Singapore To Stop Adding Cars to City From February 2018 (bloomberg.com)

An anonymous reader shares a report: Singapore, among the world's most expensive places to own a vehicle, will stop increasing the total number of cars on its roads next year. The government will cut the annual growth rate for cars and motorcycles to zero from 0.25 percent starting in February, the transport regulator said on Monday. "In view of land constraints and competing needs, there is limited scope for further expansion of the road network," the Land Transport Authority said in a statement on its website. Roads already account for 12 percent of the city-state's total land area, it said. Smaller than New York City, land in Singapore is a precious commodity and officials want to ensure the most productive use of the remaining space. Its infrastructure is among the world's most efficient and the government is investing $21 billion more on rail and bus transportation over the next five years, the regulator said.

Comments

Dont think commoners would even notice it

[Daneel Olivaw R.]

Lived that for four years, exceptional public transport (dare I say best in the world)... also the taxi fares are dirty cheap.

Re:Confused..

[squiggleslash]

Like roads on top of roads.

Your solution is to block out the sun?

The problem is supporting cars without destroying the cities. The experience in the US is that it's just not possible, you can do one or the other. Try to shoehorn cars into cities and replan them around cars, and you end up destroying the cities by removing walkability, and significantly reducing the attractiveness of city living. Your "Roads on top of roads" solution has been part implemented by various cities, but it has limits, not least what I just said - you'd be literally blocking out the sun at street level, creating a miserable place to live.

The solution is to accept that cities aren't a car friendly place, and cars aren't city friendly, and to plan accordingly. Build parking lots on the edges of cities and create good, quality, transit for intracity transportation.

I don't have a hate-on against cars because they're cars

It's easier for car nuts to demonize people who like cities as having "hate ons" than address the very real practical issues related to creating "car friendly cities." The fact is, they just don't work. The solution isn't the American "Well ban cities then and force everyone to drive!" BS, it's to create a multitude of spaces and let people decide for themselves what tradeoffs they want. Want to live in a city? Give up the car. Want a car? Live in the suburbs.

Whenever I suggest giving people choices might be an option, I inevitably get a "UR FORCING ME TO WALK!" rant, which in all honesty, is similar to your own. But the solution isn't to transcend rationality. Yeah, suburbs in SG are out of the question, so in this one instance, cars are just not going to cut it. Maybe the markets can come up with another way to create personal vehicles that'd be compatible with Singapore's unique situation. But for now, no, I don't think anyone's going to say that your right to drive outranks the right of everyone to see sunlight.