A STUDY OF CYCLING ACCESSIBILITY TO COMMERCIAL AMENITIES IN YISHUN NEW TOWN

Abstract

Cycling is gaining more attention nowadays in urban development and transportation planning in Singapore. Notwithstanding, the local cycling infrastructure mostly serve as leisure purpose or commuting way connecting to transportation nodes, such as MRT stations and bus interchanges. With the launch of the National Cycling Plan, Intra-Town Cycling networks and Park Connector Networks started to be constructed in residential towns. This also facilitates cycling as an access mode to public amenities in neighbourhoods, apart from being purely utilitarian or recreational like it previously was before. More conveniently accessible amenities contribute to economic activity as well as an increase in the quality of life for residents. This paper aims to study cycling as an access mode to the neighbourhood amenities by using commercial amenities as the focal point. It seeks to investigate if the current implementation of cycling plan would contribute to higher cycling accessibility; and whether the cycling accessibility has an effect on amenity cycling access. Additionally, it intends to identify what are the determinant factors for cycling accessibility. To establish the correlation of cycling accessibility and amenity cycling usage level, 4 commercial amenities in Yishun New Town have been selected as the main case studies. An evaluation framework was set up to assess and compare the cycling accessibility across 4 sites. The framework was based on the knowledge of Singapore cycling context and preceding literature on cycling accessibility. Through comparative analysis, the research finds out that better cycling accessibility contributes to greater cycling access to commercial amenities. Four determining factors are Road Quality (Width), Smoothness from the Infrastructure Variable, as well as Cycling Entrance and Cycling Service (Parking) from the Amenity Variable.