July 22, 2009
KPE traffic volume jumps by 30%
Electronic road pricing won't kick in as traffic speeds remain optimum
By Christopher Tan
JUST 10 months after it was fully opened to traffic, Singapore's newest expressway, the Kallang-Paya Lebar Expressway (KPE), is filling up.
Checks with the Land Transport Authority showed that the average daily two-way volume is now around 63,500 vehicles - 30 per cent more than the 48,900 recorded last September, when it opened.
City-bound traffic is now 3,000 vehicles per hour during the morning peak, versus 2,600 per hour last September.
Likewise, north-bound traffic in the evening peak is now 2,700 vehicles per hour, compared with 2,300 per hour recorded back when the 12km largely underground highway opened.
The jump in traffic has come about as more motorists are now familiar with the expressway, said an LTA spokesman.
The sizeable increase in traffic volume has raised concern that electronic road pricing will be imposed soon.
In the morning, long tailbacks leading to Nicoll Highway and the city are common.
There are more than a dozen ERP gantries along the KPE. Currently, only one is in operation: at the Fort Road exit towards the city.
But the LTA indicated that KPE users need not fret yet, as the road can accommodate twice its current peak volume.
'While there is an increase in traffic volumes using the KPE, traffic speeds continue to be optimum,' its spokesman said.
As a guideline, ERP will not kick in if travelling speed on a particular expressway is 45kmh or more - for at least 85 per cent of the time.
The KPE was built to relieve travel from north-eastern areas such as Sengkang, Punggol and Hougang to the city centre. The most direct route is the north-south Central Expressway, which quickly became congested after it opened in stages between 1989 and 1991.
The LTA had said the KPE had the potential to reduce travel time from these areas by up to 25 per cent, and might also reduce islandwide travelling time by 6 per cent during peak hours.
So far, volume on the CTE has dipped by only 5 per cent since the KPE opened. Works are under way to widen the CTE, with two flyovers being erected along its most congested stretches.
Nevertheless, motorists who use the KPE are generally happy with it.
Serangoon resident Benjamin Tan, 37, uses the KPE occasionally to get to the Pan-Island Expressway towards Tuas. 'It is so much faster when compared to using existing roads,' the civil servant said.
Insurance broker Patrick Tan, 46, uses it sometimes, to link up with the Tampines Expressway or the PIE.
The Serangoon Gardens resident has just one complaint about the new road, and it is a grouse shared by many motorists: its speed limit of 70kmh, compared with 90kmh on some stretches of other highways.
As low as that may seem for an expressway, a number of serious accidents have already occurred on the KPE, with the police confirming one fatality.
The police also said weekly speeding summonses in the expressway averaged 456 in the first quarter.
When the first stretch of the KPE was opened in October 2007, nearly 3,400 motorists were caught exceeding its speed limit in the first week alone.
