IT WILL be a few years before the centralised bus management system is implemented ("$68m contract for bus management system awarded"; April 10).
In the meantime, the Land Transport Authority should analyse existing data and use it to improve bus services.
It could explore options such as:
- Reviewing the time buses leave terminals and ensuring that schedules are observed. If buses leave the terminals at the scheduled times, bunching should be reduced.
- Using a mobile app to send revised schedules to bus drivers, if traffic conditions along a certain route are causing buses to bunch up.
- Deploying buses optimally according to demand. Demand can be measured by totting up the number of commuters boarding and alighting at each stop over a few weeks.
- Providing alerts on the operator's website if some buses are overcrowded due to uncontrollable factors. This will allow commuters to make other transport arrangements and ease demand for that service.
- The public would like to see improvement in bus services now, as far as possible, rather than a few years down the road.
Tan Kin Lian
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