PROPOSED TRANSPORT PLANNING MODELS TO BETTER MANAGE TRAFFIC IN SINGAPORE

Abstract

With a limited land space in Singapore, the task of managing the road infrastructure in the country will become more and more challenging in the future as Singapore copes with the scarce resources to deal with the demand for private transportation. With the increasing affluence of the population, it is highly possible that more and more citizens would be able to afford private transportation and as such, increasing the number of vehicles leading to issues of traffic congestion, which exist in cities of all sizes.

The key findings of this report are the various different Intelligent Transport System (ITS) methods and tolling methods. This report also highlighted on Singapore’s Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) method whereby continual reliance on this system is critiqued. Of which, the Pay-As-You-Drive (PAYD) method and Travel Demand Management (TDM) are identified as the most prominent systems to replace the current ERP systems.

Surveys were conducted on a sample size of 600 people based on random stratified method to find out their opinions toward congestion issue in Singapore. The null hypothesis assumed in this study was that there is no statistical difference between the two groups of respondents, public transport commuters and private vehicle owners on the congestion problem. And based on statistics from the Singapore Department of Statistics, various Census data were explored to illustrate on the shortage of supply (road) that were insufficient to deal with the increasing demand (for cars), as well as the current status of demand. This report also highlighted on the future plans on the railway lines and new ERP gantries, slated to be constructed within the next five years.

Finally, the report concludes that transport planning is crucial to ensure a smooth traffic, safe environment and brings socio-economical benefits to the country. Better transport planning would ideally result in minimal time and money wastage arising from congestion. And in this case of Singapore, an integrated transport-planning model involving the trains, buses and management strategies is recommended. Of which, further studies such as the feasibility of PAYD replacing the ERP system, using “stacking-effect” method for train storage and roping in government policies to prevent repetitive road works, were suggested.