Auto-centric, pedestrian-hostile cities OUTSIDE of North America

[Shawn]

Basically all of the "nice" pics of Singaporean good pedestrian experiences in this thread are of Chinatown, the Colonial District, and Little India/Arab Street. Which make up a small fraction of Singapore. Granted, this is what you come to see if you're a tourist, but still - this is not representative of where and how most Singaporeans live.

Most people in Singapore live in places like Punggol (average Street View here), Woodlands, Sengkang, or Jurong East.

They're nicer than most American cities because they have sidewalks, fewer vehicles, are immaculately clean, and are connected via the MRT, but they're also all state-run planning zones with wide, multi-lane arterials enclosing superblocks of nondescript-but-functional residential towers. The pedestrian experience out in the "towns" isn't bad ala Manila or Jakarta, but it's nothing to write home about either. Outer neighborhoods in America's usual urban suspects surpasses what you find in Singapore's bedtowns in terms of pedestrian experience.

(And unlike in the American neighborhoods, you won't risk a bloody caning for jaywalking because you didn't have time to walk 10 minutes laterally just to reach your superblock's only crosswalk)

[dimondpark]

Originally Posted by muppet

Yep Singapore is all about public transport -car usage is STRONGLY discouraged. Pretty much every car you do see is owned by crazy rich Asians.

A new Standard Toyota Corolla Altis 1.6 costs US$71,930 as of November 2020. Every year, you might expect to pay an average of $1,175 a year on car insurance if you're a brand new driver, $458 for servicing/maintenance costs, $547 in road tax, and $1,800 in petrol costs.

On average, you should expect to spend in the range of $73,700 for a sedan, $80,410 for a small SUV/crossover, and $136,320 for a luxury car in Singapore.


On top of that if you vehicle isn't eco-friendly enough expect to pay up to $22,000 on top. Oh, and the one-off registration fee is 100% -180% the price of your car.

It still works out cheaper to buy a car in the UK (one of the highest pricing in the West) and ship it to SG.

I wish we had Toyota Hiace in the US, so big and roomy. I could fit my kids, their strollers, their car seats and their nannies with no trouble at all.

[dimondpark]

Everytime I see pics of Singapore I find myself scanning the image to try and locate at least a spec of litter--never. LOL