Singapore is one of the world’s top cities for sustainable transport

Aqilah Allaudeen Business Insider 30 Oct 17;

Singapore has been ranked as one of the world’s top cities for sustainable transport, according to the 2017 Sustainable Cities Mobility Index.

Hong Kong led the pack, while Seoul (No. 4) and Singapore (No. 8) were the only other Asian countries in the top 10 spots.

Europe dominated the list, with cities like Zurich, Paris and Prague occupying seven of the top 10 ranks.

But while the three Asian cities performed well, others like Hanoi and Kuala Lumpur were ranked as some of the world’s least sustainable for mobility.

The index released by Arcadis, a global design and consultancy for natural and built assets, examined 100 cities across 23 indicators to give an indicative ranking of the mobility and sustainability of the systems in place in each city.

And it took three main pillars into consideration – social (People), environmental (Planet), and economic (Profit).

2017 Sustainable Cities Mobility Index

Singapore came in ninth under the People pillar of sustainability, 15th under the Planet pillar of sustainability and 13th under the Profit pillar of sustainability – but had the best balance of scores across the three pillars.

This was aligned with the finding that cities that ranked higher had a good balance across all three pillars.

The increasingly digital city also seems to be on the right track to becoming a Smart Nation after scoring a perfect 100% for its transport and digital applications.

It also scored 100% for encouraging residents to switch to Electric Vehicles – an essential step in ensuring a lower emissions future – and 99% for its provision of green space.

And Singaporeans won’t have to worry too much about their safety either, with the country being regarded as one of the safest places in the world to be a driver or a pedestrian, after reporting one of the lowest number of traffic fatalities.

With large government initiatives geared towards improving Singapore’s sustainability and mobility, “it will be very interesting to see the effect of projects such as ‘CAR-LITE’, Singapore’s 15-year plan to reduce reliance on petrol-fueled cars,” says Tim Risbridger, country head for Singapore at Arcadis.

But it is not all rays of sunshine for the city state. While efforts are being made to curb “bike dumping” of shared bicycles, the city state still has poor bicycle infrastructure compared to cities such as Shanghai.

The top 10 cities for sustainable transport are: 1. Hong Kong 2. Zurich 3. Paris 4. Seoul 5. Prague 6. Vienna 7. London 8. Singapore 9. Stockholm 10. Frankfurt