Mobility and Air Quality – RVRC Action for Sustainability Symposium

AY1718G13.1 – “Is it hot here or is it just me? Relationship between microclimate of different manicured areas and user thermal comfort in Singapore Botanic Gardens”

rvrnjy Abstracts, AY 2017/18, Mobility and Air Quality, Natural Environment and Ecosystem December 27, 2018December 27, 2018

Chong Sui Jeen, Dora Tay Hui Xuan, Ng Zhi Yuan, Tay Chun Jiang, Yoo Sungjoon

Academic Advisor: Dr. Chua Siew Chin
Industry Advisor: NParks

Despite losing almost 90% of the original vegetation, about 50% of Singapore today is still vegetated. This in part is due to Singapore’s efforts in promoting manicured parks. Manicured areas serve ecosystem functions such as lowering surrounding temperatures and also provide recreational facilities for park users. Our project examined how manicured areas in Singapore Botanic Gardens (SBG) affect human thermal comfort. We examined how relative humidity and air temperatures of two manicured areas that are 1. elevated, 2. close to water bodies, compare to a control that is an open manicured area with minimal shading. Our data came from datalogger installed at the three areas. We also conducted survey on thermal comfort of park users at the same sites and analyzed the correlations between the data with the user comfort data. Our results help to determine key factors influencing microclimate within the urban park and direct in future planting designs.

Keywords: Natural Environment & Ecosystems, urban park microclimate, human thermal comfort, temperature and humdity datalogger, elevated walkway

AY1718G12.3 – “Bridge Across the Ridge”

rvrnjy Abstracts, AY 2017/18, Built Environment and Green Infrastructure, Mobility and Air Quality December 27, 2018

Chen Juan, Hubert Halim, James Yong Jun Wei, Melina Jingting Binti Laimon

Academic Advisor: Ms. Sadaf Ansari

The sprawling NUS campus can be traversed using a combination of internal shuttle buses, bicycles and covered walkways. However, the steep forested ridge cutting lengthwise across the NUS campus increases travel time for pedestrian movement. Our project explored this limitation as an opportunity for a creative pedestrian solution by proposing a Canopy Walk across the ridge. Of the many variables that needed to be evaluated, we chose to focus on three – existing terrain, tree distribution and minimising disturbance to the ecology. We began work with generating a detailed terrain map for the campus using the Quantum Geographic Information System (QGIS). This was coupled with field visits to confirm the accuracy of the topography model as well as the tree locations and sizes. Using secondary data to extrapolate our findings, we finalised one potential route for the elevated pathway, and represented it using a physical model. Our design also assessed inevitable ecological/practical challenges, which would benefit from a more detailed study.

Keywords: Built Environment & Green Infrastructure, Green Design, Walking, Car-lite

AY1617G19B – “Sustainable Transport: The Human Element”

rvrnjy Abstracts, AY 2016/17, Mobility and Air Quality, Transport December 27, 2018

Ding Shu En Chloe (FASS), Lim Wei Min, Gary (FoS), Low Jing Wen (FASS), Pranav Kalra (FoE), Teo Hua-Yi Jonathan (FoE)

Academic Advisor: Mr. Lim Cheng Puay
Industry Advisor: Mr. Foo Siang Chi (OFM, NUS)

Transport is a key sector that requires a more sustainable approach. 14% of all global CO2 emissions in 2014 were attributed to transportation (Environmental Protection Agency, 2014), a figure that is higher for developed countries such as Singapore. A similar issue is observed in the National University of Singapore (NUS), as students prefer to use the shuttle bus instead of walking. With a growing student population and limited transport infrastructure, this leads to issues like overcrowding of shuttle bus during peak hours and contribution to green house gas emissions. To resolve this problem, our group will design a mobile application aimed at helping students navigate around NUS campus. The prototype will be targeted towards Engineering students in the college, and the application’s effect on user behavior will be quantified using surveys administered before and after project implementation. Our group hopes to have a better understanding on the behaviors and attitudes with respect to sustainable transport and the relationship between infrastructure and behavior. It is hoped this data can be used in applying effective methods to encourage more students to consider walking in Campus.

Keywords: Transport, Mobility and Air Quality, Behaviour survey, Walking in campus,

AY1617G14B – “Investigating user experience in NUS-Bicycle-Sharing-Pilot”

rvrnjy Abstracts, AY 2016/17, Mobility and Air Quality, Transport December 27, 2018December 27, 2018

Chew Bi Ting (FASS), Chuah You Heng (FoS), Joshua Ng Kai Jiang (SoC), Sonia Ko Yun Xin (FASS), Tong Qi Wei (FASS)

Academic Advisor: Dr. Chua Siew Chin
Industry Advisor: Mr. Foo Siang Chi (OES, NUS)

Our project explores the feasibility of bicycle sharing in NUS as an alternative to the NUS shuttle buses, which are often crowded during school hours. Bicycle sharing has gained popularity in school, towns and cities around the world. As there is no such system in NUS yet, we would like to find out whether such a system, if implemented in the local context, would be effective. We define effectiveness as the percentage of participants that display positive feedback towards the bicycle-sharing system. We will look at how frequently they use the system and more importantly, find out if the participants are willing to continue using it alongside buses. We will also look at the issues they encountered and hopefully use their responses to improve the system. Using quantitative data provided by MoBikes’ existing system, we will also assess user patterns and draw conclusions on whether the system is an effective alternative transport system to buses. A volunteer group of participants will take part in a 2-week pilot test. Participants will be given promotional codes for the MoBikes App so that they can use the MoBikes system for free. Four MoBikes docking stations will be installed in NUS during our pilot test and the participants will be required to use designated cycling routes. We will conduct a pre-test survey to gather data on the participants’ current main transport patterns. After the test, we will conduct a post-test survey to find out if they felt that the Bicycle Sharing system was a viable form of transport that could rival the shuttle buses.

Keywords: Transport, Mobility and Air Quality, bicycle rental, cycling route, Energy and Climate

AY1617G11B – “Connect & Walk for a greener campus”

rvrnjy Abstracts, AY 2016/17, Energy, Mobility and Air Quality, Transport December 27, 2018December 27, 2018

Chen Kuang (SoC), Chew Yu Liang (FoE), Jeremy Lee Jun Wei (FoE), Nabilah Bte Mohamad Rozaini (FoE), Neo Shun Jie (SDE)

Academic Advisor: Dr. Chua Siew Chin

NUS provides internal shuttle buses as the main mode of transportation for commuters within the campus. However, these buses become severely overcrowded particularly during peak hours. This issue will continue to exacerbate with increasing student recruitment. Should frequency of bus services increases to match the demand, the cost on man-hours, fuel consumption, labour, and other resources would be environmentally and economically unsustainable. To tackle the prevalent issue, we plan to implement a mobile application to encourage people to walk instead of taking the shuttle bus service. We also plan to create an algorithm that would allow students to plan their timetable on NUSmods such that their travel distance between classes is minimized. This would incentivize them to walk to their next class instead of taking the shuttle bus. To study what motivates commuters to walk, we plan to survey NUS students to find out the factors of consideration for their transport options. Our mobile application will then concentrate on such motivations to incentivise people to walk. In a nutshell, our research areas will involve three fields:

What motivates people to adopt the different modes of transport?
Case studies of societies where the walking culture is prevalent.
Study of existing/proposed ideas to encourage people to walk and why some of them failed.

Keywords: Transport, Mobility and Air Quality, Energy and Climate, shuttle bus, companionship app.

AY1516G33 –“Walk NUS! Will advertised shortcuts in campus promote sustainable mobility?”

rvrnjy Abstracts, AY 2015/16, Mobility and Air Quality, Transport December 27, 2018December 27, 2018

Lam Ka Ying (FoE/ISE1), Ong Si Yan (FASS/ARS1), Png Hui Shan Moira (FoS/SCI1), Tan Xing Liang (FoE/MPE1), Thio Ming Siang Benjamin (FoE/ENG1)

Academic Advisor: N. Sivasothi | Student Fellow: Wong Ci Yi

The importance of transport in today’s society cannot be undermined: it supports a country’s social and economic well-being. Unfortunately, the focus of transport policies on meeting utilitarian needs such as accessibility and travel time has resulted in other issues, such as air pollution and inefficient use of resources, being neglected. Hence the focus of our project: How to encourage the NUS community to adopt more sustainable means of mobility? After consolidating information from interviews with OES and OCA, our project decided to focus on walkability in particular: it was an area we could explore by ourselves. As many respondents to our survey indicated that knowing shortcuts would motivate them to walk more often, our group chose to disseminate such information. In closing, while it may only be a few routes at present, others can add to our work, and hopefully use it to encourage the walkability of the NUS campus.

Keywords: Transport, Mobility and Air Quality, Walking in campus, Habits survey

AY1516G24 –“Can we encourage NUS students to opt for a more sustainable transport alternative?”

rvrnjy Abstracts, AY 2015/16, Built Environment and Green Infrastructure, Mobility and Air Quality, Transport December 27, 2018

Ang Yong Quan (FoE/MLE1), Kirthana D/O Ganeson (FASS/ARS1), Koh Shing Yee (FoE/MPE1), Ravi Shwetha (MDP/CEG1), Won Jia Min (FASS/ARS1)

Academic Advisor: Adekunle Adeyeye | Student Fellow: Sin Kah Fai

In 2015, the NUS Office of Campus Amenities recorded that it transports an average of 50,000 people around campus per day. Even with this efficiency, buses are overflowing with students. While increasing the number of bus trips seems to be a straight-forward solution, it might only worsen the problem due to the narrow roads and heavy traffic on campus. It also further contributes to NUS’s carbon emissions. With this in mind, we searched for a more sustainable transport alternative and collected the feedback on the willingness of NUS students and staff to walk as a mode of transport. Discovering that many are willing to go the distance if real-time information and a mix of modes of transport are offered, we focused on building a mobile application that will help NUS students to navigate their way around the campus, through the best permutation required by the student on each unique scenario.

Keywords: Built Environment and Green Infrastructure, Transport, Mobility, Mobile application, Walking

AY1516G05 –“What is the PM2.5 impact of NUS shuttle buses at the U Town bus stop?”

rvrnjy Abstracts, AY 2015/16, Mobility and Air Quality, Transport December 26, 2018December 26, 2018

Chan Shi Ying (SDE/PFM1), Dave Dexter Tan Wei Ye (FoS/SCI1), Law Yi En, Janice (SDE/PFM1), Shi Xiyue (SoC/COM1), Tan Jun Kiat (SoC/COM1)

Academic Advisor: Sadaf Ansari | Student Fellow: Kerk Jun Gang

Diesel buses, including NUS shuttle buses, emit fine particles (PM2.5) which are harmful to human health. In this project, we investigated the PM2.5 impacts of NUS shuttle buses and related health effects. Measurement of PM2.5 concentrations was conducted at University Town bus stop during peak (6.00pm to 7.00 pm) and non-peak (2.30pm to 3.30pm) periods for five days. During each period, we used DustTrack, an air quality monitor, and collected 24 data sets with an interval of 2.5 minutes. After applying humidity correction for raw data, we did statistical analysis to find the difference between the level of PM2.5 for peak and non-peak periods. The difference is not significant. Results for the PM2.5 impacts of NUS shuttle buses are inconclusive and further study is needed.

Keywords: Transport, Mobility and Air Quality, Energy, Air Pollution, Air Quality Monitoring, Green Transport