Measures to Prevent Speeding and Reckless Driving Especially at Accident-prone Junctions

Ms Poh Li San asked the Minister for Transport pending investigations into the fatal accident in Tampines that occurred on 22 April 2024 (a) how will LTA improve the traffic safety provisions at this junction; and (b) what are the lessons learnt that can be pre-emptively applied to similar cross junctions islandwide to prevent similar tragic accidents in the future.

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has addressed several questions raised by Members on road safety. I will focus my response on road design and traffic management.

I would like to begin by expressing my deepest condolences to the families and friends of the victims. I would also like to assure Members and Singaporeans that road safety is and will continue to be a priority for the Ministry of Transport (MOT) and the Land Transport Authority (LTA).

Mr Speaker, LTA focuses on safety by ensuring that: one, our roads are designed with safety in mind; and two, our vehicles are safe for use on the roads.

We enhance road designs in three ways.

First, our roads are designed in accordance with international safety requirements. Ms Poh asked about the safety provisions at the Tampines junction. This junction is also designed in accordance with international safety standards, which includes sufficient line of sight for road users to see each other clearly, and appropriate road kerbs, lane and arrow markings installed conspicuously.

Second, LTA continues to review, develop and implement programmes that enhance road safety. Let me share a few examples.

Since 2018, LTA has progressively implemented Red-Amber-Green (RAG) arrows to replace discretionary right turns at over 1,200 traffic junctions. Junctions with RAG arrows have shown a 40% reduction in traffic accidents. The work is ongoing and will extend to more traffic junctions.

As of 2023, we have implemented 371 School Zones and 40 Silver Zones in areas near schools and where there are higher proportions of senior residents. For School Zones, features include designated crossing facilities, coloured pavements, as well as traffic signs and markings. At primary schools, the speed limit is also lowered to 40 kilometres per hour. For Silver Zones, we implemented reduced speed limits and road safety measures such as narrower and meandering lanes, road markings, additional crossings and speed humps. The Silver Zone initiative has proven effective in reducing the accident rate among senior pedestrians within the zones by about 80%.

More recently, we have rolled out the Friendly Streets initiative to make daily journeys to key amenities in neighbourhoods safer, more convenient and comfortable. Besides the usual traffic calming measures, there will also be more frequent Green Man activations and longer crossing time to allow pedestrians, especially the elderly, to cross the road safely at these areas. We started with five pilot sites in 2023 and will begin engagements on a further 10 sites in 2024, with the aim of bringing Friendly Streets to all towns by 2030.

Third, LTA leverages data from sources such as traffic accident reports from the Traffic Police (TP), as well as feedback from local communities and road users to design and implement localised road safety enhancements. Annually, LTA introduces about 1,000 of such enhancements across different parts of Singapore, including speed humps and three-dimensional road markings.

Beyond road design and infrastructure, LTA also conducts checks to ensure that the vehicles on our roads are roadworthy. They need to meet internationally recognised vehicle safety standards as well as undergo periodic inspections. Enforcement will be carried out against errant vehicles. From 2021 to 2023, on average each year, LTA issued about 7,000 notices of offences for common illegal modification offences, conducted around 1,600 additional inspections and charged more than five workshops for violations. We have also increased the penalties for illegal modification of vehicles.

Finally, a critical factor, besides safe roads and safe vehicles, is safe motorists. We support MHA to educate and engage motorists on road safety practices. As MHA said in the earlier reply, road safety is a shared responsibility, and we urge all road users to play their part, even as we do more to make our infrastructure safer for everyone. Enhancing road safety involves safe roads, safe vehicles and safe road users.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. I would like to thank Senior Minister of State for her very detailed responses to our Parliamentary Questions. I have a few supplementary questions.

The first supplementary question, Mr Speaker, is: I know MHA and LTA have done a lot of work to enhance the safety of our roads, but we want to make sure we do even more to save lives of students and school-going children, and of course our elderly. I think most of us in this Chamber have primary schools, secondary schools or even junior colleges and polytechnics in our areas. My first supplementary question is with regard to the use of data to assess riskier roads and accident-prone areas. I would want to know if LTA can share whether there could be possibilities for the radius of the School Zones to be expanded; and whether there is any data to show that some of the accidents of our Singaporean parents who send their kids to school or who let their kids go to school every morning and come back from school by themselves, whether there are incidences of such accidents happening beyond the School Zones that we have designated. The Senior Minister of State mentioned a number of those cases.

The second is in regard to car modifications. The Senior Minister of State mentioned car modifications or speed enhancements, so whether she can share if these measures that LTA has introduced has led to, possibly, reduction in any of the speeding cases.

I thank the Member for the supplementary questions. Regarding the expansion of the radius of the School Zones, this is something we will continue to monitor and review. I do not think that there is a fixed one-size-fits-all kind of zone radius. But having said that, it all depends on the local conditions – where the school is and so on. So, it is something that we will continue to review.

With regard to vehicle modifications, I do not have the numbers. But the thing is, you probably cannot directly correlate enforcement to illegal modifications with speeding and traffic accidents. Having said that, an example will be that illegal exhaust modification poses a high risk and therefore, is a serious offence. And we do want to minimise or prevent such illegal modifications. That is why we have been stepping up the enforcement. We have stepped up the penalties since July 2021. The first composition fine, even for the first offence, has increased from $500 to $1,000. And even for first offenders, if they are egregious violations, they can be charged in court.

Thank you, Speaker, and I thank the Senior Minister of State. I have a supplementary question and I would like to ask the Senior Minister of State what the proportion of fatal accidents is occurring at road junctions; and out of these fatalities, what is the proportion of pedestrians versus cyclists versus passengers and motorists?

I thank LTA for installing more of the RAG arrows; they are very good. Following a very tragic fatal accident in Sembawang West last year, we have two of our junctions installed with the RAG arrows. I would like to ask LTA, other than these features, are there other further improvements that can be made to improve the road safety of cross traffic junctions?

I thank the Member for her supplementary questions. As regards the first question on accident statistics, I do not have the numbers. I will have to refer to MHA to get the numbers, with regard to the Member's question.

In relation to the second question, besides RAG, what else are we doing to enhance safety of cross junctions? First, let me say that for RAGs, as I have said, we have implemented this for more than 1,200 signalised junctions. There are a total of 1,700 signalised junctions, of which for 200, there is no discretionary right turn. So, we are left with 1,500. Of these 1,500, we have implemented RAG in more than 1,200. We are in the process of looking into implementing RAG for another 200 junctions, though this depends on technical feasibility as well as traffic impact assessment studies.

Effectively, we are left with about 50. These are generally single right turn lanes, as well as turning onto one lane of oncoming traffic. And therefore, we have not prioritised them. But after we have done the 200, we will continue to monitor and assess.

Beyond the RAGs, at cross junctions, there are a few things we have done or are still in the process of doing. For instance, at traffic pockets, we put up "Give Way" signs to remind the turning motorists to look out for pedestrians. There are also adjustments to Green Men timings to give pedestrians a headstart in crossing the road. And then, of course, we have the Green Man Plus scheme where the elderly and persons with disabilities can have a longer time to cross the road. In addition, we have recently started installing safety bollards at some signalised junctions where we assess there is a higher pedestrian risk, at selected corners of these junctions. These safety bollards are what we call crashworthy bollards and they prevent errant vehicles from veering onto the footpath.

So, we will continue to look at ways to strengthen measures to enhance safety.

Thank you, Speaker. I thank the Senior Minister of State. Does LTA have any plans to build more underground walkways, for example, from Tampines West MRT to Tampines Green Gem estate in my ward, so that pedestrians have a safer alternative to crossing busy junctions, like the junction where this horrific accident happened?

I thank the Member for his supplementary question. First, let me say that for the junction at Tampines Avenues 1 and 4, which is the location of the accident, actually, there has been no feedback in relation to safety issues at that junction. Between 2019 and 2023, there were also no accidents with serious injuries or fatalities at that junction. As I have said, we have designed such junctions in accordance with international standards.

We have also reviewed the junction after the accident and we do not think that there is a need to further enhance or implement measures to enhance safety at that junction. But having said that, we will also await TP's investigation, for the results of the investigation, and will review again if measures have to be implemented to enhance road safety. This is the similar approach that we take for all locations where serious accidents have occurred.

Having said that, we always take into account the data we have, whether it is traffic accident reports from TP, data of incidents, whether it is injury-related or non-injury-related incidents on our expressways from the LTA monitoring team, as well as even data on road infrastructure which are frequently damaged or hit, which will give us some insights to the measures that we could put in place before any accidents happen. And, of course, feedback from the local community, road users, the public, online and offline. We do data analytics and then identify locations where there are higher risks, to implement measures to enhance road safety.

With regard to the Member's specific question about underground walkways, it is the same with pedestrian overhead bridges (POBs). We need to look at whether it is relevant and useful before we can implement them. And if at-grade signalised traffic crossings are possible, then that is something we will go for because it is really a lot more effective and efficient. But in certain areas where you cannot do at-grade signalised traffic crossings, say, because of the terrain or developments in the area, then we will do underground paths or POBs, for instance.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. I have a Parliamentary Question slated for tomorrow, which is similar and largely covered. I thank the Senior Minister of State, especially, for LTA's efforts in promoting the Silver Zones.

But I was hoping to ask if LTA would consider a comprehensive study of how we plan high-traffic areas, high-risk areas, especially around School Zones. I am sure many Members of this House, in our own constituencies, we face daily issues at the peak in the morning as well as at dismissal time, where traffic is hindered because the ingress and egress to some of our schools are in smaller lanes, creating inconveniences to residents as well as bottlenecks further upstream.

I have seen some in my own estate, for example, where the cars would have to queue up into the bus spaces, creating additional difficulty for our transport operators. In addition, these driver behaviours have been exacerbated, for example, this year, with a lack of bus drivers, earlier in the year, that has increased the number of parents who are sending their kids to school. And secondly, because of the queues, it creates dangerous driver behaviour elsewhere as drivers are unable to turn, for example, into their housing estate, and they drive against traffic. And in my own constituency as well, again —

— we have seen a number of near misses. So, I would like to ask the Senior Minister of State if LTA would be able to study this and also review the measures around School Zones?

I thank the Member for the supplementary question. Let me say that LTA works with planning agencies for developments. And when there are School Zones, they also work very closely with the planning agencies, be it the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) and so on, to look at the traffic. So, traffic studies are actually conducted for such developments.

Having said that, yes, in certain school areas, for instance, you would experience congestion and so on. The reason for these issues may be a combination of many factors. LTA works very closely with the school, with the Ministry of Education also, to address such issues at the ground level, because every School Zone area may be different and there are specific local conditions that we have to take into account.

Some of the things we do is: we will work with the school and they will have, for instance, traffic marshals, traffic wardens that we work with; we give advisory to parents for gracious and good road safety behaviour. As well as, if needed, we will have enforcement for illegal parking; create wider footpaths; or even direct students to specially created, signalised pedestrian crossings, and put up railings in some schools as mitigation measures.

We also work with the schools to make sure that there are alternative parking or lay-by for the waiting vehicles, and to tell the parents not to wait along the roads illegally before dismissal time.

So, these are various things that we do. As regards whether we will do a study, actually we do continue to study this; and as I have said, we do traffic impact studies too.