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

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.

Re:My guess is...

[taiwanjohn]

Hardly anyone will notice, since they only have 12~14 cars per 100 people in Singapore (different sources give slightly different numbers) and they have a world-class public transit system which makes car ownership more of a hassle than it's worth.

Here in Taipei it's similar, but less so... Overall car ownership in Taiwan is about twice that of Singapore, but that includes a ton of rural area, which Singapore lacks. In a big city with excellent public transit, there's really no need for a car. Hell, I even gave away my scooter a few years ago.

I'd say the bulk of the traffic in Taipei is: a) local "fleet" vehicles like taxis, buses, delivery vans; b) commuters to and from the surrounding 'burbs; c) scooters, motorcycles, bicycles, etc.. Commuters in the 'burbs tend to have a designated parking space at their apartment block, and another designated space at their employer in the city. Commuters who live in the city are far less likely to have a designated parking spot at home*, so they may spend half an hour looking for one when they get home from work. Major PITA.

OTOH, with public transit you can get all the way across town in under 45 minutes for $1~2 USD, or you can cut that time in half (depending on traffic) by taking a taxi for about $8~12 USD.

I do enjoy driving -- growing up in Iowa, I drove all the time, from age 14 -- but living in a city like Taipei, I'm quite happy NOT owning a car, or any motor vehicle, for that matter.

* Due to land availability, a higher percentage of residential housing in Taipei is "old construction" from the days when common folk didn't own cars. Newer construction (say, the last 30 years) tends to always include parking, but there's been more new construction in the open lands outside the city, and since the rent tends to be cheaper, a lot of people live there.