1.0 Introduction
Tampines is the first new town in Singapore to adopt a dedicated cycling path under the National Cycling Plan. The National Cycling Plan is a government initiative by the Land Transport Authority of Singapore to promote safe cycling by segregating pedestrians from cyclists.
Referring to the National Cycling Plan, there are six other towns which include Yishun, Sembawang, Taman Jurong, Pasir Ris, Changi-Simei and Bedok. Marina Bay will construct such cycling paths to facilitate travelling to reach main transport nodes and key local amenities.
According to AsiaOne News, the Senior Parlimentary Secretary for Transport and Community Development, Youth and Sports, Mr Teo Ser Luck commented that the provision of cycling paths was aimed to encourage the residents to pick up cycling as a mode of transport as to curb rising oil prices and vehicle congestion issue.
Recently, Tampines Bicycle Town has been launched in anticipation of the growing population of cycling enthusiasts. This is also in tandem with the government’s stand for a green environment for people to live in. However, we find that the connectivity within some parts of Tampines is not well defined.
Tampines Cycling Path (Source: Land Transport Authority)
1.1 Objective
We aim to improve the connectivity of the bicycle path in Tampines, which can be the catalyst to encourage higher participation from the residents. Spatial analysis is used to create a suitability map in order to identify new suitable cycling paths in the future.
Next, we will be discussing about the benefits of bicycling, importance of connectivity within a region and economic benefits of cycling path.
1.2 Literature Review
Benefits of Bicycling and Walking
As petrol prices hover around $2 per litre, and COE prices reaching new heights, bicycling around the community has become an important transportation alternative. People who choose to ride rather than drive are typically replacing short drives, which ironically contributes high amounts of pollutant emissions. Moreover, bicycling move people effectively from one place to another without adverse impacts to the environment.
As the car population has increased significantly over the years, whereby contributing to the higher COE prices over the years, it has also resulted in heavily congested transportation networks. On the contrary, using bicycles can be seen as a good solution to ease traffic congestion and packed public transportation systems as bicycles require less infrastructure needs and space as compared to automobile uses. Improvements to the existing infrastructure can contribute to safer conditions for the cyclist as well as other stakeholders. It can also ease congestion around schools, where parents tend to pick up their children after school or send their children to school.
The use of bicycling also helps to foster a sense of neighbourhood togetherness and community. This is a result of the residents cycling within their neighbourhoods, which allows them to interact with their surrounding community. However, the utility level experienced by each individual may differ according to their expectation.
Importance of Connectivity
According to the Victoria Transport Policy Institute (VTPI), connectivity refers to the directness of links and the density of connections in path or road network. A path network is considered well-connected where it has many short links, intersections, and minimal dead-ends which enable the most efficient travelling from one point to the other. This reason being that when the level of connectivity increases, it shortens travel distances and provides more route options, thus enabling more direct travel between destinations, making the transportation system more accessible. (Online TDM Encyclopedia,2005)
Moreover, it can be a hassle to cycle if the connectivity around a region is poor. The lack of connectivity will discourage people from bicycling as it will increase the travelling distance from one point to another.
A well connected path network has many short linkages, abundant intersections and minimal cul-de-sacs. Research showed connectivity has a negative relationship with travel distances and a positive relationship with route options (Kulash, Anglin, Marks, 1990).
Based on our literature reviews, the main focus of this study is to develop a suitability model to provide the road planners with a quantitative tool, keeping in mind of the relationship between social facility with bicycle demand as a key variable for area development and planning. In essence, the model incorporates a weighting procedure that evaluates the appropriate paths in conjunction with land use pattern, which is in line with the National Cycling Plan for the Tampines New Town to be identified as the pilot town for the improved cycling path project.
Economic Benefits of Cycling Path
The construction of walking and cycling paths allows more residents to reduce automobile trips by adopting non-motorized trips such as walking and bicycling. According to the National bicycling and Walking Study (NBWS) final report, the provision of walking/ cycling paths allows the American public to save about 3 to 14 cents for every automobile kilometer displaced by walking and bicycling. The cost savings are derived from the reduction of carbon emission, oil costs, and costs of congestion.
Furthermore, although there is no conclusive evidence suggesting the provision of cycling path will induce more cyclists, it is expected to provide several benefits from an urban planning perspective. Other than economic consideration, it will increase community interaction and reduce neighborhood segregation through improved connectivity, in a social context. Also, establishing more open space and enhancing greeneries with reduced noise and air pollution with the increase in number of cyclists.
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