Less people are taking public transport and more switching to private cars, if the latest numbers are anything to go by.

A 2008 travel survey conducted by the Land Transport Authority (LTA) showed that the proportion of people taking car journeys have increased to 31 per cent, as opposed to 27 per cent share in 2004.

Two strategies have been identified to increase the number of people taking public transportation: 1) investing in rail network and; 2) reducing vehicle growth rate,  Singapore's Transport Minister Raymond Lim said in his opening speech for the second World Roads conference.

Mr Lim said ideally there would be a doubling of the existing rail network by 2020, as well as significant capacity enhancement in existing lines with higher train frequencies.

By 2020, Singapore's rail density will be "comparable" to New York and London today. The MRT will be more accessible to more people. Mr Lim also added that there will be an MRT station within five minutes' walk

The vehicle population growth rate has also been reduced from 3 per cent to 1.5 per cent a year, and this will be reassessed again in 2012.

Several improvements have been made to increase the attractiveness of taking public transport, said the Transport Minister.

Expansion of normal bus lanes and full day bus lanes have improved bus speeds. Bus services are now more frequent as well.

Public commuters are already feeling the improvements. In a customer satisfaction survey conducted in 2008, 89,5 per cent said they were satisfied with public transport services, an increase of 3 per cent from 2007.

He also added: "As we expanded Electronic Road Pricing to more roads last year, the traffic conditions of these roads have improved correspondingly."

Traffic speeds in the CBD area - where targeted road pricing measures were introduced - increased from 18kph to an optimal range of 20-30kph.