Public Transport: The Vital connection

Dr Ooi Giok Ling, Today Online 14 Apr 08;

The debate on how to persuade car owners to forsake their vehicles and opt for public transport is intriguing.

Behavioural change is an area of policy impact that continues to challenge all governments. In Singapore, the long-standing Courtesy campaign has been made over into the Kindness campaign. The anti-littering campaign has seen thousands of corrective work orders issued over the years. There are also efforts to discourage smoking in public, keep toilets clean and recycle.

What then are the prospects for influencing behavioural change among car owners?

Much of the effort in keeping cars off the road has focused on financial deterrents on ownership and usage. These have managed traffic congestion and maintained credibly high travelling speeds even in busy parts of the city. But they have, over the years, given cars and car ownership a "prestige" status.

Car owners are generally viewed to be better off than the people commuting via public transport since they can afford these high-priced consumer goods. In Singapore, I have been constantly told that material considerations continue to be important measures of success.

The effort to step up the frequency of bus and train services can be helpful to get working commuters to trade their cars for public transport.

Greater use of information network intelligence to up the marksmanship of taxis, in terms of where passengers are waiting in queues, can also help.

But the effort to make commuting via bus, train and taxi more seamless should also contribute toward persuading car owners that they are not making sound decisions in keeping their vehicles. This means the connecting points among the different modes of public transport as well as the location of bus stops and pick-up points should be as convenient as possible.

Connectivity is a key factor in whether car owners are going to think of public transport as a viable and convenient alternative. Information network intelligence here is crucial — if a car owner has never travelled on a bus or train before, he or she may be clueless about which services to take to their destinations.

Services ranging from hotlines to Internet sites and podcasts will be important to keep car owners informed about how they can reach their destination more conveniently and less stressfully via bus, train and taxi. Public transport providers need to do more to generate higher ridership figures. The taxi service also needs to professionalise — and fast — with regards to taking the shortest and most pleasant routes. Cabbies could even keep passengers informed where they can take trains or buses to their destinations.

In short, public transport providers have to do more than keeping services running and disruptions to a minimum while reporting healthy revenues to their boards and shareholders. They should be required to bring about healthy increases in ridership annually, which can be achieved by upping service standards to keep commuters coming back for more rides.

The proposal to give car owners cash rebates when they scrap their cars is an option that is being debated. Another option would be to offer car owners shares in public transport companies or bus, train and taxi rebates. This option links car owners and the effort to take cars off the road directly to public transport.

Transport Minister Raymond Lim has pointed out it is unsustainable to continue to widen roads or cut more of these through heritage and historical sites or residential areas. Not only will noise pollution become a major headache and lower the value of homes located near busy flyways and byways, the urban and social fabric of our city will be harshly affected.

Compare Holland Village and aspiring bohemian places such as Upper Thomson, Balestier, Siglap and Joo Chiat. Having six-lane roads separating shops and eateries make for a less congenial environment compared to narrower two-lane roads for pedestrians to cross comfortably.

More effort has to be made to make car owners feel virtuous about giving up their cars in terms of how much more sustainable our city can become. The challenge is in getting car owners to make a lifestyle change and take that short walk to an MRT station or a bus stop.

Sustainability is not an everyday thought that occurs to car drivers, but it has to be translated urgently into terms that they can understand. This is crucial if the aim is to ultimately bring about behavioural changes not only among Singapore car drivers but also consumers of products with high carbon footprints.

The writer is a professor in humanities and social studies at the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University. The views expressed are her own.