Queuing
Berths will only slow down the boarding process and increase dwell
time of the buses and delay them.
Queuing
berths are under-utilized. Who really bothers to queue up? A quick
survey will actually tell you that most of the passengers boarding
the bus at the interchanges don’t really join in the queue. If you
are a passenger, ask yourself, do you use the queuing berth all the
time?
The reasons
are as follows,
Redundancy
Estimated
Bus Arrival Time Information is readily available. Prior knowledge
of bus arrival time reduces the necessity of queuing up.
A
substantial portion of passengers arrive at the boarding berths
just in time when the bus arrives. Many of them choose not to join
the queue but instead, clog at the entrance door and wait for all
passengers who have queued up to board the bus before they finally
board.
Availability
of shopping amenities in the form of shops, mini-vendors, etc Toa
Payoh, Ang Mo Kio. There are many things to do instead of just
queuing up.
There are
more than one available choice of bus services to their
destination. What’s the point of queuing up?
Some may
need to go toilet and hence, reluctant to queue up.
Safety Hazards
In the
event of heavy downpour at the older interchanges, etc Yishun,
Tampines, the queuing berths are not properly sheltered and rain
may splash in.
Queuing
berths are dangerous as they entice many naughty school students
(especially boys) to play monkeys and leap over them. They think it
is standard-obstacle-course (SOC) and may get injured if they are
not careful. I see some adults trying dangerously to wriggle
underneath the railings also.
Queuing
berths are dangerous as they restrict mobility. If a blur blur
driver loses control of his bus and drives into the berth, the
whole line of queuing passengers kenna.
Many mega
bus stops in CBD have higher passengers flow during rush hours but
do not have queuing berths. Conversely, bus terminals like
Changi
Airport,
St Michael’s, Yio Chu Kang have fewer bus services. Queuing berths
are there but underutilized.
There are
12 bus services at Shenton Way Terminal but no queuing berths.
There are only 5 services at Sembawang Interchange and yet there
are queuing berths.
If queuing
berths are effective, then they should be implemented at the bus
stops also.
You see any
queuing berths in the train platforms? No..right?
To minimize
the unnecessary dwell time, convert Woodlands Interchange into
clusters of mini-bus stops without queuing berths.
Fine-tune
the fare computation system to cater for simultaneous boarding
using every door, just like train.Don’t need to
have dedicated entrance door or exit doors. This will only slow
down the boarding process.
If need be,
rope in bus attendances/security personnels to control the crowd
when the bus has arrived for boarding.
eg. When bendy bus arrives for
boarding, all 3 doors open to let passengers board quickly so that
the bus can move off as early as possible, just like
trains
Don't need to worry about kiasu passengers queue jumping, vying
or shoving one another to board the bus since this phenomon is
already inherent at bus stops or MRT trains
Bus stops should have this practice also.
Uncle. The exit door card readers are for EXITING
only!
Plus, without berths, why even build them?
