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Motor vehicles travel too Fast on SG Roads


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If you want to condone the likes of Gavin type of cycling behavior and increase the "vibrancy", only way is to change the whole eco system to match the behaviour by changing it to 30kmh, ideally you created a whole landscape of gavin friendly cycling track.

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knn, when did we need a british to tell us what to do.

 

anw are we PAYING  her any thing or not??

 

They have motorways that are choke up with traffic and they come over here to advise?

 

Why dont they advise FREE road tax and FREE entry for cars with low emission??? thats their forte and doing quite well in UK.

Edited by Sdf4786k
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some kind soul copy paste the premium article for cheapo like me please..

 

so I can also join in to bash !

 

Motor vehicles travel too fast on the streets of Singapore, said a British expert as she called for speed limits on all non-expressways to be slowed to 30kmh.

 

A 10kmh reduction makes "the difference between life and death", public health specialist Lucy Saunders, 39, told The Straits Times.

 

Most speed limits here are capped at 50kmh, with those at elder-friendly Silver Zones and some school zones reduced to 40kmh.

 

The slower speed limit is part of Ms Saunders' mission to improve health by creating healthier streets.

 

"A street that works for people is a street that is good for health," she told ST last Monday.

 

This Healthy Streets approach has been adopted by her home capital, London, and she was in Singapore last week to share it with government officials and urban planners.

 

There are 10 indicators of a street that is appealing, inclusive and promotes better health.

 

It needs to have clean air, shade and shelter, places to stop and rest, and things to see and do. Pedestrians from all walks of life should find it accessible, easy to cross and not too noisy. They should also feel safe and relaxed while using the street.

 

A healthy street also needs to entice people to walk, cycle or use public transport instead of drive.

 

"Walking hasn't been given the status it deserves," said Ms Saunders, noting that four in 10 adults in Singapore are not getting the weekly minimum of 150 minutes' exercise.

 

"That can be fixed with two 10-minute walks a day," she added.

 

While Singapore has relatively low car ownership - there are more than 615,000 cars for a city of 5.6 million - many people still drive or take taxis for short journeys, when they could walk or cycle.

 

She disagrees that the heat in Singapore puts a damper on the desire to walk, saying the climate is a huge asset, given its relative certainty.

 

"I don't see strong winds that could blow you off a bike," she said, adding that South Korea's capital Seoul has a culture of people walking and cycling even during the hot summer.

 

So, how would she grade the streets of Singapore after her five-day visit here?

 

She gives them a B grade, adding jokingly: "The challenge is that everyone expects Singapore to get an A."

 

The city has many pluses, she said, including the availability of public toilets at MRT stations and an abundance of trees and plants to provide shade and visual interest.

 

Meanwhile, Singapore's national agencies have major plans in their drive to turn the island into a car-lite nation.

 

The goal of the latest Land Transport Master Plan is that by 2040, all journeys to the nearest town can be completed in less than 20 minutes, while nine in 10 peak-period trips are to take less than 45 minutes.

 

Another is to make the transport system here safer and more welcoming. Some of the planned projects to get Singapore there include an additional 100km of sheltered walkways.

 

Ms Saunders has more ideas on how to make the streets more people-focused, not car-centric. She suggested reducing the width of traffic lanes to no more than 3.2m. Some lanes here are 3.4m to 3.5m wide.

 

"The narrower the lanes are, the more drivers concentrate," she said, adding that the accident rate is likely to drop in turn.

 

Ms Saunders also recommended levelling the roads on which people walk, so their journeys are not interrupted by having to step up and down pavements whenever they cross a street. She added that more road humps can then be installed to slow cars down at junctions.

 

In London, "nobody drives, because there's not enough parking, it's too expensive and everyone's friends take public transport," she said. The sharp drop in car ownership and use was the result of a concerted effort over 20 years.

 

She is confident Singapore can get there too, as it provides dedicated public transport lanes on the roads and limits the number of parking spaces in specified areas.

 

As Ms Saunders puts it: "Cars are space-inefficient and driving is useless time. We should get to the point where we use vehicles for when we absolutely need to, like getting a piano from one end of Singapore to the other."

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This is just all part of the whole bigger-picture agenda-setting process for us to accept car-lite. Our road traffic conditions and context are very different from the UK and I don't think we need a so-called foreign 'expert' who doesn't live the daily grind to tell us how our roads and speeds should be.

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She should stand close to me after I walk/cycle/jog 20 minutes in Singapore weather. She would be advising Singapore to go big in deodorant factories!

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Ms Saunders has more ideas on how to make the streets more people-focused, not car-centric. She suggested reducing the width of traffic lanes to no more than 3.2m. Some lanes here are 3.4m to 3.5m wide.

 

"The narrower the lanes are, the more drivers concentrate," she said, adding that the accident rate is likely to drop in turn.

 

 

 

Sure or not? LoL. She should take note:

 

1. The number of cars straying away from their lanes these days

2. The number of motorcycles that are lane-splitting

3. The number of medium-to-heavy vehicles travelling on non-expressways (peak-hours)

4. Sharing of left-most lanes with cyclists

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If I'm there at the dialogue I would shoot her back.

 

Even the foreigners here dont cycle or walk cos you cant do that in our weather wearing office wear. Unless office wear is singlet, shorts and sandals. Since she's wearing a jacket she can go try walking or cycling. I get ready my phone to call ambulance in case she get heat exhaustion.

 

Talk is cheap. I'm waiting for her to do a demo.

 

 

Our motor vehicles move fast cos we want to get away from the sun or we will get baked in the car. [laugh]

So are the buses and taxis. Trains if travelling mostly underground still not so bad.

Edited by Watwheels
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Twincharged

knn, when did we need a british to tell us what to do.

 

anw are we PAYING  her any thing or not??

 

well, same old crap from our ex colonial masters. look at all the nonsense they have created worldwide and are still creating.

really trash talk from them

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well, same old crap from our ex colonial masters. look at all the nonsense they have created worldwide and are still creating.

really trash talk from them

ask all the bro here, 

who want to drive fast if they can afford to relax and drive slowly on the road.

 

before we talk about carlite, slowing down travelling speed etc etc etc 

we fix the problem of our hectic lifestyle first.

 

when we can match the lifestyle of those first world country , then we talk about having a transportation system like them .

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