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Planet-Profit Report, reporting on sustainable development in the Western United States.

Stanford-Singapore study looks at energy-saving off-peak commutes

Cash will be used as a carrot

By Dylan Loh, channelnewsasia.com

The National University of Singapore (NUS) and Stanford University will carry out a joint study which aims to encourage off-peak travel on the Singapore Mass Rapid Transit system.

The aim is to reduce peak period travel by 10 per cent. The researchers believe between 6.30 and 7.30am, or 8.30 and 9.30am, would be ideal. Some $260,000 is also being pumped into a study that hopes to encourage off-peak train travel with credits-based incentives. The two universities have the support of the Land Transport Authority (LTA.

Called INSINC (Incentives for Singapore's Commuters), the web-based study comprises a reward system where commuters earn credits proportional to the distance travelled on the rail system, with extra credits for shoulder-peak travel.

Credits are earned based on the start times of commuters' trips at the MRT stations and the distance of their journeys on the rail system.

This will be tracked through commuters' EZ-Link cards.The more you travel during off-peak hours, the more credits you're likely to get. You can then use the credits to redeem rewards, or money credited straight into your travel card, for more trips.

A total of $100,000 in redeemable cash has been set aside as a carrot for commuters to make diligent trips over the six-month period of the study.

The entire experiment to induce off-peak travel will cost around S$450,000, with financial support coming from authorities and private companies.

Prof. Balaji Prabhakar, Stanford University Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department, said: "If you want to not be in the absolute peak, you really need to move either 20 minutes to the left or 20 minutes to the right, depending on where you are with respect to peak.

"We're not asking you to come at five in the morning, we're not asking you to come at 11 in the morning either. So really is a modest change, not that frequently, one or two times a week."

William Wong, director, Corporate Development and Research Land Transport Authority, said: "If this study proves that it's successful, then of course we will go back and see how else we can look at deploying it bigger, in a bigger manner.
 

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