This Conference has assembled a distinguished gathering of academics, researchers, government officials and professionals from around the world who will over the next 3 days grapple with the Conference theme - ‘Transportation into the Next Millennium’. This theme reflects a common concern in cities around the world on the sustainability of our present transport solutions. How will the needs, concerns and challenges in transportation be met in the next millennium? Your conference provides a timely platform for the presentation and exchange of ideas and experiences on issues, challenges and solutions in transportation-related areas.

Consider a familiar problem -traffic congestion. This is a growing problem in cities all over the world. It can cost cities millions of dollars in wasted time and fuel.

Many solutions have been prescribed by transport experts. But, there is general consensus that this is a problem that requires a combination of measures. No one single measure will do.  

• First, co-ordinating land use planning with transport planning ensures that transport infrastructure can support the transport demand generated by land use.
• Second, we cannot neglect building a good network of roads.
• Third, traffic control measures should be developed to maximise road carrying capacity.
• Last but not least, the public transport system must be made an ever-more accessible, affordable and convenient alternative to private transport.

These are measures that have been adopted by many countries, including Singapore.

However, one crucial ingredient is needed to ensure that the investments in road infrastructure and public transport can be fully realised. This is the need to control congestion through demand management. This is something Singapore has long recognised. We need to control vehicle population growth and the demand for road space.

A manual road pricing system was introduced in Singapore as far back as 1975 and investigations into an electronic road pricing system began in the mid 1980’s, more than a decade ago. I am happy that the hard work has borne fruit in the Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) system, which was fully implemented in our central business district and our major expressways last week.

Singaporeans are proud of their city-state’s lush greenery and clean environment. Part of the credit for this must go to our land transport strategy, which has contributed to a cleaner, quality living environment. We have been able to implement congestion pricing because of two reasons – the strong political will of our Government and the co-operation and support of our people.

The ERP was a massive exercise. It was a year ago that the exercise began to fit nearly 700,000 vehicles with an in-vehicle unit for Electronic Road Pricing. The public response to this exercise has been very encouraging. Although the fitting of these units was voluntary, 96% of all Singapore-registered vehicles were fitted with them. I am pleased to note that the Land Transport Authority has been successful in getting the system ready; in preparing and educating the public to use the system; and in launching it with relatively few problems.

Singapore’s motorists are, by and large, well acquainted with the system. The system itself has performed very well, processing some 300,000 transactions daily. The early indications are that motorists have indeed begun to change their travel behaviour – to consider more carefully the time of travel and the route of their journey. Traffic volumes in the central business district for example, have dipped significantly during the peak periods.

It will take some time for travel patterns to stabilise and for us to assess the true impact of the ERP on the motoring public - time for motorists to fully adapt their travel patterns in response to the ERP. Some adjustments to rates and timing may be necessary, but I am confident that in the long run the ERP system will prove an essential means of managing demand for road space and keeping traffic flowing smoothly.

The ERP is in many ways a world first. No other city or country has implemented congestion pricing on such a wide scale using such sophisticated equipment. Transport professionals around the world have been tracking our progress. They have been waiting to see how well our ERP system will perform; how well our people will take to the system; and how effective it will be in changing travel patterns and in redistributing traffic.

More and more countries and transport professionals are beginning to recognise the need to augment their traffic management programmes with some form of congestion pricing. For our part, we recognise that the sharing of our experiences with road pricing has an importance far beyond our shores. It is therefore timely that as we stand on the threshold of the next millennium, we stand ready to challenge the sustainability of traditional solutions to traffic problems.

At this Conference, you will be discussing a great many other transport issues besides congestion pricing. I must commend the Nanyang Technological University and all supporting institutions of this conference for their foresight in recognising the importance of maintaining an international dialogue on transport matters.

I hope that the knowledge shared and gained at this conference will benefit all participants and in turn the community of nations that they represent.

It is my pleasure to declare this Conference open.

Thank You.

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