Measures to Ensure Safety of Young Children and Elderly Persons in HDB Neighbourhoods with Heavy Vehicles Plying Roads
Ministry of TransportSpeakers
Summary
This question concerns measures to minimize heavy vehicle transit through HDB neighborhoods to protect young children and elderly residents. Dr Tan Wu Meng inquired about restricting vehicles passing through residential areas when their origins or destinations are elsewhere. Minister for Transport S Iswaran explained that LTA manages construction traffic through designated routing, warning signs, and reduced speed limits. Furthermore, LTA implements School Zones and Silver Zones where speed limits are reduced to 30 or 40 kilometres per hour. These zones also incorporate speed humps and traffic calming markings, while contractors are required to deploy traffic marshals during road works.
Transcript
30 Dr Tan Wu Meng asked the Minister for Transport given the safety concerns of families with young children or elderly persons, what measures are in place to minimise the number of heavy vehicles that are using roads located within HDB neighbourhoods to transit through, where the vehicle origin and destination are not within the HDB town itself.
Mr S Iswaran: Heavy vehicles typically use roads that serve industrial areas and would, generally, keep away from residential areas. However, school buses, refuse trucks and goods delivery vehicles still need to ply roads in residential areas to serve residents’ needs.
There are also occasions when heavy vehicles use residential roads to access construction sites. In such instances, LTA works with the relevant agencies and contractors to determine the appropriate routes and put in place measures, such as warning signs and impose conditions, such as reducing the speed limit, to mitigate traffic impact and safety risks. LTA also requires contractors to deploy traffic marshals where road works result in a shared right of way, for example, when a bi-directional road is made to share a single lane, or when they affect traffic junctions.
To further enhance the safety of young children and elderly persons near schools and in residential areas with more senior citizens, LTA has introduced School Zones and Silver Zones. Measures adopted in these zones include a reduced speed limit of either 30 kilometres per hour or 40 kilometres per hour, and the construction of speed humps and traffic calming markings to slow down vehicles.