Cars lose shine as S'pore youth cycling more often, poll shows

Accessible public transport, pollution behind drop in youth who wish to own a car compared with 2016 survey

- Christopher Tan

The proportion of young Singaporeans who aspire to own a car has shrunk substantially from six years ago.

According to a face-to-face survey commissioned by The Straits Times and carried out by Nexus Link in April, 50.4 per cent of just over 500 respondents said they aspire to own a car within the next few years down from 65.5 per cent when the same poll was done in 2016.

The top reason given by those who do not aspire to own a car was ready accessibility to public transport. This is affirmed by findings that 89.1 per cent of respondents lived within 10 minutes' walk of a bus stop and 44.3 per cent lived within 10 minutes' walk of a train station.

In fact, 50.6 per cent of respondents indicated that they would need a car if they lived more than 10 minutes' walk from a bus stop, and 44.3 per cent indicated the same for access to a train station.

Pollution, which cars contributed to, and the high prices of cars were the other main reasons given by respondents who did not aspire to own a car.

One of them, university student Raelein Airish Mohammed Rudy, 21, said he has been using public transport for many years, adding: "I'm quite comfortable to continue doing so.

"Electric cars sound like a good idea, but the electricity still comes from a fossil fuel source. So I'm still more inclined to use public transport. I think sharing a train with a few hundred people is more efficient."