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Singapore Land
In line with its goal of providing fast, convenient,
and
affordable transport for its population and visitors and a
transportation infrastructure that supported its economic
position,
the government gave top priority to investments in public
transport
and the highway system. Beginning in the early 1970s,
Singapore
engaged in a systematic program of road building that led
to the
development of a network that was considered to be one of
the best
among developing countries. By late 1988, Singapore had
2,789
kilometers of roads occupying some 11 percent of the
country's land
area. In the previous decade, the government had spent
some S$1.9
billion on building and maintaining roads.
In 1989 five expressways--the thirty-five-kilometer Pan
Island
Expressway (PIE), the nineteen-kilometer East Coast
Parkway, the
eleven-kilometer Bukit Timah Expressway, the
fourteen-kilometer
Ayer Rajah Expressway, and the sixteen-kilometer Central
Expressway--were complete and work was underway on four
more
(see
fig. 9). The highway building program called for a network
of nine
expressways, for a total of 141 kilometers, to be
completed by
1991. Access to the Central Business District was limited
during
rush hour to holders of special passes sold on day-to-day
basis,
and a one-way street pattern further facilitated traffic
movement.
A computerized traffic control system, introduced in 1981,
monitored almost 200 major road junctions. The Public
Works
Department planned to put the remaining 800 signals
on-line in the
1990s, making Singapore's one of the largest traffic
control
systems in the world.
At the end of 1988, 491,808 motor vehicles were
registered, an
increase of 20,000 over the previous year. Nearly half of
registered vehicles were automobiles. In order to
implement a
government policy of limiting the number of private
automobiles, a
number of monetary disincentives were employed, including
heavy
annual road taxes, fuel taxes, ad valorem registration
fees, and
other licenses and fees.
Taxi fares also were kept reasonable in order to reduce
traffic
flow into and out of congested areas during rush hour. By
late
1988, Singapore's 10,500 taxis were mostly air-conditioned
and
equipped with electronic taximeters. Most taxis were
driven twentyfour hours a day by a succession of drivers. The largest
company,
NTUC Comfort, was affiliated with the union. A fleet of
nearly
2,800 buses also helped to alleviate the need for private
automobiles. The Singapore Bus Service and the
Trans-Island Bus
Service provided full-day service throughout the island.
In 1987 land transportation was propelled into a new
era with
the opening of the S$5 billion Mass Rapid Transit (MRT)
system,
which formed the backbone of the country's public
transport network
(see
fig. 10). The entire MRT system, spanning 67
kilometers, was
expected to be fully operational by 1990--two years ahead
of
schedule--when it would serve 800,000 passengers daily.
The bus
routes were being progressively redesigned to dovetail
with the
expanding system. Some 40 percent of all businesses and
industrial
areas were located near stations, and some 50 percent of
all
Singaporeans lived within one kilometer of an MRT station.
The
infusion of MRT construction funds into the economy
beginning in
the early 1980s helped offset downturns in other sectors
of the
construction industry during the recession.
Overland connections to the Malay Peninsula, across the
causeway spanning the Johore Strait, included a highway
and a
Malaysian-owned railroad. These, in turn, were connected
with the
Thai railroad system.
Data as of December 1989
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