Matthew Phan, Business Times 18 Jan 08;
Reach of subway track per square kilometre is too low, study claims
Singapore's garden city concept does little for nature and biodiversity.
(SINGAPORE) Singapore ranks poorly among global cities for the reach of its public transport system, according to a recent comparative study of 50 cities by Ooi Giok Ling from the National Institute of Education.
The Republic ranked 31st in terms of total length of public transportation lines per 1,000 people, Prof Ooi's study shows.
The mediocre ranking is not a function of the country's small size, said Kog Yue Chong, adjunct professor at the National University of Singapore, who presented Prof Ooi's findings on her behalf at a public seminar on Wednesday.
Singapore has just 0.1 km of subway track per square kilometre, compared with 0.4 km for Hong Kong, 1 km for London, and 4 km for Paris, said Dr Kog.
'We still have a very long way to go in terms of MRT transport. To reduce the car population, we need very good public transport,' he said.
BT requested a copy of the study but did not get a reply. Prof Ooi is on medical leave. The findings reported here are from the presentation slides.
Out of the 50 cities, Singapore also ranked 37th in terms of total length of reserved public transportation routes per thousand people.
Singapore ranked 20th in terms of total number of public transport vehicles per million people.
It also ranked 44th in terms of daily trips made by foot per person, and 8th in terms of daily trips made on public transport per person.
The study covered major cities in Europe, the US, Australia, Japan, China, India, South-east Asia and the Middle East. The European cities did especially well, said Dr Kog.
He also said Singapore's garden city concept does little for nature and biodiversity - a view echoed by many environmentalists here, including the Nature Society and its president Geh Min.
Instead, planners ought to think about urban biodiversity. Part of this, ironically, is to consider packing more people into a smaller area.
Cities should consider having higher population density, rather than expanding the urban area, said Dr Kog.
Singapore's density versus that of other cities is 'actually not high', even though Singapore's density is high on a country-wide basis, he said.
According to the City Mayors website, a Jan 2007 study ranked Singapore as the world's 29th densest city. The cities denser than Singapore were all from developing countries like India (Mumbai is the world's densest city), China and Latin America.
Within South-east Asia, Manila, Jakarta and Ho Chi Minh were also reported as denser than Singapore.
Dr Kog, who is president of East West Engineering Consultants, also said many buildings in Singapore are built in ways that force occupants to rely on air-conditioning, due to lack of ventilation.
The country cannot mandate against use of air-conditioning, but could legislate for building conditions that are less dependent on air-conditioning, he said.
