Singapore Road Traffic Control

As vehicle numbers grow, cities around the world face serious road traffic congestion problems. On some major roads can be so bad that speeds are 10 km/h or lower, slower than a bicycle. The costs include lost work and leisure time, increased fuel consumption, air pollution, health problems, stress, and discomfort. Furthermore, congestion slows the movement of goods and services, adding to the price of products and reducing the competitiveness of business. This essay will examine three of the policies implemented by the government to control road traffic in Singapore.

One obvious way to discourage private car usage in Singapore is to provide an efficient and convenient public transport system. Singapore invested, in the past decade, S$ 7.5 billion in its transportation sector, of which S$ 5.2 billion was on the Mass Rapid Transit (MRT), rail and public transport, and S$ 2.3 billion was on roads. The extensive MRT network encourages commuters to utilize the rail

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They also pay only 30 per cent of the normal road tax. Others who might benefit include the relatively few who work the late-night shift, such as nightclub staff. The network is spread across the island covering key constituencies and areas of interest.

Another one of the policies that helps the government in controlling road traffic in Singapore, is the Electronic Road Pricing (ERP). The government hopes to extend this system to other congested areas throughout the island. Although many complain that the ERP has the potential to be misapplied for tracking of road users by unscrupulous authorities, resulting in an invasion of individual privacy and a violation of human rights, it has, nevertheless, been successful so far in controlling road traffic in Singapore. In addition, Singapore aims to have 75 per cent of all trips made by public transport (50 per cent now).

The Week-End Cars (WEC) scheme, implemented in 1991, is another policy which has helped the government in controlling road traffic in Singapore. The above- mentioned transport-related policies go a long way in controlling road traffic in Singapore and in fulfilling the aims of the transport policy. The key attraction of the WEC scheme is that buyers not only get a rebate but can obtain COEs which are often S$10,000 to S$30,000 cheaper than normal car COEs. The current construction of North-East MRT Line will link the World Trade Centre with the new housing estates of Sengkang and Punggol. It was a first cut at reducing car fees for those who did not need cars during the busiest periods. For this reason, bus fares have been kept reasonable.

Approximate Word count = 679
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

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