Expected Average Car Speed during Peak Hours

Mr David Ong asked the Minister for Transport with the impending increase in the number of buses coming on the road and the current car population, what will be the expected average car speed on the road, especially during peak hours.

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To encourage more people to use public transport, we have accorded priority to buses on our roads through various measures such as bus lanes, the mandatory-give-way-to-buses scheme, and the "B" signal at traffic junctions. As we roll out the BSEP, we will further enhance and expand these bus priority measures, to facilitate smoother bus rides for commuters.

At the same time, LTA will continue to monitor traffic speeds, and, where necessary, implement measures to manage traffic demand to try to ensure that during peak hours, traffic can flow within the optimal range of 20 km/h to 30 km/h on arterial roads, and 45 km/h to 65 km/h on expressways.

All these are part of efforts to provide a balanced transport solution that benefits the most number of Singaporeans possible, taking into consideration our land constraint which means that we can ill afford to further grow our road capacity significantly. In fact, in improving the quality, coverage and efficiency of our public transport system, including bus services, we hope to encourage more car-owners to switch to public transport. This will be a key and probably the only sustainable way of ensuring that we are able to keep traffic on our roads moving at reasonable speeds.

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