The thing about accessibility
What does having to design our public transport system for inclusivity mean?
When reviewing the previous Masterplan, one big initiative was improving accessibility — and many planned work items involve the public bus network.
This is understandable. The big accessibility push on the MRT already happened at the turn of the millennium. Every MRT and LRT station built since 1999 has a publicly accessible lift for barrier free access; and those built before that have been upgraded. While special wheelchair spaces are set aside on MRT trains, MRT and LRT cabins are sufficiently wide enough for wheelchairs and PMD users to just park whereever they wish.
And fortunately, they did not stand still. Almost all new stations from the TEL onward have two lifts, and second lifts will be added at stations being expanded to serve new lines. Yet, perhaps we may need to do more to get some groups to use public transport, especially with the greater context of changes to the public transport system.
21st century standards
Why does the 2019 Masterplan focus so much on buses, then?
One thing that the 2019 Masterplan called for was to make all our buses wheelchair accessible — something that happened when the last of the Hispano Habits were Thanos snapped away in end-2020. But even in 2022, there are still bus stops that aren’t accessible, and much cash is being splashed to fix that.
It has to be said that buses are less spacious than trains, which means that wheelchair/PMD users have to be mindful where they park. Even today, bus captains must still leave their seat to secure wheelchair users into the wheelchair bay. While automatic wheelchair ramps were briefly trialed, even then, the bus captain still had to supervise the ramp operation and help the wheelchair/PMD user in and out of the bus. I’m not sure if this has changed with the new electric buses.
Two wheelchair bays is also needed to reduce the chance of wheelchair users having to wait for the next bus as the wheelchair bay is full. More than wheelchair and PMD users can use these spaces, so maybe we should call them “multifunction spaces” instead for strollers to. The LTA has been pretty trigger-happy with removing seats on trains and turning them into multifunction spaces.
Yet, strangely, they have not done the same for buses, despite over 600 public buses now undergoing refurbishment to spruce up their interiors. If they had to take the seats out, would they be better off not putting them back in?
And of course, like with trains, it’s a shame we abandoned the idea of flip benches. These could be used in off-peak periods on buses too, to provide the elderly — more likely to ride in off-peak — with extra seats, if the wheelchair space is unused. While on buses, there is already a flip seat in the backrest, three seats are better than two, which is better than one.
Finally, under the Masterplan, “next generation passenger information system” with audio announcements and LCD screens showing bus route information are to be rolled out; helping the visually impaired know when to alight since they obviously can’t look out of windows. This may yet happen with the new bus fleet management system, but so far has been done in a rather piecemeal manner.
Under the current implementation, SMRT was far ahead of its competitor when it came to the passenger experience. All the LTA had to do was to interface its systems with SMRT’s. But not for buses purchased under SBS Transit specifications — SBS Transit only started receiving “modern” buses with these new features only after the LTA started buying buses under contracting.
And we could go further. The LTA has plans to install “Hearing Enhancement Systems” at passenger service counters of train stations. This can be expanded to multifunction spaces on buses and trains themselves too, to amplify announcements so they may not have to be played so loudly in the rest of the cabin.
There is progress, but like most of the LTA’s initiatives, are they enough, and are they rolling out fast enough?
A question of empowerment
Not all is good on the trains side of things either. The elderly may be some of the main users of off-peak bus service, and getting off-peak transport users to take the train must target such concerns. While on a bus ride, wheelchair users can sit back and let the bus captain do everything, when it comes to the train there’s waiting for lifts and waiting for trains and whatnot. It can be understandably daunting.
With the growing size of MRT stations, there have been concerns about the required walking distances in some larger stations. To that, the LTA is installing benches in some stations, as it has along covered walkways. That’s something Hong Kong’s MTR also does. Can we go further? Travellators, perhaps?
Talk about second lifts at MRT stations also needs to translate into concrete actions. I don’t have pictures, but I’ve seen on several occasions, four to five PMD users queueing for a single lift, which fits only a single PMD at a time.
And with it being over 20 years since the NEL opened, there may also need to be serious discussions about how existing lifts can be shut down for upgrades to modern standards while preserving barrier free access. Sure, at Orchard, when the lift was upgraded as part of TEL works, they provided a temporary lift. Perhaps, instead, kill two birds with one stone, and build a second permanent lift, with the second lift taking over while the first is upgraded.
Barrier free access may matter all the more now that so many people above the age of 60 have access to a cheap PMD parallel-imported off Taobao or Alibaba or something — for better or for worse. It means that we should ensure the availability of barrier-free routes through the MRT system and to most places within a 10-minute walk of train stations, to encourage people to use trains.
It should also probably be said that if operators aren’t going to play ball by manually updating the system when lifts are taken out of use, perhaps the LTA should specify in tender specifications when buying new lifts for the JRL and CRL, that alerts should automatically be raised to the Land Transport Operation Centre and broadcast systemwide (using those train service status screens) when lifts are not available.
And more importantly, whether these facilities are built under the banner of Friendly Streets, or Walk2Ride, or anything else, people must know they exist before they can be encouraged to use them. Maybe these barrier free routes can also be shown on station locality maps, to further encourage the elderly to walk to the MRT.
On a related note, supposedly, one touted feature of the new signage system has been to increase accessibility especially for those who can’t read English. Much like the Swiss, Singapore has 4 official languages, and reprinting everything in 4 official languages may just be too difficult. So there’s a reliance on icons, much like the Swiss railways’ signage system. But maybe there’s some space for improvement, because “icon centric” doesn’t mean “no words”.
And then there’s also the “dementia friendly station” initiative, where big signs with traditional imagery are used to help the elderly navigate bus interchanges and the line. Does it work? We’ll see.
What about the heartware
Of course, they expected us to do our part too, but can they rely on us for everything?
It’s understandable why they’ve kept quiet about priority cabins; we are not in a position where we can provide them. In Kuala Lumpur, there are women only cars on the RapidKL network. They are not popular among men, especially when two of six cars on the KTM Komuter and Ampang/Sri Petaling Lines are designated women only. Those who would need priority cabins are much lesser than the female population; so in Singapore, more multifunction spaces can perhaps be used as a stand in.
And stand in they are. The “priority use” signs popping up around the MRT network are generally where the wheelchair spaces on trains are anyway. But maybe it might need to extend into the trains themselves; perhaps around multifunction areas too, like in Japan. That might help more than just small signs.
Perhaps we can also loosen up on not providing toilets within stations. TEL interchanges already provide accessible toilets and nursing rooms; this initiative is supposed to expand to JRL and CRL stations too. Can it also extend to stations along the existing lines? And in the spirit of having quiet rooms for those who need some calm in their lives, can we also consider quiet cars where only safety-critical audio announcements are played; again to get them to take the train?
Finally, I don’t know how well the various “caring commuters” initiatives are playing out, especially when the bystander effect is very well known amongst Singaporeans. For what it’s worth, I haven’t really been seeing much network-wide messaging promoting these initiatives either.
But if it works somewhat for the cost of printing cards, then fine. People are taking the cards, and who can say that things won’t change in the long term? Stickers for “priority queue zones” are also a low-cost option, and adding waiting seats in bus interchanges — over and above bumrest poles in queue lines — was only a matter of time.
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