Stiff penalties alone won’t improve road safety: Expert

Noting that Singapore has brought down road accident fatalities from 400 to 125 in the last two decades, Menon said this was achieved primarily due to the awareness campaigns among school students. “Traffic police set up the road safety corners in the schools to create awareness on traffic rules. It helped in the reduction of the fatalities,” he said during an interaction organised by the Institute for Transportation and Developmental Policy.

When asked about the steep increase in penalties for the traffic violation, the expert said fines alone would not help. “Fines are not the answer as 100 per cent enforcement is not possible. We use technology for enforcement – speed cameras for over speeding, cameras for red light violation. We need to educate the people on the importance of road safety. Of course, the enforcement is also needed as some people would not obey the rules at all,” he said.

Menon recommended measures like charging for parking and restrictions on purchasing private vehicles to improve the usage of public transport. “Public transport should be made attractive by increasing the number of buses and keeping fare affordable,” he said.

Recalling the efforts taken in Singapore to popularise public transport, he said, “In 1975, we introduced congestion pricing for private vehicles entering the city. There are restrictions on purchasing car or motorcycle, and also have to pay more for the parking in the city.” These measures helped raise the patronage for the public transportation from 45 per cent in 1975 to 70 per cent now.