-access electric vehicle (EV) schemes rather than personal EVs.
The MRT Circle Line has already received a Green Mark for Rapid Transit Systems for its use of braking systems which reuse energy and other measures.
The Green Mark framework will assess the environmental friendliness of MRT lines such as the Downtown Line, the first stage of which is set to open in 2013.
Researchers also felt that transport measures must be properly integrated with urban planning.
For example, the Accenture report noted that parking restrictions in the city centre sometimes cause businesses to move out to the suburbs.
Sometimes this is done as part of a deliberate strategy to develop or rejuvenate an area. For example, the National Development and the Environment and Water Resources ministries will move to the Jurong Gateway area by 2015, along with the agencies under them.
As for park-and-ride schemes, an Asian Development Bank (ADB) report in November last year on Asian cities’ parking policies pointed out that such facilities were often built in high-density places ‘where park-and-ride is unlikely to be a cost-effective use of high-value space near mass transit’.
But in Singapore, many park-and-ride carparks are in residential areas, where they share space with residential carparks that would otherwise be empty in the daytime, the ADB report said.
However, Accenture’s Mr Lee suggested that Singapore faces a ‘last mile’ problem with both commuters and delivery services, exacerbated by its climate.
For example, due to the hot climate, commuters are far more willing to use the MRT train if they do not have to walk too far to the station. Those who live 800m from a station take half of their trips by car on average, whereas those who live less than 200m from the MRT travel by car only a quarter of the time.
But even if transport gets greener and more convenient, said Mr Lee, the question remains: who pays?
Whether the Government finances public transport, or operators bear the cost or pass it on to consumers, there is no easy answer.
Professor Lee from NUS is in favour of government help or incentives for newer or greener buses, such as hybrid buses.
‘The Government should take the lead and compose a mechanism to help or subsidise the operators,’ he said.
In Hong Kong, the MTR metro network has a novel financing model: it has the rights for developing land next to train stations.
The revenue that it gets from property activities helps to fund its rail infrastructure projects, so the costs are not borne by taxpayers or commuters alone.
Such transit-oriented models should be a key part of urban planning, said researchers like Prof Lee.
When it comes to planning and improving infrastructure, ‘public transport should undoubtedly enjoy the highest and clearest priority compared to private modes’, he said.
