You've heard it so many times - complaints about our public transport system. Crowded, long waits, packed, unpleasant, etc....and the complaints pile up everyday to a point where it costed PAP votes and forced a change in leadership of the ministry. Tipping Point!
Billions of dollars are being spent to increase the frequencies of our MRT trains, but there is a real safety limit of how close each train can be between one another.Alas, engineering can be expensive and challenging.
However, I strongly feel that LTA has got it WRONG this time. Look at the complaints carefully - angst, frustrations, crowding, waits....all are valid, and there are even tons of STOMP pictures of masses of people at stations and trains. What ever it is, one thing is clearly absent: no one is complaining that they are late. So why are we spending taxpayers money (which in turn translate to fare hikes) on the wrong thing?
The thing is, it is not how fast the trains are, or how many trains you have - it is the perception and quality of the wait. A classic psychology case study is that of Sasser et al's elevator ride. People complained about how slow the elevators were, and when a mirror was installed (and some time later, elevator musak was born), the complaints went down. The problem, correctly framed, is a perception rather than an engineering problem. David Maister wrote a great summary called The Psychology of Waiting Lines.
I must confess that I'm not a regular public transport commuter, but whenever I can, I would prefer to take a bus or train and leave the car at home. I enjoyed taking the buses when there was TV Mobile, and time seemed to pass so fast when Tan Ah Teck was telling his "long long ago" story to his kids, and sometimes I wished the bus would be slower just so I could finish the show!
You don't have to spend billions of dollars to buy more trains or build more tracks. Just spend money to make the wait more pleasant - music, videos, comfort.....allow baskers to liven up the mood at the platforms during peak hours, show The Noose or re-runs of PCK, pipe easy-listening music, or better yet, have your own MRT in-house radio station where commuters can SMS in to request songs or make dedications....and that, I believe, is the final missing piece of a world class public transport system.
Are you mad? Please keep such dangerous thoughts to yourself. That crazy woman CEO at SMRT might start showing corporate videos on the platforms and on the trains. Do spare us the misery!!!!
ReplyDeleteThey already did some tweaking and nobody seems to have discovered it. They made the duration of a train being on a station longer so as to create that the impression that waiting time is now shorter. But with the longer waiting time, they try to pack as much people into a single train during the longer period.
ReplyDelete~They already did some tweaking and nobody seems to have discovered it. They made the duration of a train being on a station longer so as to create that the impression that waiting time is now shorter. But with the longer waiting time, they try to pack as much people into a single train during the longer period. ~
ReplyDeleteYeah, I sense that the train at least 2 to 5 seconds longer idling at the station.
Oh my LDGG
The journey takes longer time.
Time is a perception. "A watched pot never boils." The idea is to improve the quality of the wait. Make it pleasant. Make it enjoyable. You can't make it go faster. Might as well make the experience good.
ReplyDelete