As part of the Government’s efforts to encourage electric vehicle (EV) adoption and to jumpstart the building of a more future-ready transport system, URA and LTA awarded the pilot tender for public charging infrastructure in September 2021.
In the past year, we worked with the awarded tenderers to deploy the chargers. Upon completion, this pilot tender will bring over 600 EV charging points to more than 200 public car parks across the island, contributing to the national target of 40,000 charging points in public car parks by 2030.
The first EV chargers under the pilot URA-LTA tender were rolled out in public car parks © Ministry of Transport
URA presented its ninth Urban Lab exhibition titled ‘Reimagining Urban Mobility with Autonomous Vehicles (AVs)’, which was held in conjunction with the LTPR’s Future of Mobility theme.
The exhibition brought together industry contributors spearheading the development of autonomous mobility technology in Singapore. From January to April 2022, the exhibition at The URA Centre gave the public a first glimpse of how an AV-enabled city could look like and how AVs can contribute to a sustainable, convenient, and inclusive urban mobility ecosystem.
A total of about 100 public tours were conducted by URA volunteers over the course of the three-month exhibition.
Senior Minister of State for National Development Tan Kiat How touring the exhibition © Ministry of National Development
Tour participants, including our young ones, enjoying a tour led by a volunteer guide
To address the rapid rise of e-commerce driven by changing consumer behaviour, we worked with agencies and industry to make delivery operations more efficient and sustainable, and our city more liveable today and in the future.
To explore ways of improving last-mile delivery processes following the rapid rise of e-commerce during the pandemic, URA launched its first courier hub pilot in close partnership with agencies and two last-mile logistics service operators in October 2021.
The pilot courier hubs tapped on underutilised spaces in Housing & Development Board (HDB) car parks and facilitated delivery to the surrounding neighbourhood by parcel walkers.
Once implemented on a larger scale, the initiative could support the urban logistics ecosystem by reducing the use of vehicles and drivers in last-mile deliveries while improving productivity and promoting a more sustainable, liveable, and car-lite city.
A safe and convenient area in the car park is set aside for the orderly sorting, holding, and dispatching of parcels
Parcel walkers complete deliveries on foot to nearby residents
In response to the accelerating take-up of online food delivery services, URA published guidelines for the setting up of cloud kitchens – premises used primarily by multiple food and beverages businesses to prepare food for takeaway or delivery orders. Supporting the industry to explore the use of cloud kitchens could streamline the last-mile delivery process for businesses to better meet rising demand for food deliveries.
A delivery rider waits to pick up an order at a cloud kitchen © Smart City Kitchens
The interior of cloud kitchens © Smart City Kitchens
With the uncertain COVID-19 situation, the public sector remained alert and responsive to changes in Safe Management Measures (SMMs). As a result, URA and HDB were able to react swiftly to SMM changes in response to outbreaks, allowing the quick reinstatement of extended grace periods from 10 minutes to 20 minutes at our public car parks in May 2021, July 2021 and September 2021. This allowed us to facilitate the resultant increase in demand for takeaway and delivery services by providing delivery riders more time for temporary parking.
We supported businesses and citizens, and made Singapore a great city to live, work, and play in.
URA collaborated with the Ministry of Health Office for Healthcare Transformation (MOHT) and partner agencies to pilot the Environment Audit Toolkit (EAT). Conducted in the Fengshan, Yio Chu Kang, and Queenstown neighbourhoods, the pilot has identified opportunities to enhance the built environment for more conducive and healthy spaces where our seniors can age gracefully.
The EAT was developed as part of the 'Innovative Planning and Design of Age-Friendly Neighbourhoods in Singapore' research study commissioned by URA and led by the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD).
Participants testing out the EAT on a prototype mobile application © MOHT
URA continued to support pilot BIDs in their efforts to enliven their precincts. We provided guidance to community stakeholders to facilitate the organisation of diverse projects and activities against the backdrop of COVID-19 SMMs, such as 'Art Encounters by Art Outreach', a showcase by the Marina Central pilot BID in May and June 2021 comprising pop-up art containers, art installations and public art workshops, as well as Discover Tanjong Pagar (DTP) pilot BID’s new eco-playground.
Art Encounters by Art Outreach showcased pop-up art containers housing an artist studio and exhibition gallery © Colin Wan (Art Outreach Singapore)
The eco-playground at the DTP Community Green has become a popular spot for children, families and the elderly to gather and unwind © DTP
URA launched our first placemaking book, 'How to make a great place' that traces the evolution of Singapore’s placemaking efforts in the last two decades, and offers practical tips to individuals and communities who are keen to contribute to placemaking. Through these diverse stories, the book hopes to inspire new ideas that will enhance the vibrancy of spaces and places, and make them more delightful and meaningful over time.
URA’s placemaking book explores what goes into shaping great places that can be enjoyed by everyone
We continued to play our part to keep the country safe. Together with partner agencies, Enforcement Officers and Safe Distancing Ambassadors undertook regular patrols in designated areas to advise businesses and members of public on the prevailing SMMs, and took enforcement action against flagrant breaches of SMMs.
URA also continued to update the Space Out website, which served to provide regular updates on crowd levels at various locations across Singapore. We partnered new venue operators to help the public make more informed decisions when visiting places for leisure and recreation amidst the gradual easing of SMMs.
Mobile view of the website which provided users with four language options
Located opposite The URA Centre, Maxwell Food Centre has always been a popular lunch spot for URA staff. To support the hawkers amidst lower footfall to Tanjong Pagar during the pandemic and to lend a helping hand to those in need, URA organised sponsored group buys and a Lunar New Year care pack distribution to hawkers and cleaners. The beneficiaries of the group buys from the hawker stalls included needy seniors from the Banda, Chin Swee, and Jalan Kukoh Senior Activity Centres.
URA staff distributing meals from Maxwell Food Centre to needy seniors in our Kreta Ayer Community
We also facilitated knowledge exchange and enhanced our internal capabilities, to ensure that our organisation will remain resilient, reliable, and adaptable in a dynamic operating environment.
To enhance URA’s competency and research capability in urban planning and design, and to strengthen linkages between academia and industry for greater knowledge and resource sharing, we established a strategic partnership with SUTD that commenced in October 2021.
The URA-SUTD Strategic Collaboration will enable quick experimentation, test-bedding, and the implementation of joint research projects. This will enable URA to seek opportunities from applied research and innovation to better meet the challenges of our future operating environment.
URA hones a spirit of experimentation by trying out and adopting new digital tools to transform our work.
We embarked on our Robotic Process Automation journey in 2020, and have continued to explore and scale up its use through the setting up of a Community of Practice to automate various administrative tasks and processes that previously had to be done manually, such as extracting data and sorting files. This has helped to improve organisational productivity by freeing up staff resources for higher-value work.
As the Urban Planning & Design Technology Centre of Excellence (URBEX), we intensified our efforts to drive digital transformation and enhance Singapore’s planning ecosystem. From April 2020 to October 2021, we partnered Nanyang Technological University (NTU) to pilot a Smart Urban Planning Assistant project, which leveraged artificial intelligence to facilitate the retrieval of past planning information. This has worked to enhance planning efficiency and productivity.
A sharing on Advanced Search System Functionalities organised at NTU in April 2021
Over the past year, we also organised more runs of the Analytics Immersion Programme and Executive Analytics Programme, as well as Joint Labs with other agencies to hone data-driven planning and urban design capabilities through actual use cases, and to grow understanding and use of our digital tools, such as ePlanner.
Participants and facilitators who took part in the 13th edition of URA’s in-house analytics programme
URA’s corporate approach to caring for the environment is an extension of our core work of making Singapore a great place to live, work and play. In line with the public sector’s sustainability movement, URA strives to promote sustainability by reducing our carbon footprint.
Through green facilities management, URA continues to be committed to minimising our environmental impact. The URA Centre and East Wing are certified Green Mark Platinum, and we have continued to achieve lower energy usage via methods such as adopting energy-efficient chiller plant design and using LED lighting.
URA also encourages staff to do their part by engaging in activities like green commuting, tree planting, ‘Bring-Your-Own’, and recycling. These efforts collectively encourage a cohesive and organisation-wide approach towards sustainability.
URA staff planting trees at Duxton Plain Park in support of DTP’s 100 trees movement