www.todayonline.com/commentary/commentary-improving-singapores-road-safety-require-drastic-measures-price-worth-paying-2416796
Commentary: Improving Singapore’s road safety may require more drastic measures, but it’s a price worth paying
Opinion / Fluff PostAnd they forget that that some people take traffic light as suggestion only. My mom broke her ankle because this SBS bus honked at her when she crossing the road (red light for vehicles) and he lurched forward a bit even though it’s still red light. She fell and has 2 fractures thanks to his antics. He basically juked her using a freaking bus.
Then there’s another species of incel (like the Tampines incident) who view traffic light as decoration only. They have zero regard for any of these
Imo they should go beyond just putting traffic light and do something more about it.
Very sorry to hear about what happened to your mom. That driver was a fucking piece of shit. What were the consequences for that garbage? Hope she's doing much better now
She didn’t take down the bus plate number because she got shocked and fell. Then she had to rush to work, only to be sent home because it got swollen and painful. She’s now on crutches at home. But as a daughter it makes me so mad that I can’t go and report that driver.
Imo LTA shouldn’t be only putting in physical things. They need more intangible things to evaluate the people driving vehicles. I know this won’t be popular amongst car drivers but minimum as a bus driver, imo they really need to test and monitor whether these drivers do little things like this.
Imo reckless behaviour starts small, and when they know they get away with small things, it’ll become bigger and bigger until some major incident occurs
Even as a driver, I really think they should make it more inconvenient for drivers. I like to see more silver zones, traffic calming measures and reminders that LTA/TP are watching. The driving populations needs to be constantly educated or regulated. When there aren't people driving like mad men, it is actually quite a comfortable, stress free experience.
You don't need the licence plate to report it. If you have the rough time, service number and location they will most likely be able to narrow it down to a few buses. Buses also have onboard cameras which they can review.
Good idea. Will try to ask my mom about this.
I wholeheartedly agree. I'm surprised no one else got footage since everyone loves recording stuff.
At some point in the future I wouldnt be surprised if drivers are monitored using a combination of biometric and telemetric data. Unpleasant and I'm sure you'll hear the chorus of Big Brother this and that but driving is not a right, and if this is the road culture then I think pedestrian and passenger safety triumphs privacy.
I hope your mom has a speedy recovery
Thank you for your well wishes and thank you for engaging me in such a meaningful conversation.
I agree with you that it’s unpleasant to be monitored on such an extent and even restrictive, but for the safety of people on board public vehicles or even in the way of a public vehicle, it really is better to monitor them.
And I’m of the opinion usually that bridges/underpass is more safe than crossing the road. Usually if there’s a road I will advise people to take underpass or overhead because there’s no countdown timer and easier for elderlies or people with mobility issues.
It’s upsetting that LTA is just swiping a metaphorical credit card and air dropping a traffic light to keep the noise down and moving on when their job is to ensure that things relating to traffic are maintained in order as well. We penalise the drivers but we don’t penalise the ones that don’t get caught and the people who indirectly enable this not getting caught situation. Beyond traffic lights, they should step up on monitoring, which sometimes makes me wonder like why can one wing (say, MINDEF) be so gung-ho about monitoring people and already keeping tabs on a person to see whether they’re gonna run from NS even before NS starts but LTA is just so lax to the point where if fatalities occur from an accident, they just “buy the citizens a new traffic light” and call it a day.
This government has clearly metastisized into the sort that wants to spend the least amount of money possible to address problems. It's theater. Otoh keeping tabs on kids about to serve? They can use the existing resources of their surveillance apparatus, to preserve a much more valuable resource.
It's gross. While I never loved LKY I never doubted his commitment. I doubt everything about the new gen leadership beginning with their authenticity. They clearly came on board to serve themselves and their cronies. Smh
what's the penalty in SG for running a red light? SG is full of fines... should be $1000 first time, 2nd offence jail 3 weeks + 20 demerit points... no seriously, I thought running a red light would be a serious crime in SG.
From: https://www.police.gov.sg/Advisories/Traffic/Traffic-Matters/Penalties-for-Traffic-Offences
| Traffic Offence | Demerit Points | Composition Fine(Light Vehicle) | Composition Fine(Heavy Vehicle) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Failing to conform to traffic light signals* | 12 | $400 | $500 |
With effect from 1 July 2021, motorists who commit specified offences* at pedestrian crossings or offences that endanger pedestrian safety at School or Silver Zones will incur two additional demerit points on top of the original demerit points for the offence. In addition, the composition fines for these offences committed within abovementioned Zones will be raised by $100, subject to the total fine not exceeding $500.
EDIT: Fixing formatting problems
On Jan 14, 2008, a speeding van skidded and collided head-on with our family car on the expressway. Unable to get out of our vehicle, we had to wait for assistance from the Singapore Civil Defence Force.
My parents, in the front seats, both suffered broken bones and other injuries. The perpetrator emerged unscathed, and my parents could see him standing nonchalantly beside his vehicle, speaking on his mobile phone without bothering about their well-being.
As for myself in the back seat, the seat belt had kept me safe, but the impact also caused some blood vessels around my small intestines to rupture. This was only discovered during an exploratory laparotomy (like a C-section but done in the old-school vertical manner). I still have the large vertical scar.
To this day, I still encounter situations in motor vehicles where panic floods me and I have to grab onto something to calm myself.
This happens most often when I book a ride on a ride-hailing service, and private-hire drivers not only speed but also fail to maintain a safe distance from the car in front.
Whenever I ask these drivers to “drive slower / safely”, my request is usually met with either a muttering of dissatisfaction and a slowing down for a minute or two before returning to their original speed, or complete dismissal and disregard.
THE TAMPINES TRAGEDY
Upon hearing of the April 22 fatal accident in Tampines, my initial response was that of sadness, especially as it emerged that two lives had been taken away too soon.
At the same time, as in-car camera footages started to surface online, I felt a growing swell of anger about this inexplicable accident which had resulted in the deaths of two people, harm to others, and brought grief to so many in the community.
I soon realised that I was so affected by this episode not just because of my own past trauma, but because it could have happened to my children as well.
As a parent, you tell yourself that your children will be fine if you equip them with the skills and knowledge to remain safe on the roads. For example, we teach them to belt up in vehicles, and to wait for the green man at pedestrian crossings and look both ways for oncoming traffic before stepping onto the road.
The stark truth is that no matter what safety measures and precautions we take on the roads, we are at the mercy of other road users.
Unfortunately, many road users do not take this responsibility seriously.
I observe speeding occurring daily, oftentimes by heavy vehicles which have the potential to cause more serious harm. It’s also common to encounter drivers that neglect to signal, smoke while driving, or appear distracted either by conversing with a passenger or by using their mobile phones while driving.
A VISION OF SAFE SINGAPORE ROADS
What could an ideal future with safer roads in Singapore look like?
In an ideal world, we would eliminate speeding completely.
All vehicles could come equipped with Intelligent Speed Assistance technology, where traffic signs can automatically ensure vehicles comply with corresponding speed limits through an onboard communication system.
In-car cameras could also become standard in all vehicles, and footage of traffic violations synced via cloud to an artificial intelligence-powered analytics program administered by the authorities to detect traffic violations. More crucially, footage of accidents could be obtained directly and not subject to external manipulation or interference.
In addition, drivers’ road behaviours could be factored into other aspects of car ownership such as the cost of renewing one’s road tax or insurance, or even increasing the cost of future Certificates Of Entitlement (COEs) for recalcitrant drivers by factoring in a multiple as a “hazard tax”.
All these require a whole-of-government approach towards car ownership and road safety, making it more burdensome for road users to behave recklessly.
None of these proposed solutions are foolproof or easy to implement — for example, how should non-Singapore registered vehicles be dealt with? — but they strive towards transformational rather than incremental change.
WHAT CAN WE DO NOW?
New requirements for speed limiters on lorries in Singapore have been announced and will be progressively rolled out till 2027 — a good start, but insufficient.
First, all new-imported lorries should have a speed limiter installed; this should be implemented much sooner than the proposed deadline of Jan 1, 2026.
All goods vehicles should also have speed limiters, regardless of size. A heuristic could be that if the vehicle has a label with a speed limit, it should require a speed limiter. Such an initiative could have prevented the accident my parents and I were involved in, for example.
Our traffic laws should also be strengthened as an effective deterrent against speeding and other hazardous road behaviour. The Traffic Police are increasing penalties for selected offences, but could consider firmer action such as a lifetime ban from driving for cases where lives are lost.
Such an option would better factor in the principles of deterrence, retribution and public protection, and serve a stern reminder to all that possessing a driving licence is a privilege that comes with responsibilities.
Last, the enhancement of penalties will only be effective if complemented by a consistent enforcement regime, which will require adequate resources. Road users should be encouraged to support enforcement efforts by providing feedback on reckless driving.
Currently, the process for submitting traffic feedback is cumbersome and limited by requirements such as file size of submitted videos; it’s also not uncommon for members of the public to receive no response to their provided feedback.
Any solution should ideally automate or make easy the ability to enforce traffic laws for both the authorities and community.
Such systemic transformations could be costly, but the benefits of safer roads would greatly outweigh the costs incurred.
As a car owner, it may mean that I cannot afford another car when my COE expires in future; but as a father, it could also mean that my children do not have to face the risk of grievous harm — or even death.
In my view, that is a price worth paying.
No need for some future tech AI speed assistance or what not. Traffic calming measures that are proven to work in other countries can be implemented today on Singapore streets.
These drivers only care about themselves and their vehicles, so narrower roads with complex obstacles (humps, trees, islands, bollards) would naturally slow vehicles down (unless they truly have a death wish).
We as a country are quite far from having a world class Road network in safety anyway. Why do we need sliplanes in silver zones anyway? Is a few seconds saved for drivers really worth the lives of an Ah Ma or 2?
Just look at the thumbnail. A massive road with 5 wide, straight lanes in the heart of the city. That road design is practically inviting drivers to speed.
Unpopular opinion here, but the bloodthirsty calls for stricter punishments are not going to prevent more crashes and injuries and deaths in any significant way. It feels good to see perpetrators punished, yes, but if you’re only dealing with dangerous behaviors after the fact, you’re not going to save lives.
The research is extensive and solid. If you want to prevent speeding, you need to build roads that slow drivers down. I posted this before and there are so many armchair criminal psychologists saying how Singaporean drivers are different, those won’t work, only punishments work, etc. Oh please. As if we have such a unique species of humans that research that has been empirically validated all over the world will just mysteriously fail to reproduce their results when they cross our borders.
Amsterdam had a problem with fatalities from cars until they redesigned their streets for people. So did London. And New York. And so many other cities to varying degrees. It works. It will work. The question lies in political will, not efficacy. But too many temporarily embarrassed millionaires thinking they will own a Lamborghini in 10 years time and so we need to continue having wide straight roads designed for “traffic flow”, instead of narrow roads designed to slow traffic down.
Until then, all the punishment in the world won’t fix the problem.
Punishing someone after the fact makes people feel that “justice is done”
The better solution? Systems and infrastructure in place such that these kinds of incidents won’t happen. Prevention is better than cure. Impatient motorists who are angry at their journeys being a few minutes longer are entitled to sit in their cars.
This so much - however it won't be easy getting the message through to LTA given their past behavior regarding extremely unpopular policies (OBU, Simply go), let alone a topic which drivers may see as undesirable.
definitely an unpopular opinion, but I agree with you -- we need to nerf private transport / road infra to reduce demand to drive, keep vehicles at safe speeds and in their lanes.
Everyone in SG understands why we need good public transport, but it's always harder to convince why we need traffic calming measures to make driving "worse".
Totally agree, this emphasis on changing behaviour isn't going to get us anywhere on road safety. We need to follow the hierarchy of controls if we want to design a safe system.
The most effective safety measure is to eliminate the need to be exposed to the risks of vehicular traffic e.g. by pedestrianising more places. Encouraging work from home might also reduce the overall need to commute in the first place.
Next most effective is to try and susbstitute the use of road vehicles where possible e.g. by making public transport, cycling etc. viable and comparable alternatives for the routes people want to take.
And when you have to be exposed to the risks of the road, try and engineer away as many of them as possible with better, slower and safety-focused road design.
Only then should we consider laws and education to try and influence road user behaviour.
This is just basic stuff in occupational health and safety, and it works.
This! Stop expanding roads and redesign our streets for people.
cause no accidents is boring. People dying and getting punished satisfy the 'sinkie pwn sinkie' mentality
Change the law so that if you are convicted in court and found guilty of a traffic offence, your very expensive car will automatically be confiscated and scrapped or exported.
Auction away better?
Ya. Would be a huge waste to just scrap. Better to auction it off to someone who is (hopefully) better at driving.
Auction on the condition it be exported.
Good idea, but that disproportionately hits the poorer and accidently ties the penalty size to the value of the vehicle. I'd rather just immediately slap a driving ban and a fine with % of income / assets or sth.
No reason why a lower income person / someone who just bought a car should face a much heavier burden than a rich person with an old nearly expired car.
And handed a fine equivalent to the price of the car when new inclusive of current COE prices
Or forced to take 12 months of driver improvement/anger management...
Rising trend and actual facilities, drag feet.
On the other hand, less pressing issues so fast https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/s-pore-to-consider-additional-safeguards-around-excessive-screen-time-for-children-dpm-wong
stop building wide roads, stop building slip lanes, especially in between housing estates and schools. give full transit priority in such places. stop forcing pedestrians to make large detours to get to the bus stop to reduce jaywalking. Make traffic lights change more frequently and give longer time for pedestrians. Stop prioritizing "smooth traffic flow", its just encouraging drivers to jet when they get the chance.
lots of things can be done to make roads safer.
also stroads. they're terrible
Fellow stroad unenjoyer!
I am surprised that the original article doesn’t hint at changing the road or street layout to force cars to slow down. Any kind of in-car speed limiter, after-action enforcement etc can be juked around. You cannot argue with physics. Narrower roads, eliminating slip lanes, more space for vulnerable road users & pedestrians, 24/7 protected bus lanes, speed bumps, chicanes, modal filters etc is what’s needed.
I've seen a video in the UK where they built poles at each side of the entry road. The poles are close enough that there isn't a lot of gap left when a car is passing through.
The cars do slow down to avoid colliding with the poles, no electronics needed.
Narrower roads, eliminating slip lanes, more space for vulnerable road users & pedestrians, 24/7 protected bus lanes, speed bumps, chicanes, modal filters etc is what’s needed.
There's a few areas where such measures have been implemented in SG and it's usually in areas where there's higher population of elderly.
It's really a lot quieter and people have less tendency to speed, but once past these areas and into the straight, wide roads, that's where most of the cars start to go fast.
I live in a silver zone and it’s great. More please!
In addition, drivers’ road behaviours could be factored into other aspects of car ownership such as the cost of renewing one’s road tax or insurance, or even increasing the cost of future Certificates Of Entitlement (COEs) for recalcitrant drivers by factoring in a multiple as a “hazard tax”.
All these require a whole-of-government approach towards car ownership and road safety, making it more burdensome for road users to behave recklessly.
Does this mean the rich cunts would somehow be more of an arse trying to prove that being rich has its advantages?
If those hazard taxes are high enough, we should have free public transportation nationwide
Despite having the most expensive cars in the world, our vehicles often do not have advanced safety features like automatic emergency braking or collision avoidance warnings. Subsidies are given for vehicles that are cleaner (and penalties for vice versa), but not for vehicles that are safer.
The issue is cars are already expensive here, so manufacturers cut features to reduce the price in order to meet the market for the purpose of selling vehicles. They dont really care about lives. Decade old feature like awareness cameras are far and few between in private vehicles around singapore.
How about an annual physical/ competency test for drivers above 65??
Heck I just Not Just Bikes latest videos on speed limits and I think slowing us down to 30 km/h would also be a good initial step
Increase the fines and it'll pay for itself.
Jail and fines didn't help in the recent case.
Only need 3 simple rule changes: 1. Drink and drive-banned from driving for life 2. Cause death-life in prison/hang 3. Cause injury due to negligence-pay 20% of yearly income for 5 years to charity(cos insurance will cover for injured party)
Decrease the number of motor lanes
narrow the motor lanes
lower the speed limits to 30kph
make speed limiter tech mandatory for all motor vehicles
you will get to vision zero pretty quickly.
question is whether singaporeans will accept that, or will car centricity prevail?
or to put another way, will singaporeans favor their car convenience at the expense of public safety and human lives
drivers dont like their convenience being forfeited so others dont die... Unfortunately
considering the downvotes seems also reddiporeans have the same sentiment
There’s also the cultural aspect of owning a car. When “car” is part of the Singapore 5Cs, getting Singaporeans behind meaningful change to road behaviour will be a challenge.
cause a death? get 50 years- no lifetime jail. sorry you dont get to live when you killed others
With all the PMD/PMA speeding on the road, what road safety measure you want if ppl doesn't care?
Just enforce stricter laws like Australia, even when your cars exceeds the speed limit by 1 an officer stops you with fine and penalty, second repeating offenders gets a night in jail and fine and penalty.
Do what SAF does with drivers and their vehicles, almost all problems solved.
Just need more enforcement. People speed once in Australia during holiday got fined already. In Singapore speed daily also no fine.
How about all vehicles should have a limiter installed? No need to ever do 120+ anywhere in SG
Ok no that is just more nanny state. They already fucked up with SimplyGo and OBU, don’t encourage them.
Maybe I should have rephrased: limits should be set lower. Nearly every car has an on-board limiter set by the manufacturer that requires no surveillance. We should require that setting to be lower than the current common value of 170kph
the new erp 2.0 can install a speed monitor and basically issues infarction on the fly
Dairy farm road Hillview mrt junction, there is this crossing from highway exit leading to main road. Lost track of how many cars just ignore red lights and cross the pedestrian crossing with lights.
We need to bring in autonomous driving. Cuz human is problem
Self driving bus yes. Self driving cars are terrible in cost and computationally inefficient.
🖐 Not tryna victim blame or anything here, but can we also crackdown on errant jaywalkers? They know we as motorists have the most responsibility to look out after the safety of all pedastrians and road users, so they take advantage of this knowing that whatever happens to them motorists kena fuck first for not being responsible enough.
Case in point: the jogger crossing the road disregarding that the traffic lights were not in his favor and giving an alert motorist the finger when he gets simply honked at.
You dont like to be taken advantaged of? Maybe you try to get off your high horse?
Right, because saying we should look out for each other's safety, both in a vehicle and on foot, is such a bad take.
This is basic traffic safety thing they taught you in primary school.
So you are advocating we shouldnt look out for others and just roll over them? I hope you are getting rolled over.
You all don’t CB
Nowadays everywhere hump still want build more hump
Next time walking will be faster
If someone use a knife to stab another, are we going to ban knife’s? Issue is the person not the thing
Yes that's the dream. Make cars so unattractive that the 4 lanes each way roads can be reduced to 1 lane each way with 1 lane bus only and 1 lane cycling, and wider walkways. It's what's better for everyone.
better walk then, car lite what
Once AI takes over the driving of vehicles, and we sit in the car only, like in the movie Minority Report, it will solve this issue.
It might introduce other issues though. I know car accident insurance companies will be sad.
AI cars wont work, AI trams and trolley buses do due to cost performance issue here. Every car relaying and being relayed data to be processed will be just a clusterfuck and bottlenecking. Not to mention the amount of processing power needed for 5 people in one vehicle. You are better off riding a bike.
Great article, it's an important topic to continue discussing to raise awareness and drive actual change. The desired end result is fewer traffic injuries and deaths, and it's difficult to put a price on that, although I'm sure everyone couod agree that it's priceless if they were personally affected.
Valid points were raised, but there are even more possible solutions that must be considered jointly with others. At the core of the problem is private vehicles that make up the majority of vehicles on the road and have the potential to cause great harm to both people and property, so solutions need to centre around them. These include reducing car usage by making alternatives more appealing, greater law enforcement and penalties, and revamping driving education and licensing to focus on safety above all else.
One such possible solution that has a low cost to implement is reducing speed limits. All over the world drivers exceed speed limits, this may not be possible to change entirely. But reducing speed limits on many roads will reduce the average vehicle speed, resulting in fewer collisions and less dangerous ones. This is especially important in residential and high foot traffic areas. I trust the authorities will prioritise the appropriate safety measures!
How do we change certain drivers' attitudes and mentality when it comes to safe driving?
They are faced with congestion, slow moving traffic and frequent stop-go situations at nearly every turn almost daily.
Congestion breeds frustration, which in turn leads to impatience. Impatience makes us want to get to our destination quicker, and that compromises driving safety and etiquette.
Too many cars for a small island? Too many people for a small island?
When it comes to congestion, all fingers will always point to the country's population control policy. Too many people, too little space, not enough roads. The government will never ever deal with the population issue, unfortunately.
My driving habits were the absolute pits when I was living in Singapore. I ran the red lights, frequently ignored speed limits and beat others queuing up to exit the expressways. All that changed just a year after moving out of the country, because all that congestion vanished into thin air where I now live.
Take away the congestion, frustration and impatience, and all will be golden, that I promise you.
thank god you are no longer in singapore driving here because you are a criminal.
bro u ownself go and see la the tampines incident got congestion meh?
knn using congestion as a scapegoat. u suck at driving just admit to it, don't use congestion as a cop out.
no congestion, ppl like u will also find smth else on the road to be pissed abt.
Dude u are just an ass. Other developing countries have even worse congestion.
Not surprised to see your comment getting down vote solely because it doesn't match the narrative of the narrator even though it really make sense to be honest.
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LTA had also been reactive. Traffic lights were changed/installed only after fatal accidents at accident-prone areas.