As more and more Singaporeans own cars, it is clearly not possible for all of them to drive their cars to and from work every day. The only way to move large numbers of people efficiently in our densely populated city is by public transport. It is therefore critical that the public transport be made much more attractive to the vast majority of Singaporeans, including those who have access to cars.

For one, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) has introduced bus priority measures to speed up the buses and enhance their reliability. An example is the full-day bus lanes where buses can travel unimpeded by other traffic. These have improved bus speeds by an average of 7% and as much as 16% on some roads.

LTA will be making the coverage of our network of bus lanes more comprehensive, especially within the CBD. By June 2008, the network of normal bus lanes will be extended from 120km to 150km, and full-day bus lanes will triple from 7km to 23km.

Even with the bus lanes, buses are sometimes slowed down by other left-turning traffic at traffic light junctions. LTA will therefore be piloting a new scheme by end 2008, to give signal priority to buses at traffic light junctions, so that buses have right-of-way over other vehicles turning left into side roads.

Another key aspect of reducing travel times on the buses is to reduce the dwell time at bus bays. An SBST survey showed that up to 9% of travel time on buses is spent trying to get out of bus bays. To address this, LTA will make it mandatory for motorists to give way to buses exiting from bus bays by end 2008.

All these bus priority measures will help work towards increasing bus speeds to 20-25kph by 2009, up from the current 16kph for feeder buses and 19kph for trunk buses.

So do consider public transport as a viable alternative to the car. If more people do so, traffic congestion will ease and all of us can enjoy a quality urban environment now and into the future.

Last Updated: 19 February 2008