Why hub-and-spoke isn't a good way to run public transit (and why Yishun sucks)

[@zhenxiangleow510]

Hey Just wanted to say that your video was informative and well organised 👍 All the best for your future vids!

[@mdjadulhaq]

HnS also makes it troublesome to go around the estate. Always require to transfer at interchange or bus stop that intercepting routes and that's if there's a common bus stop between the routes.

[@Avikrish-s4m]

7:39 scania 811 cameo SBS5165B. (SEDEP 268)

[@aehighfmcolinchin]

TIB1234T should see this

[@WLTransit100]

3:25 The bunching on 811 is so damn crazy I agree. Everyday you would see at least five instances of a bendy bunching with 3 other DDs on 811 And Yishun has probably the WORST ACCESS PENALTY between MRT and interchange. Integrated Transport Hub my head, what a joke. I stay along Ave 4 btw, and I agree we desperately need a trunk through Ave 4. Anyways, shouldn’t bus bunching be solved by reducing the frequencies during off-peak. In 811 case, the bunching might happen when a bus (say Bus A) have to stop to wait for transfer of bus captain, during which another bus (Bus B) would come out of parking and operate, leaving A to bunch with B. (this doesn’t happen with 812 bcos the bus doesn’t stop at the transfer space to wait) Plus, Yishun is a pretty big town (8th in SG) and the roads are designed to wind through estates, so amending a trunk route would make it long and windy too (think 99, which purpose IS to wind but is still super long) thus bus captain welfare is a problem as well…

[@syrup5590]

In theory yes, bus frequencies should be reduced during offpeak in order to resolve bunching as seen in this vid. Unfortunately, for services playing sole connector roles such as 811, nuking frequencies will definitely result in complaints from residents Yeah i do agree that making services wind through yishun town will make them longer, but making services wind through towns has worked out before (see 972)

[@UpheavalRacing]

Awesome video.

[@hanayome_maish]

syrup you are so cool

[@syrup5590]

waow tankyu

[@yukooomi]

hi so I thought maybe I'd try my hand at a debate to open up and share my own POV from a place i feel is a bit better off (boon lay) Point 1: I feel is a bit unsubstantiated, Hub And Spoke (HnS) in my personal opinion is pretty robust, as you've stated it relies on a good strong system. When the system is strong, and connections frequent, it is able to carry immensely heavy amounts of people in nearly seamless, quick (albeit a bit tiring in transfers) from transport to home. What makes it inefficient isn't the structure but how it's deployed. For example the idea you gave about bus bunches and empty spaces in buses of 35 people on average per bus. I concur this is wasteful! But this isnt a HnS issue, because if in a theoretical case of similar structure to say peak/off-peak, this wastage can be mitigated somewhat well. Say maybe a re-allocation to another bus service? Or perhaos maybe (im not a bus driver so this is my hypothesis)ask the bus driver to go home and rest, come back later when the peak hours are in swing again. This gives both passengers manageable time structures, and less wastage. In this case, Point 1 would be stronger if argued as HnS utilisation in singapore is weak, I feel that would've been a point I can get behind. Point 2 I completely agree with, I think we're over relying on structures like the MRT which with a single point of failure can harm a lot of people. I back the idea of more long-range services that go beyond feeder. Point 3 I believe might be situational to some areas. From your video I can see the issue very vividly (props to your evidence selection here!), but it's not really the case in some areas say where I live in boon lay. The walk is short here, 3 minutes at most, I'd give. I believe we can mitigate this if people actually write in to LTA and complain, even if we don't see immediate change LTA should be aware of this. If they are ignoring it, there is negligence at hand and that becomes a different story. In general I can see what you mean by singaporean HnS is weak in areas. I concur with you, but I think some areas aren't HnS being an issue, rather a planning issue forced by constraints that we can actually mitigate if we keep writing in and suggesting. We're not professionals but we're certainly credible in asking for certain ideas eg more direct routes that go beyond HnS, acting more like a de-facto point to point service that the MRT does(express for example). I think your video is very though provoking though, so keep it up! (I just realised how much I wrote, this is crazy bruh if you read to here props man)

[@syrup5590]

Hi, sorry for the late reply, was busy with other stuff. And thanks for trying to engage in constructive debate! Regarding your concerns with point 1, yes i do admit that wastage isn't exclusive to HnS. Trunk buses run empty a lot as well. For instance, service 966 has nearly a full fleet of double deckers deployed during off-peak hours when it really shouldn't have that many. This is less of a problem though, as fleet deployments are controlled by the operators themselves, rather than frequency which is dictated by the LTA. Your suggestion of the BCs going home to rest(and the buses resting in depot asw) has actually been a staple of bus operations for a really long time now. Its called a "split shift", where BCs and buses only come out during peak hours. For instance, of service 268's 16 bus strong fleet, 9 run S shift, i.e. only running during peak hours. On the other hand, of all the service 807 duties i could find, 80% of them are full-day duties(sgwiki has 9 buses with missing duties, i don't know how.) Now, why is 268 able to conserve resources and run a rather minimal off-peak fleet while 807 has to run a large fleet throughout the day? The answer is that 268 passengers can rely on other trunk services(most notably 76 and 25) while 807 passengers basically only have 807. AMK being an older town was not subject to the same HnS planning that Yishun was, and thus its feeders can run more efficiently as you have suggested, as lower frequencies on feeders are more tolerable. On the other hand, for sole connectors such as 807(which is only a sole connector because of HnS) , reducing frequency would effectively be suicide, as since it is the only thing a lot of passengers have access to, they will demand high frequencies (just look at 992 in Tengah for example, and the whole firestorm it created.) In short, i still think that the wastage present in feeders(especially ones in Yishun) is a HnS problem. With regards to point 3, yup i do agree that BNL is one of the better examples of bus-MRT integration. Haven't visited it since JRL construction went up, but i haven't heard any bad things about it. As for your suggestion that we should write into LTA and complain, i doubt it's LTA who's at fault for this rather terrible integration of ITHs - rather its the condo developers who build on top of the interchange. I have a video planned on this whole topic of ITHs(god knows when i'll get around to making it though), so stay tuned for that! Last but not least, thanks so much for the encouragement! Hopefully i've addressed the pressing concerns that you have about the video(god it took me so long to write this)

[@ThatMevely]

bros a geometry dasher too ❤

[@syrup5590]

left the game because i want to focus on studies, jc is hard 😢