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Abstract
Integrated public transport has received particular attention in recent years as a means to improve public transport services and reduce reliance on car travel. Cities such as Singapore and Hong Kong already have high modal shares in public transport (63% and 90% of all motorised trips, respectively). The high population densities in these cities naturally help promoting travel by public transport, but the high quality of transport services is also another key factor. High modal shares and good service levels still require extra effort to integrate the services across all modes. This paper describes the activities in integrated public transport in Singapore and Hong Kong. These activities are in the form of physical, network, fare, information and institutional integration. The paper discusses the issues involved, including those related to an ageing population problem. In car-based Australian cities, improving public transport systems alone may not be effective in reducing car travel. The investment required to effect significant modal shift will be high. Apart from good public transport services, Singapore also relies on high car ownership and usage costs and Hong Kong on road congestion and carparking control to maintain a low car-ownership rate. The introduction of complementary measures such as more bus and transit lanes and even congestion pricing may be necessary to reduce car use in Australian cities.
INTRODUCTION
Singapore and Hong Kong are well-known for their high modal shares in public transport trips. Singapore has also successfully introduced congestion pricing since 1975 to reduce car trips to the CBD and maintained high car ownership costs to encourage transit usage (Luk 1999). Hong Kong has a very high urban density and is one of the few cities that can provide a good return on investments in public transport systems and its transit modal share is even higher than that of Singapore. Table 1 summarises some of the basic characteristics of Melbourne, Singapore and Hong Kong with data compiled from year books and various web sites (see References list at the end of the paper).
In recent years, integrated public transport has received particular attention in Singapore and Hong Kong as well as in many other cities. There is real effort in improving the connectivity across transport modes so that public transport becomes...