Transportation 25: 225–242, 1998.

 1998 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands.

Pedestrian streets in Singapore

BELINDA YUEN1 & CHIN HOONG CHOR2

1
School of Building & Real Estate, 2School of Civil Engineering, National University of
Singapore, 10 Kent Ridge Crescent, Singapore 119260

Accepted 15 December 1997

Key words: pedestrianisation, Singapore, street life

Abstract. A fair amount of literature pertaining to pedestrian streets has been produced but for
the most part it is on the American and European developments. There has been surprisingly little
published research on pedestrian street development in Asia. The purpose of this paper, there-
fore, is to examine pedestrian streets in Asia, using the city-state of Singapore as a case study.
Since the mid-1980s, pedestrian streets have been adopted as a policy in the conservation and
planning of Singapore’s city centre. The resulting pedestrian streets came in many forms, from
a single pedestrian-only street to a whole precinct of several streets.

Introduction

As the urban transport malaise has grown so have the ideas for planning
cities that can accommodate the essential movement whilst the quality of urban
life is improved for all city dwellers. In England, for example, the garden cities
of Ebenezer Howard were planned as settlements in which everyone could
walk to work (Howard 1965; Fisher 1977; Hall 1992; Jacobs 1961). But in
the United States, with its higher level of car ownership, the focus was on
planning spatial arrangements that protected residents from the car. Clarence
Stein and Clarence Wright in their proposal of new town development at
Radburn, New Jersey, pioneered the notion of groups of houses that are
segregated from surrounding traffic arteries but connected internally by walking
routes (Gallion & Eisner 1983; Gehl 1987; Hall 1992). Such an arrangement
became popular in post-war British new towns and influenced the ideas of
Colin Buchanan (1963). The British new town movement was characterised
by the concern over reconciling the desire to use the car with the broader ques-
tions of “liveable” towns whilst Buchanan in his 1963 report, Traffic In Towns,
had introduced the concept of environmental capacity. Buchanan had recom-
mended the use of a hierarchy of urban roads with through-traffic diverted
away from “environmental areas” on to primary arteries.
Since that time, traffic engineers have introduced various traffic manage-
226

ment policies to achieve calm, safe and environmentally improved condi-

tions on streets. Pedestrian overhead bridges and underpasses have been
constructed and whole/part streets have been converted to the sole use of pedes-
trians. These pedestrianised streets are commonly located along a central
corridor for pedestrian traffic; usually a few linear blocks along a main
shopping street where pedestrians have been given the highest priority. Since
the time of Woonerven, such area-wide motor traffic restraint schemes are now
commonplace in Europe: most new towns in the Netherlands and Germany
have such schemes. Although pedestrianisation is popular in Europe, little is
known about pedestrianised streets in Asia. Most of the available literature
is on the European countries or the United States (Robertson 1990; Tolley
1990; Robertson 1992). In this paper, our intention is to address this gap in
the literature by examining pedestrianisation in Asian cities, using Singapore
as our case study. We will discuss the evolution of pedestrianised streets in
Singapore and identify the key issues that planners concerned with the future
of these streets will need to address.

Pedestrianisation as a measure of transport planning

In the search for solutions to the urban transport malaise there are two basic
and opposing schools of thought. The first is that cities must be adapted to
accommodate car travel by building roads and car parking in response to rising
demand (Tolley & Turton 1995). This is often related to ideas of personal
freedom and the importance of road transport to economic growth. The second
is that the role of the car must be limited, whether by direct restraints on its
use or by encouraging alternative means of travel and access or by some
mixture of both (Topp & Pharoah 1994). This is related to different notions
of the importance of environmental quality to city life. Pedestrianisation is one
traffic limitation policy that is intended to reduce the adverse environmental
and safety effects of the car, to reclaim space for pedestrians and non-traffic
activities, and, more fundamentally, to improve the urban environment as a
place in which to live (Brambilla & Longo 1977). It can take place on streets
of any size and function.
Pedestrianised streets are streets where the carriageway space has been
reallocated to pedestrian use. These motor car-free zones invite leisure strolling
and numerous social and economic activities in an area where cars once dom-
inated. Shops and cafes add much to this and benefit too from the increased
trade they enjoy. An example is Copenhagen’ s Stroget that was closed to motor
vehicles in 1962. After pedestrianisation, sales on the Stroget were reported
to have increased by 30 per cent and the level of air and noise pollution
declined noticeably (Berdichevsky 1984). Studies conducted by Gehl (1989)
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in 1968 showed that the pedestrian street was filled to near capacity and that
people did more than just walk on the Stroget, they were standing, sitting,
lingering and people-watching thereby raising the level of human activity
considerably. In other words, the pedestrian street was attracting not only
necessary activities (the compulsory acts such as walking or shopping) but also
what Gehl (1987) terms as the optional (activities that one chooses to do
only if the conditions and place are inviting and these include strolling, sitting
and sunbathing) and social activities (activities that depend on the presence
of other people such as talking, people-watching). According to Gehl (1987),
the best designed public spaces are those that successfully encourage the
most optional and social activities.
Over the years, pedestrian streets have been accepted as an integral part
of city centre planning and development: “a town without representative pedes-
trian areas now appears hopelessly antiquated” (Monheim 1990, p. 245). In
Germany, for example, it is estimated that over 1000 German cities and towns
have pedestrian streets in their city centres (Hass-Klau 1990; Monheim 1990).
Roberts (1990) has estimated that there are about 2000 pedestrianised streets
in Great Britain today. Although the form of pedestrianisation schemes has
differed because of different historical, cultural and political environments,
most have been established to reduce automobile congestion in city centres,
to stabilise downtown commercial activity, to make city centre more pedes-
trian-friendly, and to facilitate the preservation of historical buildings and
districts.
Although there have been several comprehensive studies that examined
the evolution of pedestrian street development in a particular country such
as Denmark (Berdichevsky 1984), West Germany (Monheim 1990), the United
States (Robertson 1990), Sweden (Robertson 1991) as well as comparative
work on pedestrianisation schemes in Europe and the United States (for
example, Wolfe 1962; Contini 1969; Brambilla & Longo 1977; Rubenstein
1978; Hass-Klau 1990; Robertson 1992), little has been written about pedes-
trian schemes in Asian cities. Walking is the dominant means of access in
virtually all the Third World cities, yet pedestrians are the worst provided
for (Proudlove & Turner 1990). The need to directly address the topic in a
developing context is manifestly clear from the rapidly increasing interest
among professionals concerned with the transport problems of fast growing
cities in the developing world (Dimitriou 1990).

Methodology

A case study approach is basically adopted in this study. Such an approach

would enable site visits and an in-depth treatment of the subject. A sample
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of five pedestrian streets was selected, each representing a particular type of

closure (partial vs. permanent) and pedestrian mall configuration (single street
to a whole precinct, commercial core to conservation area). The streets selected
are located in the central area of Singapore and its immediate fringe.
Each was personally visited for the purpose of making observations of
pedestrian street features, design, use and problems, taking inventories of
land uses and establishments fronting the streets, and monitoring pedestrian
flow and movement. Pedestrian densities at half-hourly intervals were
computed by using the pedestrian counts from individual street sections within
the cordon area. Depending on the densities and other site conditions, pedes-
trians were counted either on site or from photographs taken of the area.
Data from the five case studies were then compared and generalisations were
formulated regarding trends and issues. These pedestrian streets are introduced
and discussed in subsequent sections.

Singapore: The study context

Singapore is a highly urbanised city-state that started its modern history as a

British trading port in 1819 where goods were chiefly transported by boats
up the Singapore River and manually carried to the godowns (local term for
warehouses). Over the years, Singapore has moved from man-drawn trans-
port in 1880 to horse drawn carriages and finally to motorised transport in
1929. With the rapid development of motor traffic, existing roadways have
been widened and new roads and highways built especially in the years since
internal self-rule in 1959 and independence in 1965. Today, road infrastruc-
ture occupies some 11 per cent (compared to 13 per cent for housing) of the
city-state’s land area of 640 square kilometres, serving a population of 3
million. Car ownership has increased sharply over the years and currently
one in every ten persons own a car. Inevitably, car ownership would increase
the propensity to travel. Between 1981 and 1991, daily vehicular trips have
increased by an average of 9.3 per cent from 2.7 million to 6.6 million and
is projected to increase to 8.5 million by the year 2010.
The overall transport policy objective in Singapore is to provide an efficient
and reliable transportation system to ensure the smooth mobility of people
and goods in Singapore. Traffic congestion avoidance is of high priority and
is considered invaluable in helping to make Singapore an attractive destina-
tion for trade and tourism. In pursuit of this goal, a range of measures have
been implemented including strategies for transport development, the planning
and construction of transport infrastructure, and mechanism to control the speed
and number of cars on the roads (World Bank 1984; Inter-Ministry Committee
1992). In an attempt to mitigate the conflict between pedestrians and vehicles,
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grade-level pedestrian crossings, pedestrian overhead bridges and pedestrian

walkways have been built all over Singapore. In some cases, a ban on motor
vehicles – pedestrianisation – has been introduced to remove traffic from
conservation or retailing areas in order to create a more pleasant environ-
ment for the pedestrian. Since the mid-1980s, pedestrianisation has been
adopted as a policy of urban conservation. The idea for separating pedes-
trian and vehicular traffic is not new and can be traced to the nineteenth century
vernacular landscape of colonial shophouses.
One important architectural feature of these two-storey shophouses is its
sheltered pathway or more commonly referred to as “five-footway”. These
pathways had their beginnings in the 1822 instructions of Raffles, the founder
of modern Singapore, to his town planning committee: Each house was to have
“a verandah open at all times at a continued and covered passage on each
side of the street” (Buckley 1965, p. 84). Ironically, these “pedestrian veran-
dahs” never quite served the pedestrian as they were often used as additional
storage or retail space (Buckley 1965). As a result, pedestrians were forced
to use the streets, adding to the crowded street traffic and fighting for the
right of way with the endless procession of street vendors, hawkers and
peddlers, rickshaws, bullock carts, horse-drawn carriages, bicycles, push-carts,
trams, trolley buses and finally, motor cars (Sidney 1926; Archives and Oral
History Department 1981).
By the 1930s, the motor car had become the chief means of transport.
Consequently, roads were widened, bridges were built to handle the increase
in vehicular traffic and walking was becoming a more dangerous activity. In
response to this problem, segregation of traffic was recommended and
walkways and pedestrian-only streets and bridges were created for the pedes-
trians. The Queen Elizabeth Walk was built as pedestrians could no longer
walk safely on the road, Connaught Drive. Cavenagh Bridge across the
Singapore River was converted into a pedestrian bridge and a second bridge,
Anderson Bridge, was built nearby to cater to the increasing vehicular traffic
(Photo 1).

Pedestrian streets

There are different types of pedestrian streets in Singapore. In certain streets

within the city area like Tank Road, Orchard Road and Boon Tat Street, people
are given part or sole use of the carriageway at certain times of the day or year.
The stretch of Boon Tat Street in front of Telok Ayer Market, for example,
is closed partially every evening after 7 p.m. in an attempt to bring life back
into the central business district after dusk. Temporary barricades are put up
on both ends of the street and hawkers would set up stalls, tables and chairs
230

Photo 1. Cavenagh Bridge built across the Singapore River was originally designed for
horse-drawn carriages but is now a foot-bridge.

for diners on the carriageway. During festive seasons (for example, Chinese
New Year and Thaipusam, a Hindu religious festival), those streets which
are traditionally used as street markets or for religious procession are tem-
porarily closed to vehicular traffic. Other streets within and outside the central
city area have been converted and landscaped into pedestrian malls (for
example, Raffles Place and Change Alley) while a whole precinct of streets
within conservation areas such as Chinatown, Little India and Clarke Quay/
Boat Quay have also been pedestrianised. These are usually streets which
traditionally carry a heavy volume of pedestrian traffic. The next section will
study some of these pedestrian streets in greater detail.

Raffles Place

Raffles Place is traditionally the commercial square of Singapore’s downtown

where many of its office buildings are located. It is situated within the restricted
zone where cars entering the area during certain hours of the day must display
valid area licences. Area licensing was introduced in 1975 to control the
growing congestion in Singapore’s central business district. The streets sur-
rounding Raffles Place are permanently closed to vehicular traffic and traffic
circulation in the area has evolved through time. In 1823, trees and flowers
were planted at the centre of the square, but by the 1930s the open space
was displaced by car parking. In 1965, an underground car park was built
on the site to accommodate 250 cars with a landscaped garden above it. Today,
 231

where the underground car park once stood is the Raffles Place Mass Rapid
Transit (MRT) Station built in 1990 that serves as one of two main MRT
interchanges for the city.
The area above the station is landscaped into a pedestrian mall where pedes-
trians and office workers meet or sit and watch others especially during the
lunch hour (Photo 2). However, as the area is predominantly an office hub with
very little retail mix, the place becomes quickly deserted after office hours.
As illustrated in Table 1, pedestrian usage of the area declines rapidly from
a daytime peak density of 0.052 pedestrian per square metre to only 0.016
pedestrian per square metre after dusk. This is about equivalent to the level
of service “A” (less than 0.08 pedestrians per square metre) for pedestrians
moving along walkways as suggested in the Highway Capacity Manual
(Transportation Research Board 1985). Over the years, the pedestrian network
has been expanded beyond Raffles Place to cover an area of 3000 square metres
(Table 1) which includes part of the surrounding streets, De Souza Street
and D’Almeida Street. To discourage vehicular traffic into the area, several
of the neighbouring streets have also been converted into one-way streets.

Change Alley

Change Alley in 1854 was a backlane and people used to make their way to
Raffles Place through this alley. Since 1993, it has become a covered street

Photo 2. Raffles Place and its surrounding pedestrianised streets provide an open space in the
heart of the city where office workers and street vendors gather. The white arch in the back-
ground is the entrance to the Raffles Place MRT Station.
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Table 1. Summary information on the five case studies.

Summary Raffles Change Bugis Little India Clarke

information Place Alley Junction Arcade Quay/Boat
Quay

Year of
pedestrianisation 1972 1993 1995 1995 1993

Pedestrianised area
(square metres) 3000 888 2764 260 7739/3209

Uses along street frontage:

offices yes – – – –
shops yes yes yes yes yes
restaurants/food courts – yes yes yes yes
entertainment places yes – yes – yes

Pedestrian usage:
day-time peak 0.052 0.475 0.367 0.181 0.071
density (pedestrian/sq m) 0.139
night-time peak 0.016 0.023 0.418 0.346 0.283
density (pedestrian/sq m) 0.161

Access to transport facilities (within 200 metres):

bus stops yes yes yes yes yes
MRT stations yes yes yes – yes
taxi stands yes – yes – yes
public car parks yes yes yes yes yes
Street events yes – yes – yes

Pedestrian facilities:
covered streets – yes yes yes –
public seats/rest areas yes yes yes – yes

linked by an air-conditioned overhead pedestrian bridge across busy Shenton

Way (the Wall Street of Singapore) to shops in Clifford Pier. Until the recent
completion of Bugis Junction in early 1996, Change Alley was the only covered
shopping street in Singapore.
The provision of a permanent overhead cover in pedestrianised streets
takes into account the local climate that is hot and humid and is subjected
to heavy rainfall during the monsoon seasons. The alley is about 3.2 metres
wide, well lighted and has five long wooden benches for people to sit and
rest. It has a pedestrianised area of some 900 square metres with a pedes-
trian density of 0.475 pedestrians per square metre in the daytime (Table 1).
This is about equivalent to the level of service “C” (0.45 pedestrians per square
metre) suggested in the Highway Capacity Manual (Transportation Research
Board 1985).
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The elevated skybridge is the first enclosed and climate-controlled pedes-

trian bridge in Singapore that has shops on both sides of the walkway. It is
open to the public 24 hours a day and serves as a feeder, bringing people to
the pedestrian malls at Change Alley and Raffles Place. However, with the
development of suburban shopping centres, retail activity at Change Alley
has declined outside office hours and the volume of pedestrians on downtown
streets has decreased dramatically.

Bugis Junction

Bugis Junction, completed in early 1996, has the largest area (2764 square
metres) of covered air-conditioned pedestrian shopping streets in Singapore.
It is developed as a retail-cum-hotel complex on a site just outside the central
area. The development covers a land area of 25,986 square metres including
4 streets. The design of the shopping centre includes the pedestrianisation of
the 4 streets and the conservation of their existing shophouses (Figure 1).
The 4 streets of 6 metres to 12 metres wide are repaved with decorative tiles.
They have been covered and air-conditioned (Photo 3).
Once for goods, these streets are now used as pedestrian streets for shoppers.
They are lined with small retail and eating establishments, many with outdoor
carts/stalls selling everything from art and craft to food, and seating directly
on the five-footway and street. The entire pedestrian area is attractively
designed with a fountain, planting boxes and a generous amount of sitting
space. Activity level is consistently high and the shops are open till late at
night. It records the highest pedestrian usage among the five pedestrian streets
studied (Table 1). During weekends, it is common to observe a pedestrian
inflow of about 3300 people per hour. Because of the heavy pedestrian flow,
the streets are regularly used as venues for exhibitions to increase public aware-
ness on specific issues. Bugis Junction is well served by buses and linked
with the MRT station to provide excellent linkages between pedestrians and
public transport. Ample car parking lots are provided at the periphery and
basement of the development for those who drive.

Little India

In a move to retain Singapore’s multi-cultural heritage in the midst of bur-

geoning new developments, several of the city’s historic districts have since
1985 been gazetted as conservation areas. One of the first conservation areas
to be gazetted is Little India located along Serangoon Road on the fringe of
the central area. Little India, as the name suggests, is the centre of Indian com-
munity life in Singapore, an area that is rich in Indian culture and architecture
(Urban Redevelopment Authority 1988). It was an area allocated by Raffles
 234
Figure 1. Layout plan of Bugis Junction.
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Photo 3. Hylam Street and its shophouses is one of the four streets within the Bugis Junction
Shopping Centre development that has been pedestrianised and covered to provide all-weather
shopping comfort.

for the settlement of early Indian immigrants in his 1822 Town Plan of
Singapore.
In the conservation master plan for the area, the preservation of substan-
tial portions of the Little Indian landscape included pedestrian streets which
were introduced to enhance not only the historic environment but also the envi-
ronmental appeal of the area. Pedestrianisation allows the viewing of historical
structures without the interruption of automobile tops and traffic signals, not
to mention the reduction in air and noise pollution. The core of its system
of walking streets is Little India Arcade formed by two streets of 2.8 metres
and 3.6 metres wide, intersecting each other at a T-junction, and lined with
street hawkers.
A permanent canopy has been erected by the Arcade’s management as
well as smaller canopies by the street hawkers themselves and people can shop
236

in these traffic-free streets without worrying about vehicular traffic or the

weather. The narrow concrete streets have made them easy for conversion to
pedestrian streets. Since the creation of pedestrian streets can result in some
increased traffic on surrounding roads, the authority has converted the sur-
rounding streets to one-way streets. In addition, the provision of on-street
parking along these roads has further reduced their capacity and caused moving
vehicles to travel at an even slower speed. This has led to people being able
to walk and cross the streets more safely.
The pedestrian scheme has been extended to the nearby streets of Dunlop
Street and Campbell Lane. These streets are earmarked for partial pedestri-
anisation, that is, in the evenings, both these streets are closed to vehicular
traffic and trading activities are allowed to spill onto the roads. These streets
have been chosen because they contain the densest distribution of Indian trades
in the Little India area. With the higher level of retail activity in the evenings,
the Little India area not surprisingly records a higher pedestrian usage in the
night-time than in the day (Table 1).

Clarke Quay/Boat Quay

Clarke Quay by the Singapore River is a conservation area that is implemented

as part of a major urban renewal project for the Singapore River area in the
late 1980s. It is the first riverside conservation district, comprising of some
740 metres of pedestrianised streets. The roads have been repaved with alter-
nating concrete rectangular tiles and asphalt. The buildings that were once
warehouses and workshops have been conserved and are now used as shops,
restaurants and pubs. Gateways have been installed to further demarcate the
area as a pedestrian precinct.
The pedestrianised area contains mainly entertainment and shopping facil-
ities including a flea market on every Sunday. Several indoor shopping
complexes have mushroomed in the once abandoned godowns. The overall
design scheme is simple and basic, with emphasis on the restored godowns
and buildings and little attention given to landscaping or other design ameni-
ties apart from a central gazebo (once a traffic roundabout), a fountain, and
a children’s play area in the pedestrian mall. Notwithstanding the simplicity
in design, activity levels are consistently high. People are able to stroll along
the pedestrian streets, walk by the river, dine at a large number of restau-
rants, many with outdoor seating directly on the mall, catch a boat ride along
the Singapore River as well as watch cultural performances like Chinese
opera on weekends. The river taxi service operates through Clarke Quay and
Boat Quay from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily along a 5-km route up the Singapore
River. The cultural performances are free and are held in the open plaza by
the river.
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Clarke Quay is linked to another conservation area, Boat Quay, by a 4.2

metre wide pedestrian underpass at Coleman Bridge. Pedestrians can there-
fore walk from one conservation area to another in comfort and safety, away
from vehicular traffic. Boat Quay is conveniently located by the central
business district and the Raffles Place transit station. As with Clarke Quay,
it was once an important loading/unloading and warehousing area by the
Singapore River that has seen a change in fortune with changes in economic
development. Some 320 metres of streetspace in the Boat Quay area has been
repaved with red interlocking tiles to allow for traffic-free pedestrian
movement. The street is 4.5 metres wide and 8 metres from the street edge
to the river edge. Permanent benches provided by the authority as well as tables
and chairs supplied by the respective restaurants and pubs line the street (Photo
4). Today the area in the heart of Singapore’s central business district is a lunch-
time watering hole for office workers and a yuppie haunt at night.
With pedestrianisation, people no longer have to worry about passing
vehicles and could enjoy the facilities and activities offered in a traffic-free
environment. Parking stations for both the coaches and cars are provided on
the fringe of the area as well as convenient passenger drop-off bays for taxis
and personal cars so as to create a safe place for pedestrians to get on and
off the cars and taxis with little disturbance to the flow of vehicular traffic
on the main roads. Bus stops as well as an MRT station are within walking
distance and this has further helped to make Clarke/Boat Quays accessible

Photo 4. The pedestrian street of Boat Quay with its restaurants and seating facilities is now
closed to vehicle traffic except for services vehicles during certain hours.
238

by public transport (Table 1). The entire pedestrian area is crowded with
pedestrians, vendors and performers during the evenings and on weekends.
Based on observed counts at the entrances and exits, there are about 2500
pedestrians per hour (comprising locals as well as tourists) into and out of
the Clarke Quay area on a typical weekend evening. The corresponding flow
of pedestrians in the Boat Quay area is 3000 people per hour. Human con-
gestion is a common phenomenon on Friday and Saturday nights in both
these areas.

Pedestrian streets in residential areas

So far, the discussion has focused on pedestrian streets in the commercial

core and conservation areas; are such streets a policy in the residential context?
Although Singapore does not have fully pedestrianised streets in residential
areas, its Emerald Hill is an example of the Dutch Woonerf scheme. The
street of 2- to 3-storey early twentieth century terrace housing was converted
into a pedestrian street in the 1970s. As with the original Woonerf scheme,
the street of Emerald Hill was reconstructed to give more emphasis to pedes-
trians. Various traffic calming measures such as speed humps, narrowing of
the road and paving over of the roadbed to provide an attractive walking
environment as well as to remind motorists that they are travelling on a res-
idential street were implemented. The various measures were aimed at restoring
the residential ambience of the place. As a means of traffic management in
a residential environment, pedestrianisation of the street has reduced the rat
runs through residential streets and diverted the motor car back to the main
streets which are designed to take the traffic flow.

Explaining Singapore’s pedestrian streets

The initial factors underscoring the construction of pedestrian streets in

Singapore are related primarily to transport considerations. Unlike develop-
ments in the United States and Europe where pedestrian streets are used as
an urban renewal strategy to combat city centre deterioration caused by sub-
urbanisation and war, Singapore has built pedestrian streets to facilitate the
movement of traffic, improve pedestrian safety and provide a more human-
scale environment in its increasingly built-up and highly dense urban setting.
The proportion of built-up area in Singapore has almost doubled from 27.9
per cent in 1960 to 49.3 per cent in 1996. Its population density is some 13
times higher than those of Australian and US cities (Kenworthy 1990).
With growing car use, Singapore is realising that it must also improve the
physical environment for pedestrians if it is to reduce greater dependence on
 239

the car and the consequent high congestion levels now characteristic of cities
such as Bangkok. The dense flow of pedestrians is channelled wherever feasible
onto overpasses and subways. The implementation of pedestrian streets where
vehicular traffic was limited or restricted has gradually become a widely
adopted planning strategy especially within the conservation schemes and
downtown. The aim is to increase the quality of life, enhance the street and
urban environment and promote pedestrian use.
As with many other aspects of Singapore’s development, pedestrianisa-
tion has been supported by public funding. In each of the five case studies,
various strategies are applied to improve pedestrian safety and security and
to encourage people to linger and ultimately spend more money on pedes-
trian streets with commercial establishments. In such cases, the emphasis is
on both commercial prosperity and human comfort and interaction. Generally,
the policy is to encourage not only a balance but also a variety of establish-
ments along the pedestrian streets including shops, restaurants, cafes and
entertainment establishments so as to create more reasons for people to go
there. However, the increasing domination of office space at the expense of
other types of establishments in Raffles Place and Change Alley has over
time led to a lack of variety. Once the offices close at around 6 p.m., not
many shops remain open for business, except for a few restaurants. Hence,
the number of people thins out rapidly as evening approaches because there
is little to attract them.
The picture is very different in the other case studies; in Clarke Quay/Boat
Quay and Bugis Junction, the crowd increases after office hours as people
move to these areas for shopping, entertainment and food. Little India is an
exception in this regard; it is busy throughout the day and night because it
provides a specialised variety of shops and services that meet the every need
of a segment of the population, the Indian community in Singapore. Over time,
the area has become synonymous with the Indian culture and this identity
has in no small way helped to promote the vitality of the pedestrian streets
in Little India.
People-attracting features such as street vendors, outdoor cafes and street
performers as well as user-friendly design including comfortable and well-
placed seating, shade trees, attractive paving, are commonly used to draw
people into the pedestrian streets. These factors have helped to explain the con-
tinuous crowd of people seen at Bugis Junction and Clarke Quay/Boat Quay.
As Robertson (1991) has observed in the context of Swedish pedestrian streets,
the inclusion of seating and landscaping would add significantly to the quality
of the pedestrian experience. A place to sit and rest is considered desirable
for the average pedestrian who may be tired from shopping, waiting to meet
someone or simply wanting to look at people. It would contribute to the
creation of a comfortable environment where the pedestrian is encouraged to
240

remain. This supports the school of thought which believes that the primary
element which attracts people is the presence of other people, a feature not
in short supply on these walking streets. These schemes are located on the
fringe of the central area which has a variety of stable economic functions
and traffic generators to provide a steady supply of potential pedestrians.
The interface between pedestrians and other forms of transport is another
key consideration. If the pedestrian streets were easily accessible to a large
segment of the population, they would add significantly to their activity levels.
The linkage between pedestrian streets and public transport and the car is
clearly evident in all five case studies. All are accessible by bus and with
the possible exception of Little India, also by the MRT. Car parking spaces
are offered close by, often in off-street car parks on the fringe of the pedes-
trian streets. Accommodating the car drivers as well as the commuters is the
key to accessibility. Observations of high levels of street activity on the
pedestrian streets seem to suggest that the goals of traffic management and
human dimension have been realised. Pedestrian streets with a commercial
component have offered consumers an enticing and attractive pedestrian envi-
ronment that is very different and at times difficult to duplicate in suburban
shopping centres.

Conclusion

This paper has discussed the development of pedestrian streets in the city of
Singapore. The streets discussed are with commercial development and this
is likely to remain as one of the key goals for pedestrianisation of streets in
the central area as well as conservation areas of Singapore. The popularity that
these streets have achieved in the shopping development of Bugis Junction and
the conservation areas of Little India and Clarke Quay/Boat Quay cannot be
denied.
Although a range of factor help to explain this popularity, one reason stands
out: the activity-generating attractions offered in these sites have created a
place for people to meet and to visit and be seen. The very absence of such
attractions in the after-office hours explains the lifeless streets in Raffles
Place and Change Alley in the evenings and on weekends. This underscores
the challenge ahead: how to successfully sustain high levels of activity in
pedestrian streets.
In this regard, we can draw inspiration from Gehl’s (1987) suggestion that
the best designed public spaces are those that successfully encourage the
most optional and social activities. From this perspective, it can be concluded
that the best designed pedestrian street, even in Singapore, is one that offers
greater opportunities for optional and social activities.
 241

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