REGIONAL CENTRES : A COMMUTING APPROACH

Abstract

Commuting has been one of the foremost concerns in our land scarce island-city. Regional centres have been created to divert businesses and in turn, traffic out of the Central Business District. The intention of these regional centres was to bring the jobs closer to the homes, thus reducing the time needed for travelling, and thus allow for a better quality of life.

Over the past eighteen years since the inception of the regional centres, discussions have focussed on the effects of office decentralisation and the projected commercial viability. Evaluation of these regional centres based on the location of facilities with respect to its accessibility by residents have however been lacking.

This study aims to assess regional centres based on the concept of walkability and explore the limitations of adopting such criteria. Findings have been developed through conducting a desk research. Recommendations that follow are based on the findings.

The main findings suggests that the planning of Tampines Regional Centre has made an attempt at providing the basic infrastructure needed to encourage walking. However the barriers identified have shown that implementing certain criteria in the past have failed.