Does Boon Lay not have space? After all LTA did just send a
couple of JIS away to Joo Koon.
Boon Lay has 22 end-on parking lots and 38 sawtooth parking
lots.
Over at Changi Business Park Bus Terminal, the berths are all
end-on type. 1 bus route is allocated 3 end-on parking lots,
probably to ensure smooth traffic flow. Based on that, I would
assume that the end-on section at Boon Lay Bus Interchange is only
able to accomodate up to 7 bus routes, since there are 22 parking
lots.
As for the sawtooth section, 1 bus route probably needs only 2
parking lots, since the boarding and alighting activities are done
at separate bays. With 38 parking lots at the sawtooth section of
Boon Lay Bus Interchange, it is likely that up to 19 bus routes can
park there.
Hence, I assume that 7 routes at end-on and 19 routes at
sawtooth is the maximum number there can be at Boon Lay Bus
Interchange, if we want to have smooth traffic flow. The maximum
number of bus routes that can originate at Boon Lay Bus Interchange
is probably 26.
Well, there are currently 25 bus routes originating at Boon Lay
Bus Interchange (if include route 79, it is 26), after 4 were
transfered to Joo Koon last year. Of the 25 bus routes, 9 routes
are at the end-on section (including route 79, it's 10.) and 16
routes are at the sawtooth section.
Clearly, the end-on section is over-utilised by 3 routes and the
sawtooth section is under-utilised by 3 routes. So, obviously, the
traffic flow is bad at the end-on section, and good at the sawtooth
section.
To improve the traffic flow at the end-on section, I would like
to recommend moving route 79 and two other routes from the end-on
section to the sawtooth section.
We can change route 79 to really loop at Boon Lay Bus
Interchange and not give it any parking lots at Boon Lay Bus
Interchange, since it loops at Boon Lay. This would make 2 parking
lots available at the sawtooth section of Boon Lay Bus Interchange
and allow for 1 new bus route to originate at Boon Lay Bus
Interchange.
So, to answer your question, yes, there is space at Boon Lay,
but for only 1 more bus route to originate there. If want more at
Boon Lay, the additional routes can only loop there.
