It is fair to say it has not been a good week for the organisers of the Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon (SCSM). 

A switch to an evening flag-off instead of a traditional early morning one led to thousands of commuters being stuck in traffic jams in large parts of southern Singapore due to road closures for the event. Many of them took to social media to vent their anger at traffic jams lasting for as long as 2.5 hours and to complain of road marshals who could not direct them to their destinations, resulting in them circling around on already congested roads.  

A 36-year-old whom I interviewed described how half of the guests were late for his wedding at the Ritz-Carlton Millenia Singapore. Businesses along the affected routes also told me they were badly hit, losing up to 70 per cent of trade. 

The race organisers Ironman Asia and the lead government agency for the event, Sport Singapore (SportSG), have apologised for the hold-ups, but do not plan to review the timing of next year’s race. 

The organisers’ apology and pledges to learn from the Nov 30 disruption, as well as SportSG chief executive officer Lim Teck Yin’s statement expressing hope that the event will grow on the public “in years to come”, did not go down well with many.

TODAY’s Facebook page was filled with angry comments from commuters, who described the response as selfish, ridiculous and arrogant. Those whom I had interviewed earlier for a report on the traffic gridlock expressed similar sentiments.

And I can see why. The organisers’ statements were scant on details on what led to the traffic gridlock despite them planning for the event well in advance as well as what improvements they would put in place going forward.      

In a Facebook post, Ironman Asia said planning for the event took a year. This involved “an extensive stakeholder outreach programme” which included doing “full traffic studies in consultation with various partners, with over 230 stakeholders contacted and advised with solutions for alternate routes mapped out for race day” and the dissemination of “extensive road advisories”.

Mr Lim reiterated that SportSG had engaged stakeholders and conducted detailed traffic studies to mitigate the impact of road closures “as much as possible” and had announced the evening flag-off six months in advance.

“We will incorporate this year’s lessons for subsequent races,” he added, echoing a point made by Ironman Asia.

For one thing, I think the organisers could have been more forthcoming on what these detailed traffic studies entail and whether they anticipated the gridlock commuters experienced on Nov 30. If so, what mitigation measures did they put in place? If not, what were the factors that led to the congestion?

Also, implicit in the organisers’ hopes of Singaporeans embracing the event and making the SCSM “a race for Singapore” is a narrative that the public should perhaps be prepared for short-term inconvenience for what the organisers perceive to be the greater good of the nation.

After all, the stated aim of the shift in timing is to raise the profile of the event so that it could join the likes of the world’s most prestigious marathons and be inducted into the Abbott World Marathon Majors (WMM).

Yet such a framing by the organisers, if that is the intent, presents a false dichotomy — that inconvenience and unhappiness to the public are necessary trade-offs when holding a large-scale world class event.

Some commuters have also questioned the role of government agencies in approving the road closures, considering that the marathon coincided with the year-end shopping season, a U2 concert at the National Stadium and several other events in the downtown area.

The Land Transport Authority and Traffic Police did not respond to queries from TODAY, and I was given to understand by the race organisers later that SportSG would issue a statement instead.  

The road closures for the SCSM.  Source: SCSM

Mr Jeffrey Koh, who was stuck in traffic in the Bugis and Marina Bay area for 2.5 hours, felt the organisers were "trying to sweep the issue under the carpet”.

“They are just saying ‘it is still our plan to hold it next year, please deal with the inconvenience’,” said the 46-year-old, who works in advertising, when asked how he felt about the organisers’ response.

He claimed to have encountered three road marshals at separate locations that night, all of whom could not give him clear directions on where to go. He also did not see road signs directing cars away from congestion points. 

Another commuter, who wanted to be known only as Mr Koh, told me that he would have liked to see more empathy from the organisers and pointers on how they could improve for next year.

Instead, the response from the organisers was “nothing but fluff, a half-hearted apology”, he said. 

Ms Wong Pei Wen, a senior lecturer at the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information, noted that the organisers’ response “had little effect in restoring the trust” of the public.

Those who “experienced the pain first hand” are looking for “acknowledgment and an outcome-based solution”, she said in an email response to my queries.

“Hence, apologies and corrective actions are more acceptable strategies in restoring the public’s negative perceptions in this situation,” she added. 

“When apology statements focus more on the denial-and-diminish approach to explain the process, it lacks message appeal in both the compassion and atonement dimensions.”

As an avid runner myself who just completed his first marathon overseas this year, I am personally upset that Singapore’s very own event has made the news for the wrong reasons.  

To be sure, there were some positives from the event. Though I did not participate in this year’s SCSM, those whom I’ve spoken to who did are largely supportive of the race, and felt that it went smoothly.

Running coach Andrew Cheong, who has taken part in all six marathons — Berlin, New York, Boston, Chicago, London and Tokyo — in the WMM, said that since it is the first time that both the organisers and the public had encountered an evening race of this scale, there will be lessons for both parties.  

“The learning from the public side is that they need to study the road closures, and these were published (ahead of time). It was there, it’s not as if someone who wanted to find the information could not find (it),” said Mr Cheong.

The 53-year-old noted that it will be quite a challenge to get Singaporeans to support a sporting event if it is at the expense of their personal convenience.

“Singaporeans (tend to be) more self-centred, quick to complain ... it will make it very hard for them to accept an evening race so soon.” 

None of the marathons in the WMM series are held in the evenings. In fact, evening marathons held in large cities are few and far between.

One exception is the Las Vegas Marathon, with the main race and the half marathon starting at 4.30pm just before the sun sets and the 10km run 40 minutes earlier. The latest edition last month saw 35,000 runners pacing through the busiest parts of the city .

I could not find any online reports of complaints about the nine editions since its 2011 switch to a dusk race — no reports of commuters being stuck for hours in traffic and certainly no articles on weddings being delayed. 

The SCSM organisers may want to look at whether there are lessons to be learnt from how Las Vegas does it, if they have not already done so.

But more importantly, given that the SCSM organisers want Singaporeans to “embrace” the event, I think it is not too late for them to address some of the questions that commuters have.

The sooner they do that, the better it would be.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Justin Ong is a journalist with TODAY, covering transport and sports, among others. An avid runner since his secondary school days, he ran his first marathon in Ottawa in May this year.