Traffic congestion has long been a significant problem of all urbanized countries. This is evident especially during ‘rush hour’ which happens twice a day where people are commuting either to or from work. It is hard to avoid such phenomenon unless one lives and work at the same place. However, this is not to be.
Urbanization called for the spatial division between place of work, living and leisure. This took place even in the ancient city of Rome and transcended upon the design of any modern city. The spatial division was called on so as to organize the city better to enhance the efficiency of running the city by the authorities. Such idea is better known as gridding.
With gridding, the need for roads also took place. This would enhance commuting between places thus adding to the efficiency of running the city. The city has also been separated between sectors of residence, sectors for commerce, sector for industry etc. Obvious reason would be that air pollution caused by the factories would not affect the other sectors (residence for example) as they are often situated far from each other.
As a result, the need to commute became an increasingly big problem every day. Cities such as Bangkok often result in huge jams which could last for hour. Thus, workers eventually get to work late or if not, they would simply rise up early enough hoping to escape the perils of rush hour. Either way, the standard of living of the urbanites is largely affected because they are not able to enjoy the quality of life (lack of sleep) that urbanization had promised. They were also affected by the air pollution caused by the number of vehicles on the road.
Singapore is not excluded from this.. However, its government had taken measures to curb this issue. One of its foremost policies was to raise the prices of cars by increasing the taxes at an incredible sum. Thus, cars in Singapore were priced around 200% more than those found in other countries. In addition to that, drivers had to pay other fees such as pricey road. However, this didn’t work well as the standard of living of Singaporeans was constantly improving along with their spending power. Hence, such price obstacles were of little effect.
Thus, the government implemented the Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) system in September 1998 to further curb the jams that were mainly caused by vehicles going into the CBD[i]. This is a good policy in a sense that it actually deterred drivers from driving into the CBD thus eliminating the issue of a traffic jam every morning and evening. While so, it also fuelled of other social implications.
One of the social implications was that it actually created a system of class stratification. Because of it is expensive ($2.50, New Bridge Road gantry)[ii] especially during peak hours, it actually made the class division further to those who can drive (upper class) and those who couldn’t afford to (lower class).
In addition to that, many jobs were also affected. Delivery drivers and also despatch riders (not forgetting the taxi drivers) also had to content with this issue as well as they too had to travel into the CBD to make deliveries or pick up passengers(for taxi drivers). However, this only implicated a higher cost for the companies that they were worked for and often, these companies do not want to foot the bill of this new (annoying) contraception. Thus, their jobs were affected to.
While the Singapore government is constantly trying to come up with new ways to curb the traffic jams in Singapore, its policy had also affected the lives of many as well despite the fact that its main purpose was to improve the standard of living. However, with many drivers now opting to take public transport instead, it has actually caused massive human traffic jams in public transport(such as the MRT) as people are actually crammed in like a can of sardines. Thus, there isn’t much comfort in the process of commuting there.
The rush hour will continually be a problem that needs to be solved as this is one of the greatest bane that urbanization has ever contributed to society: the need to commute.
[i] Electronic road pricing in Singapore Road & Transport Research, Dec 1999 by Luk, J Y Khttp://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3927/is_/ai_n8875414
[ii]http://www.onemotoring.com.sg/publish/onemotoring/en/on_the_roads/ERP_Rates.html
