EVALUATING ON-ROAD CYCLING SUITABILITY OF SINGAPORE �S ROADWAYS: A GIS-BASED APPROACH

Abstract

Cycling has in recent years been shown to provide numerous benefits to personal health and the urban environment. This has led to a rise in cycling’s popularity as both a recreational activity as well as a means of transport in Singapore. Unfortunately, conflict of uses occur often due to the lack of segregated space for cyclists in Singapore. The Park Connector Network (PCN) is being expanded to tackle this issue, but it will bring about high financial and labour costs. The similarly ubiquitous yet neglected alternative infrastructure used for cycling, the road network, has not been widely discussed among researchers and policy makers in Singapore. There is thus a need to comprehensively evaluate on-road cycle lanes as an alternative to the PCN’s off-road cycle paths.

This paper therefore aims to apply a Bicycle Level of Service (BLOS) framework, the Bicycle Compatibility Index (BCI), to Singapore roads. This will be done through the use of granular, nation-wide GIS data from the Land Transport Authority, Urban Redevelopment Authority and OpenStreetMap, with supplementary data from TomTom. I evaluate the cycling suitability for all road segments in Singapore, and summarize the BCI index by road types, planning areas and towns.

The results show that residential, unclassified and tertiary roads at least half of their roads which are moderately low in cycling suitability or better. Such roads are generally clustered together in older towns with more landed housing and are not linked by roads with high cycling suitability, but still are able to aid in connectivity. By adding a 2m wide cycle lane, these roads would go from moderately low suitability to very high suitability for cycling. A hybrid system of promoting cycling on low-traffic residential roads and linking them through off-road cycling paths on major roads is suggested to better utilise Singapore’s road network for cycling, and promote the “car-lite” movement by provide last-mile access to MRT and bus stations.