Is it me or did the news report that public transport operators now want us to flag the bus early????

Now they're complaining that commuters don't flag the bus early enough, coming from the stand of a commuter, I beg to differ that flagging the bus late is a common phenomenon.

I've been taking public transport to school since I was 9 and in all 10 years of my life that I've spent on taking public transport on a regular basis, I find that most people flag the bus down at a pretty reasonable distance. People who flag buses down at the very last minute fall into the minority.

The problem of buses not stopping for commuters runs both ways, so please stop accusing commuters of being late in flagging the buses when there are some irresponsible bus drivers who simply refuse to stop.

I've had my fair share of encounters with bus drivers with skills that leave much to be desired. Bus drivers who speed (so that passengers 'fly' all over the place when he slams on the breaks or decides to make a sharp turn), who speed so fast that you literally fear for your life. Judging from the speed they go, it's no wonder that they sometimes fail to stop in time. Moreover, the "BUS STOPPING" light we have in the front of buses to inform the driver of a passenger's intention of alighting doesn't work 30% of the time, so you're left hoping that the driver actually remembers or else, there's always the act of pressing the bell a 2nd time when the bus is nearing the stop to remind the driver. The end result? Bus drivers occasionally forgetting to stop altogether, resulting in irate commuters having to walk one entire stop back just because of a technical fault and the company's inability to solve such a minor problem.

There are a lot of problems in the public transport arena, some might say that we already have a world class transport system as compared to other countries of the world, but that doesn't mean that we can't improve. Every year our bus and train fares go up but somehow, the new bus and train models, despite looking slicker, doesn't seem to be worth all the extra cash we're spending, and the profits of public transport operators just simply continue going up.

Yes, as a commuter, I appreciate having new and comfortable buses to ride in. I also want to get to my destination in one piece (so would bus captains please stop speeding if they already are?). I want clean buses that come regularly. Half the time I'm greeted by a dingy-looking bus for which I spent 20mins waiting. World class? Brrrr......

But yes, as I've mentioned, the problem runs both ways. We have students who vandalise our buses (I wonder is it really that fun to vandalise buses? I think that it's more enjoyable to cane these vandals aka Michael Fay). We have parents who can't rein in their misbehaving children who eat, drink and litter all over the place (I recently saw a little girl, no more than 4, drop an entire cup of coke on the bus, giving everyone a mini-coke stream and her parents did absolutely nothing). We have commuters who treat their bags as an extension of their personal being, something like a parasitic twin and place their bags on seats when other commuters needed the seats more than their bags. Yes, you have to educate the public to be civic-minded, but I don't think educating them to flag buses early shoud be a priority. Moreover, how early would you like us to flag them anyway? Inattentive drivers wouldn't notice anyway.

We could perhaps learn from other countries. Some countries have boards at every stop to inform commuters of the estimated time of arrival of the next bus of a certain service. Start with the crucial spots first, like busy suburban heartlands like Tampines, Bedok, Toa Payoh as well as the CBD. Bus drivers could also consider making a short stop at every bus stop, it wouldn't kill to stop for 10 seconds to ensure that no commuter wants to board/alight. And yes, we still need to teach people how to be civic-minded.

Flag the Bus Early Campaign? Sounds ridiculous, I seriously wonder how people from other countries would think of it.