Public transport for 6.5 million

Kelvin Teo

There has been a prevailing mindset that transport policies feature little in major climate change summits, neither does it occupy a high priority in climate change policies. For starters, less than 1% of climate-related funding under the Kyoto Protocol was devoted to transportation, despite the alarming fact that the transport sector is the fastest growing source of emissions and accounts for 23 percent of global energy-related carbon dioxide pollution.

There has been renewed interest in the role of transportation on carbon dioxide emissions, and this culminated in the “Next Steps After Copenhagen: Opportunities and Challenges in the Transport Sector” workshop that came on the heels of the COP-15 meetings. It was part of the annual Transforming Transportation conference held in Washington D.C., which was attended by 180 transport and climate change experts from local and national governments, multi-lateral development agencies, academic institutions, nonprofits and private companies.

However, the implications of current or future transportation policies become more and more significant, especially if the Singapore government’s population target of 6.5 million is factored in. Transport policies will be of increasing importance, especially when it comes to achieving the combination of efficiency of travel and reduction in emissions.

The Queensland Government of Australia has a unique way of maintaining a public transportation system that remains unaffected by traffic on the roads. Basically, the public buses ply on a separate motorway from the rest of the vehicles, which are also not allowed on the bus motorways. Besides, the buses run on natural gas fuel, which is cleaner and produces less carbon dioxide than its other fossil fuel counterparts.

The motorways that buses run on comprise a set of overhead bridges and underpasses, which allows them to bypass the normal roads and stop at strategic points. Strategic stop points can be underground or on elevated ground. These strategic points are also integrated with the train stations.

If the assumption that the population growth process will result in more vehicles on the road holds true, then there is a need to refurbish and upgrade our existing network of roads. More vehicles on our roads will have the double detrimental effect of inefficient traffic and increasing emissions.

However, the verdict is not out on whether Singapore can replicate the Queensland system of separate motorways for public buses. Singapore has a lack of land mass, which is a challenge per se, thus, it will take a massive amount of engineering construction to establish a series of underpasses and overhead motorways that will let the public buses run independent of the normal road traffic. The other challenge is to integrate these independent motorways into our existing infrastructure, e.g. from strategic MRT stations, CBD, etc.

That being said, establishing independent motorways for our public transport is not an impossibility. It is inevitable that the volume of public transport has to increase with the targeted rise in population. Thus, planners have to look at increasing volume of public transport without adding to the increase of traffic on our roads. Thus, establishing a set of alternative routes catering to our public buses only is one option.

Much has been discussed about the efficiency side of the traffic equation, but how about the emissions side? This is going to be a major concern with ramifications on the quality of life and health if there are more vehicles on the road. What can be done?

Assistant Professor Paul Barter, a transport policy expert from the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy suggested integrating our vehicle quota system with usage-based charging in a seminal paper published in Transport Policy. The Certificate of Entitlement (COE) is the manifestation of this vehicle quota system. Such will involve a new generation of electronic-based road-pricing integrated with our vehicle quota system.

Indeed, as Barter pointed out, it is already the Singapore government’s policy to move towards usage-based restraints. However, in recent years, the advent of automobile technology has seen the production of hybrid cars, which achieves greater fuel economy and less emissions. There is also the added fact that Singapore residents have rising aspirations for car ownerships, and the inability to achieve such will result in unhappiness.

Singapore’s planners have to achieve a three-pronged goal – being receptive to the populace’s expectations, reducing vehicle emissions and road congestions. The question is how such can be achieved? The solution is through a combination of creating incentives for hybrid or green car ownerships and usage-based charging.

Incentivising the use of environmentally-friendly vehicles can include reducing the COE prices for this category of vehicles for instance. This will satisfy the populace’s expectations, and fulfill the requirements for reduction of emissions. However, it will not ease the problem of congestion because roads will still be congested with environmentally-friendly cars. This is where the usage-charging comes in.

How can this usage-based charging be implemented? One solution is to integrate it with the existing normal and off-peak licenses. The usage charging for off-peak cars should be less than the normal ones. Barter suggested that the determination of how much the owner should pay can be based on taxing parts that wear with use, taxing fuel use or applying a distance charge.

The Singapore government has set a population target goal of 6.5 million. Without a shadow of doubt, peak traffic for both humans and the roads will increase. It is imperative that Singapore’s transport planners make provisions to cope with the increased demands on our transportation network.

There is no one size-fits all single policy that will work on its own. It includes a whole range of policies from upgrading public transport infrastructure to revising those on car ownership that will prepare Singapore for the demands of population increase.