Ok this could be classified as a rant post but I have been observing what is going on the bus and really do not like what I see.
I have been taking buses to work and school for almost 10 years straight but I still don’t understand why people still do not move in when people are trying to get on buses during peak hours. There are glaring gaps at the middle or back of buses but most will just mind their business and not make a concerted effort to move in.
My observations are
- Foreign Talents tend to not do that. They just park themselves there right in front should they find a good spot. I know that they will alight much later after me as I have seen them before but they will just park themselves at the most convenient place. The worse was yesterday, when everyone is trying to get home from work at industrial parks and they just park themselves right in front of the door getting up!
- To a lesser extent secondary school students. To be fair I observe that they are very warm to give up seats to elderly, but most of the time they are pre-occupied with themselves and do not make an effort to move in.
- The group of people playing with their iPhones and PSP. They just find the spot that allows them to not move and do that. The iPhones also allows them to be distracted enough not to make an effort to move in.
I think the government considers us as a first world country. But are these proper gestures showing the character that a first world citizen should have? The students are our future yet what I see are more self-centered behaviors and now we are importing talents who frankly speaking think more for their own well being then for the society.
We should have a national campaign to re-educate and teach citizens how to be more considerate and the right way to use public transport!
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Ryan
Friday 3rd of June 2011
First lesson should be given to those sporean aunties (i'm talking those 40's-50's with dark hair type who don't deserve the priority seat), especially in the train station. They don't giv a F** about the queuing crowd beside the train doors. They would just walk and stand in front the door and park themselves blocking the alighting passengers. When the train door open, they will run for their life into the train to hunt for a seat... annoying aunties!!
YBK
Monday 30th of May 2011
@wew, things don't get better with additional red line. Existing problem lies with the green line. Many commuters are caught by the bottleneck of green line in JurongEast and with the additional red line, it create a bigger bottleneck allowing more red line commuters to fight for spaces in the green line. Today is the second day of additional red line operation and I had witnessed a commuter complaining to a LTA staff and the answer from them is "Yes, we are aware of it." so my question is, why aren't they do something to reduce this problem? instead of solving, they add-on more crowds!
Jared Seah
Monday 30th of May 2011
Hello Drizzt,
Bus 196! I take this bus from Queenstown to town in my past life - both for school and work.
I understand your frustration; but this Singaporean behaviour was already evident in the 80s. There were many "ranting" to the straits times forum and one good suggestion is to use buses with exit doors at the rear of the bus - like those in Scandinavian countries (they are more expensive). First world standard has a price tag. Sigh... We are not there yet when it comes to hardware.
And coming to "software"... I believe we Singaporeans should start with setting good examples ourselves.
Drizzt
Monday 30th of May 2011
hi Jared, then i guess we are not first world yet.
wew
Monday 30th of May 2011
I agree! MRT is almost the same. Save as to those people who would rush violently to any seats or the holding pole and refuse to move back and give space, people shouldn't go and play iPhone and read newspaper inside the train during peak hours. 2-3 people doing that may have taken just-nice a space for an extra one person who might need to miss the train.
But lucky now not so bad after the extra red line has been operating at Jurong East.
Drizzt
Monday 30th of May 2011
oh what red line is that? i dun take the train so did not notice it! as for extra space, that is a freaking problem. i got a culture shock when i realise i don't have space to read on my ipod!
Musicwhiz
Sunday 29th of May 2011
Hi Drizzt,
I find that the iPhonatics are the most irritating. Not only will they not move in, but they hardly get distracted even when the bus jerks and when someone wants to alight and they have to make way! It's worse than glue. As for foreign workers, I guess there are not many on my bus to work so I cannot comment. Students are thus far generally OK.
Oh ya FYI, I've been taking bus to work for the past 11 years, haha.