I am glad ST Forum published my letter “Build elevated ring-expressway system to ease congestion” on 7 March 2013. See JPEG format below.
The Govt should build a two-tier elevated expressway ring system to link Jurong to Woodlands, then to Changi, to Marina South and back to Jurong going around the fringes of the island. This will be a massive project and will not be cheap. This project might have to be considered after 2030.
Meanwhile, the Govt should consider and build a cheaper seamless inner-city elevated expressway ring system within the 10-17 years to 2030.
The Govt should plan to reduce the number of vehicles on the surface roads by moving more cars up to the inner-city elevated expressway ring system. This will mean less congestion on the surface roads.
This will also mean public transport like buses will be able to use the surface roads to provide a more efficient service with less traffic congestion.
Overall productivity level at the national level will rise and work-life balance will also improve when there is less traffic congestion.
When there are traffic jams or slow traffic flow on surface roads, cities pay a high price as people sitting idle in their vehicles are not productive. Precious hours are lost plus burning fuel while waiting. The total monetary value of the lost must be significant.
Singapore has the double-tier expressway at Keppel Road, Pasir Panjang Road and West Coast Road.
In the long run, the Govt should plan ahead and build the seamless ring-elevated expressway system going around the island to link the fringes of the island connecting N-E-S-W-N. The ring-road system is not a new idea. There are ring road systems in Nagoya, Paris and Chengdu.
We should discourage motorists from taking short-cuts across the centre of our island. The luxury of driving short distances cutting across the middle of the island must end once the ring-expressway is constructed.
We must make it stick in the minds of motorists that driving 20 to 30 km or more should be the norm like driving in other big cities as most people stay in the country-side far away from the CBD. They drive long distances and driving 40 km to them is a way of life. Singaporeans will have to accept driving longer distances.
10 years of shortsightedness have caused the neglect of our infrastructures. Time to fix it.
If we are not ready to build an elevated-ring expressway [too expensive and extensive to build, and hopefully will be built after 2030] to connect N-E-S-W-N going around the fringes of the island to meet the transport needs of 7m people in 2030, I hope the Govt will build a less costly seamless inner-city elevated ring expressway system [within the coming 10-17 years] by extending the existing elevated expressway at Keppel/Pasir Panjang/West Coast Rd to Clementi, Beauty World, Thomson, Ang Mo Kio, Serangoon, Hougang, Eunos, Bedok, Marine Parade, Marina South, Shenton, and then back to Keppel.
The Govt should learn from Nagoya which has an elevated Ring-expressway in the city. Nagoya also has many high-rise auto parking facilities in the city. Singapore should look into this too and learn from Nagoya.
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tankoktim 