Urban Mobility for a more Liveable City
SINGAPORE – Sustainable transportation solutions are critical for the long-term viability of a liveable city, say experts, academia and policy makers at a Policy Forum jointly organised by the Centre for Liveable Cities (CLC), Cities Development Initiatives for Asia (CDIA) and LTA Academy today.
Titled “Sustainable Transportation Solutions for Liveable Cities”, the organisers invited Mr Enrique Penalosa, former mayor of Bogota, as well as experts from Asia Development Bank, academia from universities and policy makers from the government, to share their experiences and expertise on developing sustainable transportation solutions as well as discuss how such solutions can be implemented to make cities more liveable.
Director for the Centre of Liveable Cities, Mr Andrew Tan said that with rapid urbanization and increasing urban density, traffic congestion and vehicular emissions are some of the key challenges confronting cities today. In particular, cities in Asia have to find ways to regulate their growing car populations and encourage the greater use of public transport. Singapore has much to share in terms of its own experience in transport management, but we are also interested to learn from others the schemes they have introduced to encourage cleaner and more efficient transport. Mr Enrique Penalosa, former mayor of Bogota agreed and said that what differentiates an advanced city from a backward one are not highways of metros, but the quality of its footpaths.
During the Forum, Mr Mohinder Singh, Director, Research and Planning and Dean of the LTA Academy in the Land Transport Authority (LTA) shared the three key strategies as outlined in the Land Transport Master Plan to build a people-centred land transport system. Making public transport a choice mode, managing road usage, and meeting the diverse needs of the population will be the fundamentals in which Singapore achieves a transportation solution that includes integrated planning of transport networks, technology leverage to help manage road demand and policies to promote environmental sustainability.
The Policy Forum is one of the various platforms organized by the CLC to promote the sharing of challenges confronting cities and solutions from an inter-disciplinary perspective among international and local experts and policy-makers. The CLC and IE Singapore have formed a strategic partnership with CDIA to tap on Singapore’s urban development and management expertise for knowledge-sharing activities and to assist cities in pre-feasibility studies respectively.
Mr Emiel Wegelin, CDIA Program Coordinator emphasized that "CDIA attaches a high priority to urban transportation issues in its work in Asian cities, as it is a relatively neglected area in urban development and management, in spite of it having a major role in structuring the spatial development of cities. CDIA, CLC and IES with experts from the LTA Academy have therefore decided to jointly organize an Asia-wide regional conference on this subject in Singapore in fall this year back to back with the 2nd World Roads Conference, focusing on investment requirements in this sector".
This Policy Forum is held in collaboration with CDIA, LTA Academy and IE Singapore. The Forum is open to media coverage. For details on the Forum and list of speakers, please refer to the Annex.
ANNEX
About the Centre for Liveable Cities
The Centre for Liveable Cities was established by the Ministry of National Development and the Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources in June 2008. It brings together Singapore’s expertise on good governance, urban management, integrated resource management, and high quality living environment unique to its highly compact and densely-populated setting. The Centre facilitates the international sharing of knowledge and best practices among cities.
www.clc.org.sg
About The Cities Development Initiative for Asia
The Cities Development Initiative for Asia (CDIA) represents a demand driven facility bringing together technical, financial and capacity-building resources required by cities to structure investment projects. This Technical Assistance is made possible through the participation of Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the governments of Germany, Sweden and Spain. The Initiative supports medium-sized Asian cities to identify, prioritize and pre-structure strategic urban infrastructure investment projects that emphasize (1) urban environment improvement; (2) urban poverty reduction; and/ or (3) climate change mitigation or adaptation. To achieve this, CDIA links participating cities to worldwide resources that include advisory support and capacity building.
http://www.cdia.asia
About LTA Academy
The LTA Academy is a division of the Land Transport Authority (LTA), Singapore. It serves as a one-stop focal point for government officials and professionals around the world to tap on Singapore’s know-how and exchange international best practices in urban transport management and development. The Academy has designed, conducted/hosted more than 200 programmes since it was established in September 2006, including inaugurated the World Urban Transport Leaders Summit in Nov 2008. About 5,000 senior officials and professionals from 80 countries around the world attended these programmes.
www.LTAacademy.gov.sg
About International Enterprise (IE) Singapore
International Enterprise (IE) Singapore is an agency under the Ministry of Trade and Industry spearheading the development of Singapore's external economic wing. Our mission is to promote the overseas growth of Singapore-based enterprises and international trade. With a global network in over 30 locations and our '3C' framework of assistance - Connections, Competency, Capital, we offer services to help enterprises export, develop business capabilities, find overseas partners and enter new markets. At the same time, we work to position Singapore as a base for foreign businesses to expand into the region in partnership with Singapore-based companies.
www.iesingapore.com