Improve our public transport system to reduce reliance on cars

Letter from Jose Raymond

Executive Director, Singapore Environment Council

WE REFER to the announcement “New dual four-lane road in Bukit Brown to ease heavy traffic” (Sept 13), about the planned construction of a new road by 2016 that will cut across Bukit Brown Cemetery.

According to the Land Transport Authority, there are heavy traffic jams along Lornie Road during morning and evening peak hours, with traffic expected to increase between 20 and 30 per cent by 2020.

To accommodate construction of the road and the proposed residential development, it is obvious the graves at the cemetery, where several Singapore pioneers such as Chew Boon Lay, Gan Eng Seng, Lee Hoon Leong, Lee Choo Neo and Tay Ho Swee, to name a few, will have to be exhumed over time.

The road construction will also put considerable stress on the area’s ecosystem.

For example, Bukit Brown Cemetery is home to the rare White-Bellied Woodpecker and Spotted Wood Owl, which are listed as threatened species in the Singapore Red Data Book 2008.

If alleviating traffic congestion is the aim of the new road, perhaps the authorities should examine and understand why Singaporeans are increasingly turning to car ownership and usage, leading to a greater demand of road space and, consequently, congestion.

More should be done to improve our public transport system, so that members of the public will be inclined to take public transport as opposed to driving.

While measures such as Electronic Road Pricing and road enhancement remain as options by the authorities, they must be accompanied by viable alternatives to draw people away from car usage.

For this, the public transport operators, bus and rail companies alike, must continue to find ways to improve their systems, networks and service levels so that commuters can get to their destinations quickly and in comfort.

This will encourage more people to trust public transport as a reliable, appealing alternative to driving and, eventually, could lead to a reduction of our national greenhouse gas emissions.

More importantly, green spaces like Bukit Brown Cemetery and its surroundings, which are rare and of historic value, can be saved for future generations to appreciate.

thIs Is  lEttEr  frOm  a  vEry  ImpOrtAnt  persOn  }VIP{

If vandals ... can easily break into the depots and vandalise the trains without getting spotted, it is a serious security breakdown.

Train safety above all

Letter from Patrick Tan

SMRT chief executive Saw Phaik Hwa may be a woman of many talents who may spend her time inspecting toilets, as reported by T

But what is important to me and fellow Singaporeans is train safety. When my children take the train daily, I need to know they are safe. If vandals, who are not trained in stealth and infiltration operations, can easily break into the depots and vandalise the trains without getting spotted, it is a serious security breakdown.

If people can easily fall onto the tracks and get maimed, then our safety standards are not up to mark.

If I cannot board a train unless I am boarding at the first station, it means our trains are overcrowded and accidents are waiting to happen.

The only consolation is that Ms Saw acknowledged she had been a retail person and not a transport person.

Our MRT stations have become spanking, upmarket retail malls.

{Generating  UNnecesary  EXTRA  TRAFFIC  ? ? ? ?} 

But how does that help commuters?oday on Sunday in “The art of moving people” (Sept 18).

财经人语 “治堵”还须控制车数量

（2010-12-27）

Why not raise usage taxes?

Letter from Kelvin Seah Kah Cheng

I REFER to “Rises in COE premiums: Were speculative elements the cause?” (Dec 24).

I am glad to learn of the Ministry of Transport’s decision to limit the number of certificates of entitlement (COEs) available to the market.

Although the immediate impact of this move is to increase the costs involved in buying a vehicle which may hurt aspiring car owners, it will, nevertheless, pave the way for a more sustainable pattern of vehicle growth in the long run.

However, I am wondering whether the higher COE prices might actually have an unintended effect of increasing vehicle usage instead.

With COE prices reaching a high of $76,000, the fixed costs associated with a car purchase are now much steeper than before.

To make the most of their expensive purchases, new car owners might just decide to increase their usage levels.

After all, usage charges will now be low, relative to the cost of the vehicle itself.

As such, even a visit to the neighbourhood mall or market may be worth a car ride, from the perspective of the new car owner.

Perhaps a better way to control traffic congestion and vehicle usage is to increase usage taxes such as electronic road prices and parking charges rather than imposing a tighter restriction on the number of COEs available.

It might be useful for the Ministry to review behavioural research from other jurisdictions which study how vehicle usage intensities are affected by variables such as the fixed cost of a vehicle and usage taxes; contemplate the successes, failures and lessons of the transport policies of these countries, and examine if certain best practices can be assimilated to fit the local context, in order to arrive at the optimal road use policy.