Came across an interesting article about commuting in the USA. Every since I started working, I have been having mixed feelings about my daily commute to work. There are days when it is enjoyable, days when it downright sucks, weeks when I take it as a challenge to be as efficient as possible and try to cut my daily timing for traveling and moments when I decide to take a break from routine and find another way to go home wondering what interesting things I might stumble upon.
I find commuting to work interesting and the article touches a lot of the things I have been thinking about – why we put up with commuting and its routine nature, how we make traveling to work bearable, the social impact of (long) commutes, the psychological impact of (long) commutes, the psychological impact of having commuting to work as part of the daily routine.
Compared to the people mentioned in this article, I have it easy with my travel to work in terms of time taken and distance traveled. However, there are some things to consider that puts these differences in time and distance traveled into perspective – for example, one of the reasons why the people put up with the long travel to work is so that they can have a nice home at a price they can afford.
How about Singaporeans? At the end of the day, what do we go back to?
One of the takeaway from the article is that maybe Singapore’s public transport system isn’t as good as we claim it to be.
Let’s do some guesstimation with values from the article.
Rossi travels home from Lexington Avenue at 53th Street to the station at Port Jervis. Based on Google Maps, the straight line distance between the two points is about 90 km.
My daily travel to work starts from a bus stop which is about 15 km away along a straight line ending at Tampines MRT station.
On a good day, my travel time, including waiting time at the bus stop and stations, is 1 hour fifteen minutes. On a bad day, it can go up to 1 hour 45 minutes.
Let’s be generous and say the trip takes 1 hour. I’m rounding down.
Rossi’s trip is about 3 hours and fifteen minutes. Let’s round it up to four hours.
Her trip is 4 times longer than mine in terms of time spent travelling. However, her trip in terms of distance is 6 times longer.
Of course this comparison is unfair. For example, the distance may be longer but the number of stations in between the two points is not necessarily more – Rossi might not experience as many train stops compared to a Singaporean traveling from City Hall and Tampines. Also, the distance between stops are longer which could allow trains to go faster.
I feel the problem with the current system is not the inefficiency of our MRT system but the density of stations. The lack of density means the success of the MRT system within the wider public transport system depends on the buses because we would rely on the buses to get us to the stations.
For me, most of the time is actually wasted waiting for the bus and taking the bus to a station.
Back to commuting. The days when I find commuting sad, I find it sad because it seems like we are living our lives between points. I start living my life when I reach home or when I am at work. During the time in between those two points, I could very well be cryogenically frozen. While people do read, sleep, listen to music, talk on the phone, play games on their PSP and chat with their friends, somehow that doesn’t seem to be living. I can’t seem to shake of the feeling that it isn’t living and can’t seem to articulate why it isn’t.
Maybe, it is because there isn’t much interaction with your fellow human beings. Maybe because the traveling is just seen as a means to getting somewhere and not something to be experienced and enjoyed in its own right. Maybe because the routine seems to drain the soul, or at least my soul. Maybe because there rarely isn’t any exploring and discovery while commuting to work and a good commute in terms of time depends on predictability which further reduces the chances of any serendipity.
How do you guys make your commute to work and back home bearable if not enjoyable?
Marc | 16-Jan-08 at 8:20 pm | Permalink
I think the whole purpose of the public transport system was never to make commuting fast or efficient but to maximise profits for the transport companies. Which is why you sometimes you have to take 2 overcrowded feeder bus and the MRT just to get to where you want to go. Which is why you have elected MPs standing up in parliament defending fare hikes instead of asking why they were implemented in the first place.
pubed | 16-Jan-08 at 10:55 pm | Permalink
Check out the commuters’ faces when the bus is packed!
Josh | 17-Jan-08 at 9:56 am | Permalink
Well, I feel the same too! I also thought that we may well be cryogenically frozen while traveling! So much time is wasted commuting around, especially the waiting time for transport. There are still so many places that we are not able to access to in just a single service, despite having a “world class” transportation system.
Tianhon | 17-Jan-08 at 12:11 pm | Permalink
how about a comparison with for example Hong Kong instead. My friend said their transport system is still much more better than ours.
iantimothy | 17-Jan-08 at 12:59 pm | Permalink
How to compare? I’ve never been to Hong Kong.
Even if we do want to compare, what would be the methodology?
Actually, is there a way for regular people (i.e. not working for government in establishing transport policy) to contribute data just by their normal daily activities, aggregate the data and then analyze it.
Judy | 17-Jan-08 at 1:26 pm | Permalink
“How do you guys make your commute to work and back home bearable if not enjoyable?”
I never was able to enjoy commuting, so I made a conscious choice to suck it up and live in a smaller home that is closer to work. This Colorado realty site puts a spin on it by saying you can actually afford a MORE expensive home with all that you save by not commuting long distances.
Pretty interesting calculator they seem to have developed.
mb | 17-Jan-08 at 9:08 pm | Permalink
“How do you guys make your commute to work and back home bearable if not enjoyable?”
I ride a bike. Hahaha!
SG Daily: 18 Jan 2008 « The Singapore Daily | 18-Jan-08 at 11:32 am | Permalink
[...] ERPains, Trains & Automobiles – Ian on the Red Dot: Is Singapore’s Public Transport System Inefficient? [...]
chappy | 18-Jan-08 at 12:09 pm | Permalink
Buses and trains in Japan follow schedules, displayed at all the bus stops and train stations. All of them, right down to the minute.
I believe that this strict discipline and guaranteed service from the bus and train companies (I believed are run by the gov, rather than privatized) will help everyone as they will all be able to plan their trips and reduce unnecessary waiting times.
faker | 18-Jan-08 at 1:37 pm | Permalink
1 word… car
F*** public transport in singapore. I gave them up 2 years ago. I rather pay more $ a month to toyota or honda than to the Sucky Buses of Singapore
Daniel | 18-Jan-08 at 2:16 pm | Permalink
I’m not Singaporean but in my job I have lived in Singapore for two years. I have also lived in Geneva, Tokyo, New York, Chicago, Hong Kong, and Washington DC. Maybe this isn’t the best way to compare things, but I felt the same thing as you. I was just never as comfortable commuting in Singapore as the other places. But sorry, I can’t think of a good explanation. It may be a combination of the unpredictability of buses, overcrowding, noise, and sometimes impolite people. Here is my personal ranking, with absolutely no scientific basis:
1. Tokyo (sometimes crowded but quiet trains and very polite behavior, very predictable schedule)
2. Washington DC
3. Geneva
4. New York (no feeder buses necessary)
5. Chicago
6. Hong Kong (many rude people on the train)
7. Singapore
iantimothy | 18-Jan-08 at 2:32 pm | Permalink
Ouch. We did that badly on your list?
Thanks for sharing about those cities you have been too.
Hopefully, I would be able to see those places for myself.
tc | 19-Jan-08 at 10:24 am | Permalink
Minister just mentioned that our transport system should be customer centric – not profit centric. What a joke – just look at SIA and their decision on landing at Terminal 2 and terminal 3. It is meant to reduce cost for SIA – definitely not Customer centric at all. We should know what to expect in the transport review. If the minister can make SIA and T2 / T3 customer centric, it will be a good first step!
iantimothy | 19-Jan-08 at 10:52 am | Permalink
@tc – why is it not customer centric?
tc | 19-Jan-08 at 10:52 pm | Permalink
if it was customer centric, passengers will know way before hand that all flights will land at either Terminal 2 or Terminal 3 – ie by the terminal it departed from. Now the departure is fixed (depending on which contries you are going to) but you can’t tell which terminal the return flight will come back to until 2 hours before the arrival. Is that not confusing for the customers?
jy | 20-Jan-08 at 2:13 am | Permalink
I’m a Singaporean staying in Chicago right now, and I find Singapore’s transport system much better than Chicago’s. Chicago’s CTA is constantly short of funding (something that comes as a surprise for one accustomed to the duopoly in singapore), resulting in perpetual threats of bus routes being cut. what appalled me the most was that route maps on the train did not even correspond to the actual stations in operation. while taking a train downtown, i missed my stop because it never came! the train’s map actually reflected stations that were not in operation.
although this may not be directly related to the transport system, what i miss most about Singapore’s trains/buses is being able to use my mp3 player and psp etc to kill time on the train. in chicago, mp3 players are simply an invitation to get mugged and public transport is one of the most popular places for a mugging.
QQ*librarian | 03-Jul-08 at 4:07 pm | Permalink
I read on the MRT to work and back home. It’s roughly about 2 hours in total. I think it is time well-spent when I am reading. I enjoy reading, whether I am at home or on the MRT, so I am not sure why you think reading as an activity on the MRT “doesn’t seem to be living”. I guess the key is to make the best of the situation and find something to do that adds value to the time spent on the MRT.
iantimothy | 03-Jul-08 at 6:56 pm | Permalink
I enjoy reading too. I think reading on the commute home makes the commute bearable. Don’t get me wrong. Reading is a fun activity. By itself it is enjoyable.
Commuting isn’t fun. It needs another activity to make it bearable. Know what I mean?
It is like I am at a party but it is so boring that I whip out my phone to sms my friends who are elsewhere. I enjoy the communication i have with my friends but doesn’t make the party any more fun.
I guess I think it isn’t really living because you got to find a place to escape from the particular moment and space.
I’m not sure. Grrr… I hate it when I can’t articulate what I’m feeling.