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  • 8/19/2019 Pedestrian Archeology in Singapore Experiences From the Past

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    Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found athttp://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=tiea20

    Download by: [Singapore University of Technology & Design] Date: 29 February 2016, At: 05:5

    The IES Journal Part A: Civil & Structural Engineering

    ISSN: 1937-3260 (Print) 1937-3279 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/tiea20

    Pedestrian archeology in Singapore: experiencesfrom the past

    P.P. Koh, Y.D. Wong & G. Menon

    To cite this article: P.P. Koh, Y.D. Wong & G. Menon (2014) Pedestrian archeology in Singapore:

    experiences from the past, The IES Journal Part A: Civil & Structural Engineering, 7:4, 297-305

    To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/19373260.2014.951187

    Published online: 19 Nov 2014.

    Submit your article to this journal

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    TECHNICAL PAPER 

    Pedestrian archeology in Singapore: experiences from the past

    P.P. Koh*, Y.D. Wong and G. Menon

    Centre for Infrastructure Systems, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Nanyang Technological University,50 Nanyang Avenue N1-B1b-09, 639798, Singapore

    ( Received 11 June 2014; accepted 31 July 2014)

    Walking is an important part of the transportation system, as everyone walks. Providing an adequate infrastructure network  promotes walking. Additional walking facilities encourage longer walks, especially in the tropical climate of Singapore.This paper provides a good documentation of the historical infrastructural developments to enhance the walkingexperience in Singapore, from post World War II to present. Lessons learnt from these past experiences are highlighted.

    Keywords: pedestrian history; pedestrian infrastructure archive; lessons learnt

    1. Introduction

    Everybody walks everyday. Hence, walking forms part of 

    everyday life. As technology advances from wheels to

    motor, walking is still a necessity for people to travel

    from one place to another. Technology only helps one to

    travel longer distance but all other modes of transport still

    require some form of walking to connect with the origin/

    destination.

    Walking has been perhaps involuntary in the past as

    there were no other means of affordable transport. Hence,

     people in the past tended to walk a lot more as compared 

    to nowadays (with a variety of options available). It has

    now evolved to a transport mode that requires transporta-tion practitioners to provide an enhanced walking experi-

    ence to “attract” people to walk more. By making the

    walking experience more enjoyable and safer, people will

    walk more.

    Recently, Singapore has been often ranked to be one

    of the most walkable cities in the world, having a good 

     public transportation system and adequate facilities for 

     pedestrians (Ng et al.   2012; Sanyal   2013; UN Habitat

    2013). This is likely attributed to the early recognition of 

     pedestrians as an important contributor of the transport

    system and the continual effort made by the authorities

    from decades ago. It is interesting to know more about the

    explorations and decisions made in the past and how theyhave impacted the way it is now. Valuable lessons could 

     be learnt from the planning, implementation and post-

    implementation stages.

    This paper serves to document the historical develop-

    ments on urban planning, with focus on providing for 

     pedestrians in Singapore. A list of schemes is summarised 

    in Table 1.

    2. Factors affecting walking

    Past researches have been trying to quantify walkability;

    however, the way pedestrians feel about their walking sys-

    tem differs by culture and climate influences. Hence, it is

    very difficult to have a universal walkability evaluation

    matrix and it has to be calibrated to suit the needs of each

    country. Koh and Wong (2013) introduced a (11 infra-

    structural compatibility   C   distance factors) spider web

    representation of the current walking needs in local con-

    text (see Figure 1). From face-to-face street survey with

    1146 respondents, it was found that weather protection

    supplants distance as the most important factor (Tier 1)

    for walking, and hence shall be provided after the con-struction of the basic fundamentals (walkway network).

    The next tier (Tier 2) comprises secondary factors for 

    walking, and should be provided as much as possible.

    This includes comfort of walking (smoothness of the

     pavement), security (perceived feeling of pedestrians on

    theft and crimes around the neighbourhood), traffic acci-

    dent risk (how well the pedestrians are protected from

    motorised vehicles), detour (whether there is good perme-

    ability of the neighbourhood where pedestrians can get to

    the destination in the shortest path), and lastly the road 

    crossing delays (whether prioritisation is given to pedes-

    trian instead of the motorised traffic). Tier 3 comprises

    “good-to-have” factors that are usually provided onlywhen the basic and secondary factors are provided or 

    when there is surplus budget. They are related to the

    topography (stairs/slope) of the land area which is usually

    expensive to level, installing comprehensive directional

    signs that provide useful real-time information, providing

     pleasant landscaping (good scenery) and integrating with

    shops.

    *Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]

    2014 The Institution of Engineers, Singapore

    The IES Journal Part A: Civil & Structural Engineering , 2014

    Vol. 7, No. 4, 297305, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/19373260.2014.951187

    mailto:[email protected]://dx.doi.org/10.1080/19373260.2014.951187http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/19373260.2014.951187mailto:[email protected]

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    Table 1. List of pedestrian improvement schemes implemented (by chronological order).

    Year Scheme implemented Tier Purpose

    1822   Five-foot-ways below shophouses 1 Basic walking infrastructure

    1960s Multi-storey public housing with void decks

    1950   Zebra crossings 2 Time-separate pedestrians fromvehicles

    1964   Underpass for pedestrians (1st installed: Connaught Drive) 2 Tier-separate pedestrians from vehicles

    1964   Overhead bridge for pedestrians (1st installed: Collyer Quay) 2 Tier-separate pedestrians from vehicles

    1974   Anti-jaywalking campaign 2 Reduce pedestrian accidents

    1977 Pedestrian crossing rules and anti-jaywalking signs

    1976   Traffic signals for pedestrians

    Early 1980s   Pedestrian audio signals 3 Assist visually impaired pedestrians tocross signalised pedestrian crossings

    Convert to audio tactile signals

    1989   Master plan for pedestrians Phases 1 and 2 (creating pedestrian-friendly walkways)

    3 Encourage more people to walk 

    1992   Countdown pedestrian timer 2 Improve pedestrians’ safety

    Convert to single modular signals

    Mid 1990s   Floodlight at zebra crossings (1st installed: slip road from Fort

    Road into ECP (Changi))

    2 Improve pedestrians’ visibility

    1997   Art in Transit (North East Line) 3 Improve pedestrians’ walkingexperience

    2008 Art in Transit walking tours

    1997   Raised zebra crossings (1st implemented: Jurong East Street 24next to Yu Hua Primary School)

    2 Improve pedestrians’ visibility

    1998   Convert the tiny green push button to large push buttonswith LED at pedestrian signal crossings

    3 Improve pedestrians’ walkingexperience

    1999   Safe Drive Zone at schools 2 Improve pedestrians’ safety

    2004 Enhanced School Zone (ESZ)

    2013 Further improvement to ESZ

    2000   Red-amber-green arrows at junctions (1st installed: two junctionsat Yishun new town)

    2 Provide exclusive phase for rightturning motorists, improve safety for  pedestrians

    2005   Intelligent road studs for right-turning vehicles 2 Warn right-turning motorists to look out for pedestrians

    2005   Convert light bulb to LED flashing beacons at zebra crossings 2 Improve flashing beacon reliability

    2006   Barrier free accessibility at least 1 BFA route from Mass rapid transit(MRT) station

    3 Improve accessibility of pedestrianswith diverse needs

    2008 Lifts are added to 16 MRT stations, BFA enhancement added to 10stations

    2011 BFA to 95% of pedestrian walkways within 400 m radius of MRT/Lightrail transit (LRT) stations, all taxi and bus shelters and all public roads

    2008   Expand more sheltered linkways to transport nodes and overhead bridges 1 Provide pedestrians with shelters

    2013 Walk2Ride programme to construct sheltered linkways near transportnodes (expand from 200400 m)

    2009   Green Man Plus at traffic signals 3 Assist people with diverse needs

    2011 Extend to another 500 locations2009   Convert solid signalised pedestrian crossing lines to dashed lines 2 Improve designated crossing area

    visibility

    2009   Pedestrian Crossing Ahead Markings 2 Warn motorists to give way to pedestrians at zebra crossings

    2009   Pedestrian Crossing signs at zebra crossings 2 Warn motorists on the presence of  zebra crossing ahead 

    2011   Lifts to overhead bridges 3 Assist people with diverse needs to useoverhead bridge

    2012 Extend to six other overhead bridges

    (continued )

    298   P.P. Koh et al.

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    Table 1. (Continued )

    Year Scheme implemented Tier Purpose

    2013 Extend to 40 other overhead bridges

    2011   Flushed LED road studs at zebra crossings 2 Warn motorists to give way to pedestrians at zebra crossings

    2012   Look Markings at zebra crossing 2 Remind pedestrians to look out for  vehicles before crossings

    2013 Extend to 50 more locations

    2013   Silver Zone 3 Warn motorists to look out for elderly

     Note: Dates are tagged to the public announcement made; actual completion dates are later; information obtained from Factiva (Archive of news articles)[1980current] and News release (LTA) [2008current].The bold items indicate the start of the scheme.

     

     

    Addressing diverse needs

    •  Doing the extra miles for pedestrians

    •  Connecng people between opposite sides

    of the road

    •  Enhancing pedestrian safety

    •  Providing what was best available

    •  Combang the local climate

    Tier 3 -

    'Good to

    have' factors

    Stairs/slope, signs,

    scenery, shops

    Tier 2 - Secondary

    factors

    Comfort, security, accident risk,detour, road crossing delays

    Tier 1 - Primary factors

    (the fundamental provision)

    Weather protecon, distance

    Crowdednes

     

    Stairs/slope

    Distance

    Accident

    risk

    1

    2

    3

    4

    Comfort

    Weather

    protecon

    Detour

    Security

    Road crossing delay

    Shops along

    route

    Good scenery

    Direconal signs

    Figure 1. Walking factors and pyramid.

    The IES Journal Part A: Civil & Structural Engineering    299

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    2.1. Providing from what was best available

    Pedestrian walkway is the basic form of infrastructure that

    is required for walking. In the past, people used to walk 

    along muddy tracks (famously known as dirt roads) without

    any segregation from the motorised vehicles. There were

    no proper systems and people have to watch out for one

    another (see Figure 2). As far back in 1822, Sir Stamford 

    Raffles (founder of modern Singapore), stipulated in the

    Town Plan that shophouses should have a covered 

    walkway of about five feet (equivalent to 1.5 m) along its

    street front (see Figure 3). These walkways were meant to

     protect pedestrians from the hot tropical sun and rain.Some serve to allow people to window-shop or stop by for 

    some refreshments. Till today, some of these five-foot-

    ways are conserved as part of the heritage of Singapore.

    The 14 storey shophouses typically found near the

    city area (which are the depopulated Chinatown, Little

    India and Kampong Glam districts of today) could not

    cater to the burgeoning growth of population at that time.

    This led to the building of the first batch of 23,000 public

    multi-storey apartment units in 1959. However, this first

    attempt to re-house the population was inadequate till the

    formation of Planning Department and the founding of 

    Housing Development Board (HDB) in the 1960s. HDB

    constructed more than 50,000 multi-storey housing units

    within five years. Over the years, the layout of these hous-

    ings adopted a “checkerboard” principle with grid-like

     precincts. Each new town comprises a transit station/bus

    interchange, a town centre, neighbourhood centres

    (40006000 units) and precincts (78 blocks of housing).

    A neighbourhood centre contains shopping (some still

    keeping the “five-foot-way” shophouse concept of cov-ered walkways) and communal activity for residents

    within walking distance. The concept of a precinct has the

    intent to foster community ties among the residents

    through the use of open spaces and streetscapes under-

    neath and between residential blocks. This unique local

    residential layout provides a very permeable environment

    suited for walking as the ground level is typically a void 

    deck and the blocks are not fenced up.

    Figure 3. Then (left); Now (centre, right): Five-foot-way.

    Figure 2. Chinatown in the 1900s (Chinatownology 2014).

    300   P.P. Koh et al.

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    With the introduction of the high-rise residential

    setup, walkways need to be constructed to link residents

    from homes to amenities. It is not uncommon to spot

    cement-paved 1.5 m wide walkways along all arterial

    roads. These provide dedicated, protected paths that sepa-

    rate pedestrians from the motorised traffic. The rationale

    of why footpaths are constructed along roads was to

    enhance pedestrian safety within the road reserve and it

    was a possible option to slab over some of the open drains

    next to roads and not damaging the tree-lines alongsidethe roadway. It was also very cost-effective as there is no

    need to provide additional street lighting which has been

     properly laid out along the roadside. However, this conve-

    nient solution then leads to some unforeseeable issues

     being faced at present.

    When walkways are provided by slabbing over of 

    open drains, there is a need to provide iron gratings at

    intervals for aeration of the water in the drain and for 

    cleaning. Sometimes, these gratings may pose a tripping

    hazard when not maintained properly. Furthermore,

    cyclists nowadays tend to leverage on this existing com-

     prehensive network of walkways for their convenience.

    The likely reason that cyclists prefer walkways over roadsis that they provide bi-directional and ostensibly safer 

    travel.

    2.2. Combating the local’s climate

    In Singapore, the tropical (hot, humid and sometimes wet)

    weather is one of the major considerations for one to walk 

    longer (Koh et al.  2011; Koh and Wong   2013). Being a

    garden city, sidewalks are often planted with trees that

     provide some shade. Also, the sheltered five-foot-ways

     below shophouses and corridors/void decks below public

    housing shelter pedestrians from the rain and sunshine. To

    connect to the major bus stops, transit stations and ameni-

    ties, walkways are built with shelters. Recently, LTA has

    announced the provision of sheltered walkways from

    within the radius of 200400 m of the transit stations and 

    other major pedestrian generating amenities like schools

    and community centres (Sim 2013).

    2.3. Connecting people between opposite sides

    of the road 

    As population of motorised vehicles increases, roads get

    wider, and pedestrians will find it challenging to cross to

    the other side. One form of crossing is grade-separated 

    the underpass and overpass (pedestrian overhead bridge).

    The first walk-through underpass that was built in 1964

    was across Connaught Drive, to ease the congestion of 

    traffic. The underpass provides a seamless, undisturbed 

    walk to the pedestrians. However, constructing an under-

     pass is costly and difficult. Consequently, underpasses

    have not been widely constructed after that (54 number asof 2012) (LTA   2013b). Shortly after the first underpass

    was built, Singapore’s first overhead bridge was built at

    Collyer Quay in the same year (see Figure 4). This seemed 

    to provide a better (“safer”) option as the pedestrians are

    visible to other road users nearby. The minimum require-

    ment of 5.4 m height clearance results in about 36 steps to

    climb. Close to 500 overhead bridges are built, as of 

    2012, but as the population ages, their usage poses prob-

    lems. As walkways get their shelters, overhead bridge

    Figure 4. The first overhead bridge at Collyer Quay (Memories of Singapore 2012).

    The IES Journal Part A: Civil & Structural Engineering    301

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    connecting to these walkways are also provided with shel-

    ters to provide a seamless covered walking journey.

    Time-separated schemes were introduced, to allow

     pedestrians and motorists to share the road space safely in

    an orderly manner. The very first form of time-separated 

    traffic control at junctions was controlled by officers with

    whistle and flags. This was soon replaced by automatic

    General Electric Company traffic lights in 1948 (Remember 

    Singapore 2013). The traffic lights with incandescent bulbs

    used up to the 1970s, were replaced by halogen bulbs and 

    later superseded by light-emitting-diodes (LEDs) since

    early 2000s. LEDs are well-known for its reliability and 

    energy conservation.

    The turning traffic give way to crossing pedestrians

    was introduced in 1976, which allowed turning traffic and 

    crossing pedestrians (controlled by green man and red 

    man signals) to share the green time. This resulted in

    almost any signalised junction becoming a safe pedestrian

    crossing. The first and only scramble walk (whereby all

    vehicles are stopped to give pedestrians an exclusivegreen time when they can cross in any fashion within the

     junction) was implemented in Singapore in 1997 at Boon

    Tat Street/Robinson Road junction. The experiment did 

    not prove successful as most pedestrians were used to the

    main system where they share the green time with turning

    traffic. Hence, it was not applied elsewhere. Nevertheless,

    scramble crossing can be very effective at locations with

    heavy pedestrian traffic crossing in more than one direc-

    tion, for example at a junction in vicinity of the transit

    station.

    2.4. Enhancing pedestrian safetyThe many basic schemes are not accident-proof. With

    erroneous behaviour of the pedestrians/motorists, acci-

    dents do happen. Hence, much has been done to enhance

    the safety of pedestrians.

    Countdown pedestrian timer was introduced at the

    signalised pedestrian crossings in 1992 to display the

    amount of time left to cross once the flashing green man

    starts. This reduces the number of unintentional violators,

    hence enhancing safety.

    Singapore has adopted the permissive right-turn (left-

    hand driving) system at junctions. In this configuration,

     pedestrians are released with the straight through traffic.

    Most of the pedestrians would have cleared the crossing before the right-turning vehicle can find gaps in the oppo-

    site stream. However, sometimes during low traffic, there

    could be some conflicts between the motorists and pedes-

    trians. Hence, there are several schemes implemented to

    warn right-turning motorists to give way to pedestrians.

    These include right-turn pockets, intelligent road studs

    that will blink with the green man, give-way-to-pedes-

    trians signs and Red-Amber-Green arrows (exclusive

    right-turn phase).

    At the uncontrolled zebra crossings, motorists need to

    give way to pedestrians. Many of these crossings are

    located along the slip roads at junctions or mid-block 

     between junctions along minor roads with low traffic vol-

    umes. Zebra crossings are demarcated with white strips

    with two flashing beacons and the blue pedestrian crossing

    signs. Initiatives to enhance safety at such locations

    include attaching flood lights to improve the visibility of 

    crossing pedestrians, attaching luminous orange discs

     below the flashing beacons, converting flashing beacons

    from light bulbs to more reliable LEDs, lowering of the

    flashing beacon pole to become more conspicuous to the

    motorists, raising the zebra crossings (with humps and 

     painted checkered yellow rectangles at both sides) to

    improve visibility, installing LED road studs across the

    crossing and painting the “Look” markings to warn pedes-

    trians to look out for oncoming traffic.

    2.5. Addressing diverse needs

    There are segments of the population with mobility con-

    straints such as the elderly, caregiver with prams, people

    with trolleys and other mobility challenged groups.

    Barrier free accessibility (BFA) requirements started 

    as early as late 1990s. The very first efforts involved a

    taskforce set up in 1999 to identify footpaths with high

    kerbs found in public places such as town centres, schools,

     bus interchanges and MRT/LRT stations (LTA   2000).

    These kerbs were reconstructed with kerbcut ramps to

    reduce the height from 75 to 25 mm to facilitate the

    elderly and those in wheelchairs. Until recently, the BFA

    requirements were stipulated to have at least two BFA

    access routes from transit stations (LTA  2011b). BFA isalso available in all public housing estates (Siong  2012)

    and some private estates. The programme includes con-

    structing on/off ramps with handrails at locations with

    stairs, installing drop kerbs at crossing points, removing

    obstacles from walkways and upgrading major transport

    nodes with tactile-guidance system. The overhead bridges

    which have been built to solve congestion problem now

     become hurdles to the people with mobility constraints to

    climb. Subsequently, ramps were built as alternative to

    the stairs to connect to the overhead bridges as part of the

    BFA initiatives. However, these ramps tend to be overly

    long and take up a lot of space. Most of the other overhead 

     bridges are built with stairs. To cater to the mobility chal-lenged group, the most recent initiative by LTA is to pro-

    vide lifts at some of the overhead bridges (LTA 2013a).

    To assist the elderly to cross the road safely, traffic sig-

    nal timing are extended to cater to their slower crossing

    speeds. An elderly by tapping his/her senior citizen travel

    concession card on a card reader below the push button is

    able to extend up to 13 seconds of the green man timing.

    The initiative, Green Man Plus, was piloted in 2009 and has

    received numerous favourable feedback from the public and 

    302   P.P. Koh et al.

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    now it is being expanded to include other mobility chal-

    lenged users with added features (LTA 2011a).

    Pedestrian audio signal is the beeping sound that

     pedestrians hear at pedestrian crossings. These signals are

    to help the visually handicapped pedestrians to know the

    location of the crossing, onset and ending of green man

    and the opposite end of the crossing. In the early 1980s,

     pedestrian audio signals were mounted as loudspeakers on

    top of the pedestrian signal heads (Koh et al.   2012). At

    that time, the audio signals were meant to signify the

    crossing period for all pedestrians. The crossing tones

    from the loudspeakers are often quite annoying to nearby

    residents. Hence, the new version of the beeping audio

    signals are mostly installed at mid-block crossings and 

    selected junctions based on demand.

    Another group of vulnerable pedestrians are the school

    children. They are the less experienced ones who need 

    attention from the other road users. Many schemes have been implemented to target at these young users. All

    school children in Primary Five need to spend half a day

    at the Road Safety Community Park, supervised by the

    Traffic Police to learn the essentials of road safety includ-

    ing the kerb drill on how to cross a road safely. One of the

     pioneer efforts includes the School Zone before 1998,

    where School Zone, speed limit (40 kph) and prohibitory

    signs were put up based on Traffic Police/school requests

    (LTA   1998). After that, Safe Drive Zone was imple-

    mented in 1999 (LTA   2004). Under the scheme, parent

    and resident volunteers serve as community wardens to

    guide children across the road outside their schools. There

    were also painted footprints to guide the pedestrians tolook out for traffic. In 2004, LTA launched the Enhanced 

    School Zone which bears the conspicuous red pavements

    and enhanced school zone signs at all primary schools.

    Recently, the scheme is further enhanced by lowering the

    speed limit to 40 kph along roads fronting the schools,

    installing a warning “When lights flash” sign with flashing

    amber lights to warn motorists of the part time speed limit

    and incorporating a new safety toolkit with traffic calming

    measures and reminder messages.

    2.6. Doing the extra mile for pedestrians

    In 1989, the Public Works Department rolled out a

    $122 million master plan to make walking an attractive

    option (Soh 1989). Phase I of the programme focused on

    walkways in the Civic/Business District and Orchard Road areas. Phase II concentrated on other city spots

    like Chinatown, Boat Quay and Little India. The pedes-

    trian-friendly schemes include more attractive tiles and 

    wider pavements, improving landscaping like fountains,

     pools, small parks and sculptures, and using new designs

    for all street furniture such as rest points, traffic signs,

     bus shelters, lighting, street directories and ramps for 

    disabled.

    Closing streets to solely pedestrian use (known as

     pedestrianisation) was also one of the proposed plans in

    the programme. It started as early as mid 1990s with the

    first street at Pagoda Street to turn into a car-free mall.

    Pagoda Street in the Chinatown is bustling with commer-cial activities with shophouses at both sides of the street

    (see Figure 5). There is also the Sri Mariamman Temple

    and it is a popular tourist spot. To convert it to a pedes-

    trian mall, the road is paved with tiles with specially

    designed benches, lights, street signs and dustbins (The

    Straits Times  1992). The next pedestrianisation includes

    the plaza next to People’s Park Complex, New Bridge

    Road, Eu Tong Sen Street, Clarke Quay and Boat Quay.

    Yuen and Chin (1998) provide a good literature on pedes-

    trian streets in Singapore.

    Partial pedestrianisation (in terms of partial closure by

    timing or lanes) is also common in Singapore. For exam-

     ple, a portion of the Boon Tat Street, which is a one-waystreet in the central business district (CBD), is now offi-

    cially closed to traffic every evening after 7 pm. Food ven-

    dors occupy the space and open for business and it has

    since been a popular food alley in the CBD area. Another 

    form of partial pedestrianisation is the partially cordoned 

    road closure to events like cycling and marathons, held 

    usually during the weekends. Cycling races began as early

    as 1934, one of which was organised by the Singapore

    Cycling Club (SCC 1933).

    Figure 5. Pagoda street market in the 1960s (source: Old postcard of Singapore) and present (2010s).

    The IES Journal Part A: Civil & Structural Engineering    303

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    To provide pedestrians with excellent shop-while-

    walking experience, the first air-conditioned overhead 

     bridge was converted from the open overhead bridge

    across Shenton Way in 1971. This bridge (Change Alley

    Aerial Plaza) with shops on both sides, links Raffles Place

    to shops in Clifford Pier (URA 2013). However, with the

    development of surrounding commercial buildings, the

    crowd using the shops has dropped drastically. Subse-

    quently, overhead bridge connections (second storey

    links) are only considered when the surrounding develop-

    ments have an extended network of pedestrian decks at

    the second storey or when there are constraints to build 

    underground links. The first underground pedestrian link 

    mall (City Link) was opened in 2000 to link up Raffles

    City, Marina Square, the Padang and future Singapore

    Arts Centre (now known as Esplanade). Other recent

    underground pedestrian link malls include Dhoby

    Xchange, Tanjong Pagar Xchange, Esplanade Xchange

    and Marina Bay Link Mall. All of these are linked to

    MRT stations with great pedestrian flows. At the new resi-dential towns, new urban design concept incorporating

    green community spaces such as sky-rise greening, garden

    walk and non-motorised infrastructure network, for sus-

    tainable living characterises the next generation. This is

    evident in the latest HDB housing projects such as Pung-

    gol Matilda, Tampines North and Bidadari.

    3. Discussions and conclusions

    This paper provides a comprehensive documentation of 

    the historical development of Singapore’s pedestrian

    infrastructure from post World War II till present. Lessons

    learnt from the past allow others to “build it right” fromthe start. Fortunately, Singapore has paid sufficient atten-

    tion in the distant past such that major retrofitting is not

    required now to rectify the existing infrastructure to meet

    the changing diverse needs of road users.

    As the paper has demonstrated, Singapore’s pedestrian

    network can be graded to be at the top of the walking pyr-

    amid. The fundamentals have been provided with great

    quality and the secondary level has also been provided at

    great length. The only part that needs improvement will

     be greater accessibility for the mobility disadvantaged to

    use pedestrian overhead bridges and the “good-to-have”

    factors like landscaping the walking environment and pro-

    viding the walking route with shops nearby. Pedestrianisa-tion could be extended further to mimic European car-free

    town zones on a larger scale basis instead of the current

    single road conversion.

    The planning/construction of pedestrian infrastructure

    network can be said to encourage cycling revival indi-

    rectly. Many cyclists today leverage on the availability of 

    existing pedestrian walkway network, out of convenience

    (bi-directional) and a safer option than riding along the

    roadways. With the implementation of BFA, this indi-

    rectly provides cyclists to greater advantage of smoother,

    continuous travel on walkways. The availability of this

    defacto “cycle” network works well too with the recent

    implementation of off-road cycling tracks, especially at

    locations with no available space where the existing walk-

    ways serve as transition segments.

    While greenery provides shade for users and adds to

    the landscape of the environment, it may hinder the retro-

    fitting of additional infrastructure to the road network. For 

    example, there often exists space constraints when con-

    structing a cycling track between the pedestrian footpath

    and building boundary line.

    In the long run, more prioritisation should be given to

     pedestrians and other non-motorised transport to convert

    the motor-centric environment to a sustainable transport

    system.

    Acknowledgements

    The first author would like to thank Dr. Chin Kian Keong for hismoral support of the work.

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