10 ideas to make Singapore more bike-friendly and walkable

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http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/10-ideas-to-make/1427468.html

In order to make Singapore a more friendly place for walking and biking, urban design and planning need to be focused on people, rather than automobiles which was prevalent in the past century, a new study revealed.

This fundamental change in how urban cities are designed is required in order to create a walkable, bikeable space, according to the study by Urban Land Institute and Centre for Liveable Cities, which was released on Wednesday (Oct 22).

The Creating Healthy Places through Active Mobility report offered 10 ideas to make cities more walkable, bikeable and people-friendly:

• Make walking and cycling convenient and efficient, integrating them into public transit systems

• Provide dedicated space for all forms of transportation

• Ensure high visibility at junctions to improve safety

• Maintain continuity of movement

• Keep motorised traffic slow in high pedestrian areas

• Make street-level crossings a priority

• Ensure consistency in design standards throughout the city

• Make walking and cycling paths comfortable and attractive (for example, shady trees help shield people from heat, sun and rain)

• Mix up the land uses adjacent to the routes; mixed-use developments are conducive to walking and cycling as an easy way to get from one place to another

• Close the loop with end-of-trip amenities such as shower facilities, lockers and bicycle parking

In a blog post, National Development Minister Khaw Boon Wan noted that Singapore is "quite walkable", but lags behind cities like Amsterdam and Copenhagen, where "walking and cycling as modes of transport have been honed to be the normal way of life".