Solving Public Transportation 2

My grandmother, who goes out once in a blue moon, commented that the train doors are like lift doors. 2 doors which slides open and a window at the top middle portion for each door.

To us who take MRT on a daily basis, it is just a vehicle that takes us to places. 

So when my grandma says the analogy, it really struck me hard!! 

IF the MRT is like a lift, then what we need to solve public transportation could be 

what would be like an escalator.  

Have you ever taken the lift at crowded buildings / places (e.g. Shopping Centres during weekends or even MRT station during peak hours). The process will be wait > Lift comes > See if you can get in>If Yes proceed, If No, wait for the next one> process repeats itself again

On the other hand, in the very same building, have you notice how efficient the escalator is? People just hop-on, you don't have to wait, it moves slowly but you are still progressing, before you know it, you reached the next level while the people at the lift is still waiting. The amazing thing is while the lift can carry 20 people in one trip, the escalator can carry 20 people constantly at any one moment.

So to solve the problem of overcrowding trains, will we be able to think of something which can be like an escalator? Well, human mind is infinite, so it is not a matter of whether we can or not, but how soon can we? 

Here's an interesting concept that I found on youtube to illustrate the concept. Of course, what needs to be improved is that there is still a limited space in the carriage, so waiting will still be a concern when the crowd builds up. What we should be looking at is something that will be able to flow continuously to a point where nobody need to wait.

Carriage that clips onto a non-stop train 

(Video rights to its owner)

But instead of a training coming to carry the carriage, maybe the track should keep on moving or something to move the carriage when it is ready to go on track. Then there should be plenty of carriages at each station to prepare for boarding. Carriages uses a third track to zoom back to the place where the crowds are (suburbs in the morning and city in the evening) once it reaches the terminal station.

Solving Public Transportation 1

Most of the time, during peak hours, you will notice a one-person-in-a-car situation. As the conventional car is now built to carry 5 people in the case of a saloon car, 4 or at least the 3 seats are the back are left un-utilised. So a more efficient form of transport would be a motorcycle, where it does not take up some much road space, it is able to squeeze in between the slow moving cars and it causes less pollution.

Yet in Singapore weather and traffic conditions, many would not want even consider that option, possibly due to these factors: 

a) Exposure to risk 1 - Rider is outside vehicle when the vehicle is in motion, thus more dangerous. (the talk about metal outside man and man outside metal)

b) Exposure to risk 2 - Non stability, more likely to fall, again more dangerous.

c) Heat - Motorbike, despite that it is much cheaper, has no air conditioner. And AC is important in Singapore weather.

A three wheeler motorbike (scooter) below is now in the market but it does not eliminate point (a) and (c) above.

So it is possible that we have a smaller car, that of a motorbike size, yet let the person be inside the car and have air conditioner. 

Consider this:

The above is the Peel P50, smallest production car in the world.  If you still cannot see how small it is, here is another picture： 

Manufacturers have been looking at alternatives as well, what they called Narrow Track Vehicles including Nissan Tandem, Renault Twizy, VW L1, VentureOne, etc..

Review of Renault Twizy： 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vJE929qyug

（They disabled embedding) 

3.5hours charge, 60 miles (100km)

Range 47 miles (75km)

Both above may not have doors or windows but if you look closer, it is a small enclosed space 

where with some innovation and research, I am sure that installing air con into these vehicle 

is not too difficult an issue.