Traffic congestion has become a common and daily problem of urban commuters in many cities. Traffic congestion leads to reduced vehicle travel speeds, longer travel time, extra vehicle fuel consumption, extra air pollutants, discomfort to road user, and degradation of the urban environment. Singapore, as a city-state, recognized the high social and economic costs of traffic congestion in the early 1970s. Over the past two decades, it has implemented a host of technical, regulatory, and policy measures to tackle the problem. This paper deals with one of these measures, the Area Licensing Scheme (ALS), a simple but effective road-pricing scheme. Introduced in 1975, the ALS has the twin objectives of reducing traffic volume within Singapore's Central Business District (CBD) and encouraging the use of public transportation. This article describes the main features of the ALS, its effectiveness in reducing peak-hour congestion, the modifications made to the scheme over the years to cope with the growing car population and changing traffic conditions, and the electronic road pricing system that Singapore will implement to replace the ALS in 1997/1998.
Samenvatting