Bus Stops in Singapore
A bus stop in Singapore is a thing of beauty and a joy forever. Or at least a place of shelter from sun and rain, and cleanliness, with polished marble benches to sit on and bollards. The bollards were added last spring after some bad driver in the city speeded and ran off the road onto the sidewalk. Not a bad place to wait for public transit, is it? And in the heart of the city there are all kinds of interesting innovations, like big-screen tvs running advertisements, and odd devices that beam advertising SMSs to your cell phone (for Oil Of Olay last time I was near one). We live at an Outpost of Civilization at the University, way at the western edge of Singapore, but if you’re closer to the center your bus stop may have a digital board telling which busses are expected in how many minutes. And while you’re waiting you can SMS the bus company asking which bus to transfer to in order to get to your ideal destination quickly. The idea is to make it easy and pleasant to take public transit. And although the bus company is a private corporation, the government does own shares in it, so fares and policy are all subject to central government input – and coordination.