Local Transport

A good form of local transport is car sharing and bicycle sharing. It should be operated on a licence given by the town council and should operate for short distance within a town. The purpose is to bring people from their home to the town center, MRT station or bus interchange and to bring them back. By using shared bicycles and electric cars, the vehicle are used for several trips each day and reduce the space required for parking.

There is a maintenance cost, due to the high usage of the vehicles, but the cost to the consumer should be much lower than the cost of a privately owned bicycle or electric car. There is less hassle in looking for a parking space.

This type of sharing arrangements need to be initiated by the authority, as they have the power to set aside space for parking, right of way on the roads and overcome other obstacles. Several cities in Europe have taken the step to make these operations available.

In many residential areas in Singapore, the car parking lots and side roads are congested with parked cars. It is quite a hassle to drive through these roads or to find a parking space. The situation has become quite bad. The situation can be remedied by introducing the sharing schemes.

To make it work, we need the authoruty to the town councils to initiate this scheme and to overcome the regulatory overlap between the various ministries and agencies.

Tan Kin Lian