SINGAPORE, Oct 7 — It is a global imperative to reduce reliance on private motoring as it cannot be the mobility solution for cities in the 21^st century, said Minister of Transport Lui Tuck Yew.

“When we think of an “unliveable city”, what are some images that come to mind? Endless concrete structures and asphalt, fumes from congested traffic, a breakdown in law and order, poor standards of hygiene, dilapidated houses and an unkempt environment,” he said.

“Yet these images of asphalt and fumes are precisely the unintended products of urban transport policies and planning in many cities and arguably, the most urgent problem facing transport policy makers.

“It is the unsustainable reliance on private motoring and a corresponding under-investment in public transport infrastructure,” Lui said when officiating the LTA-UITP Singapore International Transport Congress & Exhibition (SITCE) at Suntec Singapore International Convention & Exhibition Centre here today.

Lui said that the number of cars in the world hit one billion in 2010, double that from 2000 numbers and experts predict this could double by 2030.

“Can our world live with such a trajectory and the resultant reduction in productivity, rising urban pollution, environmental degradation and the impact on health and quality of life?,” he questioned.

Lui said the rates of private vehicle ownership in many Asian cities are rising even faster than population and income. In China, for example, auto sales in 2011 overtook that in the US for the first time.

In Singapore, the minister said that despite the implementation of strict vehicle ownership measures, car population grew 11 per cent between 2008 and 2012 with almost one in two households owning a car.

“There are major consequences to a transport model that is overly car reliant. Firstly, the environmental impact is significant. The International Energy Agency expects annual global urban transport emissions to more than double to nearly one billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent per year by 2025,” he said.

“And 90 per cent of this growth will come from private motoring. For Singapore, we have taken measures to reduce the environmental impact from vehicles by tightening their environmental standards.”

The minister said Singapore introduced schemes to incentivise the purchase of vehicles with lower carbon emissions and the earlier upgrade of older, more pollutive commercial vehicles.

“But these measures can only mitigate, but not fundamentally solve the problem. Fuel efficiency and technology alone will not be sufficient to bring down transport emissions without a reduction in demand,” he said.

Secondly, Lui said the opportunity costs of a car-centric model are significant but sometimes not immediately obvious.

The minister also noted that Singapore is a city-state where land is scarce.

“Our total land area is about 715 sq km. Today, roads take up 12 per cent of Singapore’s land almost as much as housing which takes up 14 per cent.

“Singapore, like all other growing cities in the world, will have to do more to curb our reliance on private cars. We have to decisively push for a strategic mode shift from private to public transport,” he added. — Bernama