What every commuter looks for in an efficient public transport system

 

 

By Stephen Ng

 

I have, in the past, written and even dreamt of having an efficient public transport system that serve thousands of daily commuters.

          Although public transport is not my forte, I have been a regular user and even a proponent of public transport.

          After I introduced the last mile shuttle service, we started campaigning with the tagline, “Providing Connectivity Where It Matters Most – From anywhere in the Klang Valley, you can now reach (name of the private university) with our shuttle service.”

          The biggest gratification was when I had to travel daily to Institut Kanser Negara for my treatment for over two months, and I found out that they had a shuttle service connecting the ERL station and the hospital.

Commuters are not Convinced Yet

What every commuter is looking for can be summarised into three key points: (a) frequency with short waiting intervals (b) Reliability, with no delays or breakdowns (c) Economical yet comfortable.

These are the reasons why the MRT has become the backbone to the public transport system in Singapore and Hong Kong.

The commuter knows that she can get the next train in 10 min, even if she misses the earlier train.

Technically, even if the trains are packed, but because she knows the next train is just a few minutes away (high frequency), she would prefer to wait for the next train to get to her destination.

The trains are on time (reliable). This is important for people to plan their time.

While studying in Australia, I realised one reason why the buses would wait at the bus stop until its allocated time before moving on, it is because commuters can at least be assured that if they arrive at the bus stop, the bus will still be there.

These days with the help of mobile apps such as Mooveit, it is even easier for commuters to estimate the time taken to reach a certain destination.

If the trains are economical and comfortable, I believe most people would prefer to take a ride on the train to get to town, than to brave through the traffic jams and very exorbitant parking fees especially in five star hotels.

First Mile, Last Mile

I have often proposed the use of mini buses instead of the big coaches for First Mile, Last Mile shuttle services.

This is because frequency is important. If there are sufficient mini buses crisscrossing within the major cities and the neighbourhood, most people would do a Super Mario hop on, hop off these buses just the same way Melbournites would do on their trams.

The Ministry of Transport should deploy the big coaches for long distance travel from towns to the city depots. From there, people get down to hop onto another mini bus to get to their destination. If waiting time is short, people will take these buses than to drive their cars.

 

You may download a simple research paper which I wrote back in 2006 from here.