Move-In Martin!
Something that passengers who rely heavily on buses understand (or probably not). It irks me when people do not move in, or lean against those poles, when there are still people outside the bus, at the entrance, waiting to board.
Who is to blame?
Bus providers for not providing enough buses to cater for the “crowd”?
Government for trying to push for a 6.9mil population?
Or simply the passengers themselves for not putting in that little effort that helps to help themselves? How much does it cost you to move your feet for 50cm? Even a tiny 10cm matters when it comes to crowded buses. Only when the buses are truly fully packed that we as passengers, are able to convince the bus providers that they NEED to provide more buses.
You don’t want to be late, other people don’t want to be late either. From my few years of experience of taking buses to school / work (I don’t stay near any MRT station nor bus interchange, and I usually board the bus either at the last bus stop before it hits the expressway – BKE, or the first bus stop after the bus exits the expressway. Where in both directions, the buses are already packed with passengers.), if you don’t board the bus from the bus interchange (if you are lucky enough to stay near it!), chances are, you won’t be able to board the bus until the peak period is (almost) over and you will be late for school / work!
And why is that so? Because passengers on board are not moving in. A “crowded” bus is deemed to be crowded when the first half of the bus is packed like sardines. But when you take a closer look, the passengers at the second half of the bus generally have their little privacy zone of radius 30cm. Sounds illogical but this is a scene that I have seen many times – if you know the amount of time I spent travelling on buses everyday.
So my little plea to fellow passengers, please make the little effort of moving in. If you are too engrossed looking at the tiny screen of yours (i.e. handphones) to watch out for the crowd, at least try to make sure that you do not have a big gap between you and another passenger.
Buses are public transport, so let’s play a part in making bus journeys more enjoyable (or tolerable). For only then will your bus journeys be more tolerable (enjoyable)!
(This is a video produced by the Land Transport Authority, as a campaign to get passengers to move in. Weird as it seems, but it does bring the point across.)
