Govt now realizes big mistake in over-building on existg CDB

robertteh SG

In my earlier post topic "CDB seems to be where all the MRT go and not DT2/3" dated 25.1.2008 at YoungPaP site I have pointed out the mistake of the planners in over-concentrating the MRTs in the existing small and tightly built CDB leading to heavy traffic congestions. Please read my earlier post below:-

"It seems like the government only knows the existing CDB where all the major A1 offices are located and there is no other place to build except this stretch of CDB between Orchard and Shenton. So all the MRTs will be built to join to this stretch of offices even the newly announced Thomson/Woodland lines must go to this stretch. How about spreading out the existing CDB to CDB2(Rochore/Beach Road) and CDB3(Kg Java/Bukit Timah) to ease the present Orchard Road/Shenton congestions. So all future MRTs seem to be zeroing in on Orchard Road/Shenton CDB. No wonder on Saturday the traffic to Orchard/Shenton are practically impassable because of too much concentration on existing CDB. Instead of having one super- CDB, there should be a larger spread to CDB2 and CDB3 to dilute the existing traffic jam from the present 5 square km to 30 square km where MRTs were already built but less utilized. With such a dilution then there will not be too much jams and ERP fees would not be so high in the future. Make full use of existing empty lands nearer to the city like Newton Bukit Timah and Kg Java, Crawford, Geylang and clear some of the red light district as well. No wonder ERPs are getting so expensive and there will be more jams because of one CBD.

18 Apr 2003 Posts:

Re: CBD seems to be where all MRTs go, not DT2/3 to spread jIt seems like the government only knows the existing CDB where all the major A1 offices are located and there is no other place to build except this stretch of CDB between Orchard and Shenton. What to do....the rich and power have homes there, so must continue to develop and promote these locations. Otherwise theor assets depreciate!!

28 Nov 2003 Posts:

Merlion

there is no way to control traffic jams with cheap new cars coming up n decreased coe. motorists are happy to pay and pay the erps, road pricing, even expensive car parking slots in cbd. some save money by using drive and ride. what to do, Singapore is just a tiny dot with too much cars.

28 May 2006 Post By Robertteh

Sat May 24, 2008 10:44 pm Straits Times "KALLANG, PAYA LEBAR THE NEW STARS" published on 24.5.2008: "Good news, Kallang and Paya Lebar: It is your turn to shine. The two sleepy industrial estates have been identified as Singapore's next big urban hotspots, as the nation's land planners draw up blueprints for the next 15 years....The plan also continues a sustained effort to decentralize and reduce the congestions in the Central Business District by building offices all across the island, bringing jobs closer to homes.

Some of the plan's highlights such as the new Jurong Lake District and new MRT lines have already been revealed. Other plans were more fully fleshed out yesterday, such as the expansion of the city's commercial centre which will double in size to include the Marina Bay, Tanjong Pagar, as well as the [color=red]Beach Road/Ophir Road-Rochor Road corridor.

Obviously the Master Planners now has finally decided to rectify their earlier mistake in over-concentrating the CBD in the existing tightly built Shenton/Raffles Place/Suntec/South Bridge/Stamford area which have already created too much traffic congestions leading to runaway ERP burdens on citizens due to past mistakes - probably realizing this mistake only after my above post criticising the intention to bring in the new Northwest and other MRT lines into the same tightly built existing CBD which would only worsen traffic congestions.

My suggestion was to double or triple the existing tightly built and over-concentrated CDB and spread to outlying areas including Rochor/Kallang/Crawford/Paya Lebar to decentralize CDB and help to reduce people's burden on paying of ERP.

Read the above post for yourself to see the mistake made in our master planning process. (No acknowledgement will be made as usual of copying or plagiarism of others' ideas)

robertteh SG

Macro-economic planning seems lacking in existing Master Planning of CDB and other land usage. The same pattern of CDB and township existed for years without using vacant lands and industrial areas to the fullest. No wonder the traffic congestions are getting worse daily and more ERP gantries are needed.

In implementing ERP, long ago planners should have adopted a three-tier road networks - one for expressways for fast moving traffic connecting townships and the other two being major roads and local roads designed for filtering of traffic to these other networks as alternative roads where expressways become too congested. Expansion of expressway and major roads should be maintained as separate network so that ERP would always be kept as the network for faster and preferred faster traffic while the major roads used as alternative routes to preferred works related areas like CDB so that ERP is implemented for faster traffic flow to CDB or major economic zones and does not have to be implemented indiscriminately and everywhere on all traffic leaving homes for works or heading home.

An escape non-ERP network should always be made available to filter out traffic from faster moving expressway or major roads to keep expressways as reserved for faster traffic and the rest for slower filtering out of excess traffic to avoid criss-crossing gridlock due to unplanned traffics.