A lesson in transportation from Singapore
by Fresh EnergyBy Elena Velkov, media center coordinator, Fresh Energy
Travelling through Southeast Asia for the last three weeks, I found myself at the home of extended family in the beautiful land of Singapore. Most immediately striking was its cleanliness (not a piece of garbage anywhere), closely followed by its beautifully-manicured greenery and tropical flowers. However, after moving beyond its physical beauty, I was quickly struck by its incredible transportation and urban planning.
For such a small area with so many people (259 square miles, 4.5 million people), I was astounded that we never ran into traffic, even when driving through downtown at rush hour. My relatives assured me this was the rule and not the exception. In their three years in Singapore, they could remember hitting a traffic jam only once. They said they could hardly call any other slightly slowed traffic a “jam” because it always passes so quickly that it is hardly even noticeable. My family speaks with great pride about this perk of living in Singapore, and they attribute it to the “exceptional efficiency of the government.”
So how does the Singapore government do it? First, it gives residents extensive transportation choices. Trains and buses span the island, making it possible to get virtually anywhere without a car. What’s more, transit is comfortable. All the buses are clean and have AC, and the majority have TVs that play the local news. If a person does need to travel by car, though, taxis are a great option. They are regulated by GPS, so drivers are not able to run residents off course. But since taxis do contribute to congestion, rates shift, according to the time of day. They are cheaper at night and more costly during business hours. Finally, the government keeps the streets clear by discouraging people to drive individual cars. Buyers have an additional charge or “Certificate of Entitlement” when they purchase a new car. My family recently purchased a Toyota Carolla. It would have cost about $15,000 in the U.S., but in Singapore, it cost $50,000. It doesn’t end there. All cars have a mandatory charge card in front of the driver’s seat that conveniently automatically deducts in places like parking garages. However, it also automatically deducts when a person enters into the busier parts of Singapore, and the cost is higher during busier hours. A person must keep their charge card filled with money to avoid a ticket.
While Singapore and the Twin Cities are completely different places, their accessibility to good urban planning should be comparable. Singapore is 25 miles east-west and 14 miles north-south, which is roughly the distance from Minnetonka to Woodbury and from Robbinsdale to Richfield. Singapore has a population of about 4.5 million people, and the Twin Cities has roughly 3 million. If the two places are roughly the same size, and the Twin Cities has fewer people, why is traffic here virtually unavoidable during rush hour? Certainly it would be wrong to assume that the Metro area’s economy would be immediately conducive to Singapore’s Certificate of Entitlement charges, but it is safe to assume that traffic could be dispersed with better transit choices. I for one would love to know how it would feel to only run into a traffic jam once every three years.
January 8th, 2009 at 7:40 pm
I posted a number of replies to this on the Fresh Energy Website and I won’t reiterate my points again here. It is easy to be impressed by Singapore and there is truly much to admire. However, the “not a piece of garbage anywhere”, while true conceals a concerning disregard for resource use.
Singapore has a lot of money. SIngapore can afford to pick up garbage EVERY DAY and their are also rules about not littering (although seldom enforced). In the seven years that I lived there I was dismayed by the huge number of plastic bags I accumulated every time I went to the market. The clerks would routinely put two or three items in each bag to my great frustration. Unfortunately there is not a great recycling program and I’m sure the garbage was quickly taken away from the island and either landfilled (presumably in Indonesia or Malaysia) or dumped at sea. So I guess I would encourage readers to not read too much into the “not a piece of garbage anywhere” comment.
Traffic might be better in Singapore than here; however, I assure you there are plenty of traffic jams (see my response at Fresh Energy). What is of interest here is that the jams still happened but at different points in the traffic system. Many motorists would slow waaaay down toward the end of peak road pricing hours so that they could avoid fees or avoind the Central Business District entirely causing jams in other places.
January 8th, 2009 at 7:55 pm
Correction – Most of Singapore’s waste is incinerated. The ash is shipped to a smaller “landfill island” Pulau Semakau eight kilometers south of the mainland. This landfill island (actually land reclaimed from the sea) opened in 1999 after the last of five mainland landfills closed.
To give an idea of the amount of trash Singapore generates, over 2,000 tons of ash are shipped to this island
The National Environment Agency predicts a new multimillion dollar incinerator will be needed every five to seven years, and a new landfill like Pulau Semakau every 25 to 30 years.
So. . .while the trash may not be visible in SIngapore, it is a serious problem. Especially given that recycling isn’t part of the culture as yet.
January 9th, 2009 at 10:36 am
HI Sarah. I will reiterate my comments too. As far as Singapore’s traffic– I wrote based off the anecdotes that my family provided me. They told me, exactly, that they had only run into bad traffic once in the last three years. I’m not sure why the reactions were and are so different. As for Singapore’s cleanliness– I should have specified that a person rarely sees a piece of litter on the street. Truly, it was the most immediately striking thing about the country to me. However, as you pointed out, that doesn’t mean that Singapore is devoid a waste problem in general.