Observations on peak hour congestion at train stations
By Maish Nichani | 11 Jan 2012 | Observation diary | Tweet
The National University of Singapore (NUS) and Stanford University announced yesterday an incentive scheme that they hope will ease the congestion on the Singapore train network during peak hours. This is our response on the scheme (sketches included)!
The scheme goes something like this:
- The peak hour is during 7:30am to 8:30am
- Commuters who take the trains during the off peak hours—6.30am-7.30am or 8:30am-9:30am—will earn credits
- With the credits the commuters can play a game to win up to $100 each time
- The goal is to get 20,000 commuters to take part
We think that the solution does not lie in shifting the time period.
If we are trying to have lasting behavioral change then we really need to understand why we have the peak hour in the first place. Why is 7:30am to 8:30am the peak hour? What transpires in peoples' lives from the time they wake up (or from the time they sleep the night before) to the time they find themselves waiting for the train during 7:30am to 8:30am?
Here's a possible timeline we've sketched out:
If we take this scenario for the sake of discussion then in order to get a lasting solution we need to consider how people spend their time before and after the peak hour. Why? Because every activity is important and it affects the time they arrive at the train station. We cannot assume that people will shift their activities simply to play a game. And even if they do, it will be only for a short period of time.
From anecdotal evidence and personal experience, the key activities that will make a difference are school and office timings. But there could be more. Only a bit of research can reveal them.
What do you think? Will the scheme work?
By Tim Wieringa | Jan 16 2012
As you point out above, the topic is not as simple as indicated by the scheme mentioned. Let me share some of my experiences (Zurich and Shanghai).
The public transport of Zurich has a special monthly pass (“9 o’clock pass”) that allows you to use the public transport like a normal monthly pass but only after 9am from Mon-Fri (no restriction on weekends); the reduction is more than 40%. The aim is clear: reduce the load during the morning peak time and encourage passengers to travel later. At the time when I was working for a small startup company and my working time was flexible, I was taking advantage from this offer; I was simply reading my e-mails before I left to the office. Now in a corporate world this doesn’t work anymore.
The problem is that many restrictions prevent most people from choosing their commuting time: the boss expects that their employees arrive before 8.30 / 9.00; kids have to be at the school, creche early in the morning; clients expect that you are available; working at home is sometimes not possible or convenient; and many people feel simply awkward to arrive so late in the office.
In another context I also discussed some thoughts with my friends: we should reduce commuting as such. The context is rather environmental in order to reduce energy consumption: simply transferring car commuters to public transport is not solving problems. For example in Shanghai some of the metro lines are reaching their capacity; it is impossible to add more or longer trains. Reducing overall commuting is also improving congestions and make people’s life more comfortable.
Taking the above considerations to encourage off-peak-usage of public transport system, the solution might not be to reward the commuters themselves but rather put incentives with the companies: reward companies that find ways to reduce their employees commuting ways; e.g.:
* allow employees partly to work from home (e.g. 2 days per week might even improve productivity as the office chat distraction is less)
* instead of working from home, allow employees to work at shared office centers that are close to their homes (and the government might support he creation of such centers)
* create a better mixed urban planning where residential areas and office areas are mixed and reachable in walking distance
just some ideas… in my eyes, we shouldn’t target the commuters but the other factors; i.e. schools are not yet mentioned…
By Bernie Quah | Jan 18 2012
Hello Tim,
Thank you very much for your input and insightful comments! We appreciate them greatly.
Having travelled to Zurich and London, I can relate to the “special monthly pass” as mentioned by you earlier.
Also, I sketched out your ideas from the “patients on wheelchairs” observation. We will be posting them up soon to further discuss.