Urban transport systems around the world are far from perfect, with even oft-cited top cities such as Hong Kong and Copenhagen having significant potential for improvement, said a recently released report that ranked Singapore sixth out of 84 cities for urban mobility.
Warning of a “looming crisis” as more of the world’s population move to cities and as travel habits change, the study found that on average, less than half the potential of urban mobility systems is unleashed today. Hong Kong emerged top in the index, with a score of only 58.2 out of a possible 100.
Singapore scored 55.6, trailing behind Stockholm, Amsterdam, Copenhagen and Vienna.
The index was developed by global management consultancy Arthur D Little, which also worked with the International Association of Public Transport to recommend strategies to improve the cities’ urban transport systems.
The 19 indicators of the urban mobility index included the financial attractiveness of taking public transport, the proportion of trips made on public transport, density of the cycling path network, car- and bicycle- sharing performances, as well as traffic-related fatalities and transport-related carbon-dioxide emissions.
Singapore’s public transport system is highly developed, said the report. It fared relatively well among the top 11 cities with an above-average score for proportion of trips made on public transport, the number of vehicles per capita and in smart-card penetration, but less so in traffic-related fatalities, bike- and car-sharing and transport-related emissions.
Singapore’s traffic-related fatalities was, in fact, the highest among the top 11 cities with 32.5 deaths per million citizens, the index showed.
Innovative solutions are already available, but operating environments are too fragmented and hostile to innovation, noted the report, which was released earlier this year.
“Moreover, a lot of mature cities do not yet have a clear vision and strategy on how their mobility systems should look in the future,” the report said. “In all too many cases, urban mobility plans look like Christmas wish lists with no clear reflection of the synergies or incompatibilities between the initiatives.”
For cities with mature urban mobility systems such as Singapore, Hong Kong and Seoul, the next step “must be to fully integrate the travel value chain to foster seamless, multi-modal mobility, while ensuring ‘one face to the customer’ and to increase the overall attractiveness of public transport by service extension”, it said.
Continue reading here to know more about what successful urban mobility strategy needs to satisfy the needs of people and businesses.
