Essay Draft 1C

Overcrowding as a cause of transportation headache

In "Linking Population, Poverty and Development"(n.d), it is recorded that in 2010, some 214 million people lived outside their country of origin. With the rising numbers in migration, there is high tendency for overcrowding to occur, particularly in urbanized areas. Some countries, including Singapore, exemplifies the overcrowding issue. Many citizens have been rallying to voice their views on the overcrowding issue and part of the reason is that it has affected the transportation adversely. As mentioned by Reuters (2013), some Singapore citizens are displeased with the rising number of foreigners which causes transportation problem. This has resulted in many people protesting to seek improvement.

Despite the scarcity in land space, Singapore has 7680 people per square kilometer and ranked 3rd as the most densely populated country according to statistics shown in "Population Density"(n.d). As such, Singapore faces problems such as housing and transportation. Commuters travelling in the morning will experience the much hated queue to get on a train or having to stand on a bumpy bus ride for an hour or so. The occurrence of overcrowding was also emphasized by one of Singapore's largest opposition party, Singapore Democratic Party (SDP), in their proposal "Building A People" (n.d) on the negative impacts that overpopulation in Singapore have caused and highlighted that transportation is one the key issue that needs to be addressed.

On a positive note, Singapore government has been taking an active approach to address the issue by various means, implementing policies to enhance the transportation. Plans and projects are also constantly ongoing to ensure that the transportation system is able to handle the strain by the growing population. A policy to limit the employment of foreigners to locals ratio has been implemented as described in "Calculation of Foreign Worker Quotas" (2013), the total foreign employees that can be employed is based on the Dependency Ratio Ceiling (DRC) of the various sector. Employers can utilise the algorithm to find the maximum number of foreign employees that he/she can employ. Levies are also applied on the employment of foreign workers to regulate the number of foreign workers in Singapore, as mentioned in "Levies & quotas for hiring foreign workers" (2013). Such implementations sum up part of the government's effort in minimizing the imbalance of foreign and local employees.

With the rise in numbers, Singapore's daily ridership rises as well. To cope with the rise in ridership, the Singapore government expanded train service lines and increased the number of trains. In "Circle Line" (n.d), circle line is built to shorten trips between east, west and north. Circle line helps to lift off some of the strain on heavily dependent red and green lines. In addition, it is projected that Singapore will have two new lines by 2030 as reported by CNA/ac/fa (2013). Such constant upgrading of train service lines will ensure a more pleasant train journey.

Another initiative that has been introduced since June 2013, stated in "Travel Smart" (2013), by encouraging commuters to travel early and avoid peak period in the morning, it gives commuters incentive by making the travel fare free if commuters are to exit from the 16 specific city areas before 7.45am.

Despite efforts in improving the situation, many are still dissatisfied. Improvements are visible but commuters still face huge crowds everyday during peak periods and may worsen with Cheam (2013) reporting that Singapore's population is expected to grow further. The population is projected to increase to 6.9 million by 2030, which may mean that the strain on transportation will be adversely affected and with that, Singapore ought to seek for more solutions to address the transportation issue before more dissatisfaction from the public.

Reference list:

1. Calculation of Foreign Worker Quotas (9 October 2013) retrieved on 10 October 2013, from http://www.mom.gov.sg/foreign-manpower/foreign-worker-levies/Pages/calculation-of-foreign-worker-quotas.aspx
2. Cheam, J. (29 Jan 2013). Singapore's population could hit 6.9m by 2030, with Singaporean core, retrieved on 9 October 2013 from http://news.asiaone.com/News/Latest+News/Singapore/Story/A1Story20130129-398617.html
3. Circle Line (n.d) retrieved on 9 October 2013 from http://www.lta.gov.sg/content/ltaweb/en/public-transport/projects/circle-line.html
4. CNA/ac/fa (17 January 2013) S'pore to have Two New MRT Lines by 2030, retrieved on 10 October 2013 from http://news.xin.msn.com/en/singapore/s%E2%80%99pore-to-have-two-new-mrt-lines-by-2030
5.  Indexmundi.com (1 January 2012) retrieved on  October 2013 from http://www.indexmundi.com/g/r.aspx?v=21000
6. Levies & Quotas For Hiring Foreign Workers (9 October 2013), retrieved on 10 October 2013 from http://www.mom.gov.sg/foreign-manpower/foreign-worker-levies/Pages/levies-quotas-for-hiring-foreign-workers.aspx
7. Linking Population, Poverty and Development (n.d) retrieved on 9 October 2013 from http://www.unfpa.org/pds/migration.html
8. MRT and LRT trains (n.d) on 9 October 2013 from http://www.lta.gov.sg/content/ltaweb/en/public-transport/mrt-and-lrt-trains.html
9.Reuters, T. (7 Feb 2013). Singapore Plans Rare Portest as Population Debate Rages, retrieved on 9 October 2013 from http://www.newsmaxworld.com/Asia/singapore-protest-population-debate/2013/02/06/id/489104
10. Singapore Democratic Party (n.d). Building A People, retrieved on 9 October 2013 from http://yoursdp.org/_ld/0/8_Building_a_Peop.pdf
11. Travel Smart (6 Aug 2013), retrieved on 9 October 2013 from http://www.lta.gov.sg/content/ltaweb/en/public-transport/mrt-and-lrt-trains/travel-smart.html