Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) chief Chee Soon Juan in a Facebook post on Tuesday (3 November) said that he is “gratified” that Bukit Batok SMC Member of Parliament Murali Pillai has finally decided to address problems concerning a narrow pedestrian pass in an area in the constituency.
Noting that he had highlighted the issue of this narrow pedestrian pass on the flyover at BB Ave 1 in another Facebook post on 28 September, Dr Chee mentioned that residents had notified him about the danger that cyclists posed to pedestrians there, especially the young and elderly.
In his earlier post, Dr Chee relayed several emails and messages he had received from Bukit Batok residents over a range of municipal issues, including the pedestrian walk.
One resident told Dr Chee: “It’s extremely dangerous for some elderly who also frequent this route, especially when many cyclists speed through and do not give way to pedestrians.”
In the post, he said he would be “happy to facilitate” a meeting between the town council and residents to discuss ideas to resolve the issue.
Dr Chee said in his most recent post that when Mr Murali did not respond, he raised the matter again in his virtual townhall meeting with residents on 24 October.
“I am pleased to inform residents that yesterday Mr Murali finally addressed the matter on his FB,” he said.
In a Facebook post on 2 November, Mr Murali said he had asked the Bukit Batok Environment Task Force (ETF) members: “How do we better design the approaches to the pedestrian path (in a cost-effective way) so as to put all users on notice and reduce the chances of unsuspecting cyclists pedaling through the paths thereby creating safety hazards for the pedestrians?”
He asked this when they walked the path along the flyover in question.
Mr Murali then invited the public to send in their suggestions of what could be done, adding that the ETD will conduct another site trip to review proposals before sending in the plan to the Land Transport Authority for its review.
Responding to the update, Dr Chee said: “While he did not offer any solutions, I am gratified to note that he has, at the minimum, seen the need to respond to the matter.”
Dr Chee called on the MP to “take a more active role in addressing the residents’ concerns”.
Previously in September, Dr Chee criticised Mr Murali’s apparent reluctance to build more sheltered walkways in the single-member constituency.
He said that it is “disappointing” that Mr Murali “continues to offer excuses and distractions rather than valid reasons”, despite “earnest and reasonable” requests from residents for a pavement from Block 187 to the bus-stop “for safety reasons”.
Dr Chee also separately urged the Jurong-Clementi Town Council to construct a pathway for pedestrians in an area surrounding several housing blocks in Bukit Batok.