“A developed country,” Gustavo Petro, the Mayor of Bogota, Colombia, famously said, “is not a place where the poor have cars; it’s where the rich use public transportation.”
In cities today, public transportation is a critical enabler of the economic and social well-being of its inhabitants. Certainly, one of the factors that have contributed to Singapore’s success is its seamless, efficient public transportation system.
But will this highly regarded system measure up in the coming two decades when the Republic faces economic, demographic, technological and other changes? Ahead, these mega forces will act as a complex and unpredictable system, feeding, amplifying or ameliorating the effects of each other. Indeed, the underlying complexity of urban transport systems is the biggest challenge and conundrum faced today.
To gain an understanding into how commuters make travel choices in Singapore, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) has partnered ISS to undertake a research project titled An Integrated Systems Perspective to Commuters’ Travel Choices in Singapore.
Funded by the Land Transport Innovation Fund and co-funded by ISS, the project started in July 2012 and will work its way through five critical stages over a period of fifteen months. This research study aims to address questions like: How do commuters make their travel decisions and choices? What factors influence such decisions? Are these factors inter-connected? What interventions are most likely to work and why?
Insights gleaned will be used to propose interventions aimed at improving commuters’ overall public transport experience and the design of future transport solutions that will meet the changing needs and demands of the commuting public.
Principal investigators for the project are Drs. Pallab Saha, Virginia Cha and Guo Lei, all three faculty members with the ISS.
Said Dr. Saha, “The findings and insights garnered thus far are very exciting and have the potential to shape thinking for the next two to three decades. However, the extent to which this project leads to far-reaching changes depends upon the degree to which our recommendations are put into practice by the relevant entities.”
He added, “The experience for the entire team has been awesome as the topic is so relevant and timely. It touches the lives of all stakeholders on an everyday basis. This is a hot potato issue and therefore, the significance of the study cannot be overstated. The study by itself is seminal; there has been no similar work done in the past in Singapore and we hope the findings will shape future thinking in this critical area.”
Commented a spokesman for LTA, “Understanding the perception and travel choice decisions of transport users is always our interest. ISS’ proposal addresses these issues from a new perspective.”
He further attested, “We value this project both for the teamwork and the researchers’ efforts to work towards long-term collaboration with LTA. The ISS team consists of inter-disciplinary researchers with a diverse background, working on multiple ways to collect, investigate, analyse and articulate data with a different perspective.”
This article is first published in NUS-ISS quarterly e-newsletter, Issue 3 (Jul-Sep 2013).