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  Today Online 30 Apr 07
Chance to show 'green' side
 Letter from Scott Heidecke

In your newspaper and others, I see many letters and articles written about Singapore being a "green" city.

I agree with that label in many ways but see a contradiction in its "addiction" to the private car.

Does Singapore truly want to show the world how "green" it is? I have a challenge, then. Do away with the private car.

Of all the nations and cities in the world, Singapore has a unique opportunity to really show its "green" stuff.

The country is small enough and industrious enough to construct a remarkable web of public transport unlike anything the world has seen. It can render the car a useless antique from a bygone era of resource and money misuse.

Imagine a city where anywhere you are, you can climb onto an MRT or monorail train. There are moving sidewalks and skybridge conveyors to take you anywhere, and in less time than you have to spend in a car. The moving walks have fast and slow lanes that you can choose to use, depending on the distance and point of exit. Instead of roads clogged with cars, there are wide bicycle lanes, with the remaining lanes for buses and taxis, delivery vehicles, and so forth. Everyone gets where they want to go, quickly and with minimal stress.

The escalation in the volume of cars here is ludicrous. Cars contribute to the greenhouse effect, burn up valuable petroleum that we ought to be saving to create the synthetic materials we will need in the future, and also cost a tremendous amount of money.

And, as the roadways get more and more clogged, they take you where you want to go in the most inefficient manner imaginable.

In less than 50 years, Singapore can truly be the most "green" city on the planet, and a model for the rest of the world. The car will not take Singapore there. Only wisdom and foresight can do that.
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