13: THE SINGAPORE'S BUS SYSTEM: AN ANALYSIS OF COMMUTERS' SATISFACTION AND POTENTIAL IMPROVEMENTS

The bus is the most affordable, cost-effective, space-efficient and environmentally friendly mode of motorized travel and thus plays a major role in public transport. However, Singapore's traffic system does not allocate sufficient priority to the bus, which leads to slow travel speed and unreliability of service. This chapter studies the bus system in Singapore, comparing it with four (albeit smaller) European cities. In particular, it focuses on four major bus lines in Singapore. It finds that daily commuters of the four lines in Singapore are generally satisfied with the bus services provided but they clearly demand for several improvements. Since 47% of the commuters who do not have a car plan to buy one in the future, the government has to take the wishes of these commuters into consideration in order to both avoid a further decrease in passenger numbers and to reach its ambitious goals as stated in the Land Transport Master Plan.