Noise Emissions from Buses

Mr Dennis Tan Lip Fong asked the Minister for Transport (a) whether the Government is satisfied with the current noise emission levels of buses, especially when travelling through HDB and other residential estates; and (b) whether any further measures will be taken to encourage more considerate driving and to reduce noise emissions from buses.

Mr Speaker, all public buses are required to meet the noise emission standards stipulated in the Environmental Protection and Management (Vehicular Emissions) Regulations. The Land Transport Authority (LTA) ensures compliance by stipulating stringent procurement specifications on vendors and strict maintenance requirements on public bus operators, including regular inspections to check that noise levels are within permissible limits.

Meanwhile, LTA will be conducting trials with 50 diesel-hybrid buses starting in late 2018 and with 60 electric buses from 2019. If they prove cost-effective, we will be able to migrate our buses to a quieter fleet.

I thank the Senior Minister of State for the answer. This question arose out of a request from a resident during house visits. I would also like to ask the Senior Minister of State one supplementary question. What measures are being taken, or will be taken, or will the Government consider taking further measures to improve the driving habits of bus drivers, in particular, to reduce or keep down the noise level of buses while they are driving around residential estates?

I would like to thank Mr Dennis Tan for his supplementary questions. Just to put things in perspective, there are actually several measures that LTA prescribes to ensure that the noise emission levels from buses are kept to within permissible levels. One of which I have mentioned in my reply is the procurement specifications with regard to the buses that the companies purchased. Of course, the other will be the maintenance requirements.

On top of that, there are also other mitigating measures put in place. For example, our land development agency, such as the Housing and Development Board and Urban Redevelopment Authority have development guidelines to set back residential buildings away from major roads. Take, for instance, the building setback distance from expressways is 30 metres, and for major arterial roads it is about 15 metres.

In addition to that, land is also set aside for the National Parks Board to plant trees and shrubs along the road to absorb the traffic noise. With regard to specific driver behaviour, fortunately, the number of pieces of feedback of noisy buses received by LTA is currently quite low. Most of them largely pertain to public bus interchanges situated near housing estates when buses are departing in the early morning hours. LTA, together with the National Environment Agency, are working very closely with the public bus operators to see how we can regulate the movement of the buses in these interchanges so as to minimise the noise emitted that is causing inconvenience and disamenities to nearby residents.