"Yeah, I rode the bus for a while. I always felt stupid and helpless waiting on the bus to arrive. I gave up and went back to bike commuting. Bike commuting was also half the time as taking the bus on and 8 mile commute. Whenever, I see people at a bus stop I always say to myself, "Why don't they just get a bike?! They would be there already."
You probably catch my drift when it comes to public transport if you've been reading my blog for long enough. But are Singaporean buses as bad as American buses? We boast, after all, a world class transportation system... which probably explains why I don't like buses. The irony is that even world-classed buses are essentially slow moving boxes that arrive once in a while.
From my experience, a bus-only commuter would be slower than a person who would bike under a few conditions,
- The bus must stop at all stops and the interval of stops cannot be long
- The road must be flat
- The cyclist must be able to overtake the bus when it is stopped.
Absolutely. Except that is probably their moving average speed. The truth is that, if you can hold an average speed of above 20km/h, you probably will be faster than most buses, especially those that ply along congested roads. If you cycle to the city, that's where you will probably feel the greatest advantage in time savings. To add to that, if you imagine how boring waiting at the bus stop is, and how long certain buses can come, you'll probably know that the spontaneity and quick response that a bike can provide is unparalleled.
Yeah, and here, you are only comparing based on the travelling time between boarding and alighting bus stops, not the time spent between when one steps out of his home and when he steps into his destination room.
ReplyDeleteAlso, even though
1. bus may not stop at all stops, they usually don't take the shortest path.
2. cyclists may not be able to overtake the bus some times, but cyclists can choose alternative road w/o buses.
I always like to use my example cycling from TPY to NTU vs walk/wait/bus/MRT/walk/bus/walk. That was before the opening of Pioneer MRT. It took me 80 cycling vs 90 mins via public transport, from my home to my lab. Add another 10 mins cooling/bathing, still very comparable.
Of course, one may argue that one could do many things on public transport such as reading or sleeping. Then, I would argue that I went for a good exercise session and thus spent 0 mins and 0 cents on travelling.
Hi Back2Nature,
ReplyDeleteI believe by argument 1, you mean that they might go one big round before reaching the destination? A la bus service 73... which goes to AMK from TPY but takes the long way round.
However, my experience has been that if your commute is long, there really is diminishing returns. I commute from Serangoon to Changi at times and the bus-train route takes around the same time. Now with the circle line, I don't know how true that is.
But of course, if I go to town/work in town, then I would undoubtedly prefer to bike. The inflection point between time taken to commute by bike vis-a-vis public transport is about 1 hour/22km, then a bike would be slower.
Of course, there are other impetuses when it comes to riding a bike, undoubtedly!
Yes, like what you said about service 73. Not only that, many shortest paths are not accessible to motorized vehicles.
ReplyDeleteAnother factor is the need to walk/wait when using public transport. MRT from TPY to Boon Lay is not extremely long, but the times and inconveniency to travel between home and TPY MRT, and Boon Lay MRT to NTU lab might take up 1/3 of the whole traveling time.
Btw, I am on a MTB, not even a road bike.
Yes say it again, I was waiting for a bus for more then 45 minutes!!! World class.....the drivers don't even know how to modulate the brakes properly, so the bus jerks a lot! may be the Bus Captains are taught to get the buss moving but not tested on how they should stop the vehicle. Needless to say I rode my bicycle to run the errand!
ReplyDeleteI am cycling more often now after realizing how bad the traffic is, and also because slow traffic is slightly safer for cycling :)
ReplyDeleteJust recently (after school holiday started), took a ride on a colleague's car at 6:05p.m. from NUH arriving at TPY about 40 mins later. That's about the same time if I cycle. Taking buses would be about 1 hr 15 mins!
Still, I am looking forward to the opening of the circle line so I need not cycle that far :)
Nice, very motivating shares :D
ReplyDelete