Making Singapore Greener, More Livable Environment Sustainable urban transportation is an important element of a greener and more livable environment.

SINGAPORE, KOMPAS.com – At her high-rise home in Compassvale Crescent in the city-state, Lianne Tan greeted me and other foreign journalists with a smile. The 48-year lecturer gave her guests a gracious welcome as she invited us in.

When she offered the guests local delicacies and some beverages, I could not resist a sip of a soft drink as I needed to cool down on a hot day.

The visit to Lianne’s flat on Aug. 2 was part of the study visit program organized by the Singapore International Foundation (SIF). The program has gathered 17 journalists from India, Malaysia, Cambodia, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Singapore. The journalists had the closer look at the way of life in Singapore, including through the interaction with Lianne.

When sharing her daily activities, she said that she lives with her husband and mother-in-law in a three-bedroom apartment with a spacious living room.

She also gave us a house tour. In her comfortable workspace, the walls are decorated with paintings and there is a bookcase in one corner of the room. As a lecturer at a polytechnic in Singapore, she has been conducting online learning during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Before the pandemic, Lianne relied heavily on public transportation in carrying out her daily activities. She used the MRT (mass rapid transit) to go to work.

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By using the MRT, the travel time from home is about 1.5 hours and her home is in close proximity to an MRT station, where it can be reached by foot in a few minutes.

For Lianne and her husband, public transportation in the city-state is very reliable and cheaper compared to owning a car. So, they decided not to own a car even though both of them could drive.

“Using public transportation is indeed more reliable. Even if we need a car, we just need to rent it,” said Lianne.

Livable environment

Sustainable urban transportation is an important element of a greener and more livable environment.

Singapore has invested heavily in public transport. Since 2018, Singapore has been implementing a zero-growth policy for the vehicle population.

Senior Minister and Coordinating Minister for National Security Teo Chee Hean said sustainable urban transportation is not just about replacing internal combustion engines in vehicles with electric vehicles.

The more fundamental system solution is to minimize the need for personal use cars, through well-integrated urban planning and a more comprehensive public transport system.

This was disclosed during the World Cities Summit 2022 Plenary with its theme Liveable and Sustainable Cities: Emerging Stronger at the Sands Expo and Convention Centre, Marina Bay Sands, Aug. 1.

“We aim to be a 45-minute city in 2040, nine out of ten trips between homes and workplaces will take less than 45 minutes on our public transport network, even during peak hours. Today, we are already two-thirds there,” he said.

Singapore government also aims to make cities more pandemic-resilient. He exemplified the design of Singapore Changi Airport’s new Terminal 5.

It has taken into how to let travelers enjoy a fully integrated and interactive experience in normal times, but be able to segment and separate traveler streams efficiently when needed.
Terminal 5 is expected to serve more than 30 million passengers a year.

“Achieving this for a city is many times more complex, especially if we have to retrofit this into existing cities, buildings, and transportation systems,” he said.

Green Plan

Singapore has set its own sustainability goals. Last year, they launched the Singapore Green Plan 2030 to catalyze a nationwide sustainability movement.

Indranee Rajah, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office and Second Minister for Finance and National Development, said the comprehensive plan charts ambitious and tangible targets over the next ten years.

“We want to strengthen Singapore’s economic, climate and resource resilience, improve the living environment of Singaporeans, and generate new business and job opportunities as part of green growth,” she said.

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Indranee said that Singapore will require a multi-stakeholder whole-of-nation effort to achieve its sustainability goals.

This will be enabled by a Green Government, with the public sector leading in environmental sustainability; and Green Citizenry, where individuals, communities, and businesses play their part.

“We also want to encourage our citizens to adopt a more environmentally friendly lifestyle and ease them into this green transition,” Indranee said.

According to Indranee, Singapore is continuing to invest heavily in public transportation. Singapore MRT network will grow from 230 kilometers today to 360 kilometers by the early 2030s.

“And we aim to raise the share of public transport trips up to 75 percent by 2030,” she said.
And also, the Singapore government will expand the cycling network to around 1.320 kilometers by 2030 to promote more walking, cycling, and active mobility.

Besides that, the Singapore Green Plan 2030 includes a strong push to electrify the vehicle population.

To support a switch to electric vehicles (EVs), Singapore will retrofit and develop eight public housing towns to be EV-ready with electric chargers at all public housing car parks in these towns by 2025.

Indranee said, “From about 2,000 charging points today, we will have 60,000 charging points nationwide by 2030.”

On different occasions, Deputy Government Chief Sustainability Officer Ministry of Sustainability and The Environment, Wang Weixiang said that the government is trying to make sure that they provide green commuters, so that means public transportation.

By 2030, they hope 75 percent of trips during peak periods to be on mass public transport. Another policy is for all new car and taxi registration to be of cleaner-energy models.

He said the government has committed that cars and taxis, every product that is sold, have to be clean energy vehicles, either hybrid or fully electric. “And to support that we make sure that car owners have access to charge 60.000 EV charging points by 2030.”

He is optimistic that the plan can be realized because the younger generation no longer associates having a car with social prestige. Now, things are progressively beginning to alter.

“For instance, I don’t own a car, I use public transportation,” he said.

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