I refer to the letter “Public buses are not child-friendly” (Jan 13). It is true that our public transport falls short of what exists in some countries.
Take, for example, Zurich.
All its trams have doors for pushchairs, which parents are not required to fold. These doors are indicated by a white pushchair symbol. The Swiss have shown consideration for parents since the 1970s, but we are still lacking.
Almost all of Zurich’s buses have low floors. Even the smallest buses have at least three doors. Commuters are allowed to board at all doors; this gives parents with pushchairs a greater chance of boarding and spreads out passengers more evenly.
The human factor is that commuters there often help parents to load and unload their pushchairs.
We in Singapore should educate and encourage people to also be more helpful and possibly even help wheelchair users board or alight. We need not always wait for the driver to open the manually operated ramp.
Allowing commuters to board at all doors brings benefits to wheelchair users and parents of young children. It reduces dwell time for buses and allows our public transport to run more punctually and regularly.
By reducing the bunching of passengers that always occurs at the bus exits, our transport resources are used more efficiently and less time is wasted on telling people to “move in”.
For that to work, we must rethink our public transport. Instead of penny-pinching and ensuring that every passenger who boards pays, we could operate more on a trust-based system.
This would work by giving discounts for season tickets, so people are encouraged to buy tickets for a long period, say, a year, instead of being tempted to cheat on each trip.
We can then add more doors to buses without worrying that people will cheat. We would also not have to compel parents to board via the narrow front door or fumble as they try to tap their EZ-Link cards.
Sum Siew Kee
*Letter first appeared on TODAY, Voices (Jan 16)