THE INFLUENCE OF THE PROPOSED LIGHT RAPID TRANSIT (LRT) ON TRAVEL DECISIONS

Abstract

The role of the LRT in the overall transportation plan is one that will integrate the LRT with other transportation modes to ensure a seamless journey for the commuters. In the boarder context, the LRT will integrate with town planning to ensure the efficient use of land resources, thereby removing the need to alter the other land uses in the future. The objective of this study was to examine the influence of the proposed LRT on the travel decisions of the residents in Bukit Panjang ( BP ) and Choa Chu Kang ( CCK ) New Towns. It aimed to establish whether the businesses of the shops in the town centre, the neighbourhood centres, and the local shops will be affected. Possible changes in the travel decisions of the respondents that would affect the other transportation modes. Examples of such impacts will be on the operation of the bus services in the New Towns. The results of the findings proved that the first hypothesis in BP was not conclusive. The results pointed to a shift of only 54 % of the bus-commuters respondents in BP to the LRT. On the other hand, the case for CCK was clear. The town has only 4 LRT stations and the LRT only serves to complement the bus services in the CCK New Town. The LRT will not replace the bus services in CCK. The most important factor listed by the respondents of BP and CCK were short walking distance to the LRT stations and fast LRTs. The factors affecting their decisions to switch were "frequency of the LRT" and "walking distances to the LRT stations" for BP and CCK respectively. All respondents do not value each factor just as important as the other factors. The results showed that hypothesis 2 does not hold in BP and CCK. Apparently, the most important factor did not correspond to the factor that will determine whether they will switch to the LRT. The last hypothesis for both the respondents of BP and CCK was held to be true. Both set of results indicated that the shops in the town centre will benefit from the improved transportation. The neighbourhood shops will be affected slightly while the worse hit will the local shops. The respondents also felt that the LRT will lead human traffic to the town centre.