Pay By Distance

For most people this is good news. Paying by distance taken on public transport will means we will pay less when it's implemented in 3 July 2010.

I think their PR folks have done very well. They have been stressing that we will save money.
They sure keep quiet that starting fares will now be 71 cents instead of 69 cents. ;-)





Out of curiosity, I tried to see if we do really save money.
The example they have on their website shows an example how we can save money on a particular route. From Blk 114 Whampoa Road to VivoCity.

But if you try out the TransitLink http://www.transitlink.com.sg/ptjp.html travel planner
or Gothere.sg journey planner at http://gothere.sg/directions#114 whampoa road:vivocity (choose the Bus Option)

You will realise you might be paying more from 3 July!
Hmmm.....

Now to see the old poles...

You saw the new poles yesterday. I thought I would take a photo of the old ones.
This was taken along Clementi Road.



Looking at this, you think the new poles are justified? haha..
Have a great weekend!

The $1000 Bus Stop Sign Poles

I have been wanting to take these new bus stop sign poles, but I did not want to take any of those near by home. (hehe... )

I saw the ones at Clementi Stadium has been replaced, and my bus was not coming anytime soon. So I took a snap.

These new poles do look so much nicer than the old ones. But they don't really come cheap though. It costs around $1000 for these poles according to this news report.  But they are to last 20 years, so I guess 1K to last 20 years should be quite all right.



One thing I like about these sign posts are the clearly marked bus stop numbers. (Yes, every single bus stop in Singapore has its own unique number!!) Some super old poles, the numbers are totally not visible anymore.

If you are bored now and want to know what time the next bus is coming to this particular bus stop, go to this website, (under option 2) key in any of the bus number (in red background) you see in the photo and enter this bus stop number 17141.

Bus Tracking Project - ShuttleNet

Few days ago, I saw one of the wifi routers around. Ah... saw another router hanging at another bus stop. With hints from the notice there, I found out it's the ShuttleNet project by the Communications and Internet Research Lab at the School of Computing, NUS.




It's dangling very dangerously isn't it?

If you are bored and want to find out where the Internal Shuttle Buses in NUS are right now, click here. It shows that these dangling stuff works!

Wifi on bus stop?

Saw this at a bus stop today in NUS.
That's a Cisco (formerly Linksys) wireless router right?



Why is it fix at the bus stop? There's even a big chain too.

Remember the old bus stops?

Long long ago, bus stops in Singapore looked like this.



The bus stops no longer look like this. This is an exception, I guess because it's a temporary bus stop while there is roadworks around.

Bus Stop Sign - When is my bus arriving?

This is a one of the many kinds of bus stop in Singapore. For every pillar at all the various bus stops, you can see a number. It's the Bus Stop number. For example, this one has 11261 on it.

I have been noticing these numbers because I have been using it. I open the internet browser on the mobile phone, enter the bus stop number, the service I am taking and it will tell me when the bus is arriving!



You can try it out! This stop is the Holland Village bus stop. (11261).
Key in the SBS Transit buses route number. You can see when the next bus is coming! It's quite cool. http://www.sbstransit.com.sg/iRIS/overview.aspx

Currently only SBS Transit buses have such facility.

I access the site using the mobile version at (http://www.sbstransit.com.sg/mobileiris) which has no graphics. So the GRPS charges each time I check is only 2 cents on my mobile plan :-)

Shine @ Work

A decorated bus stop along Orchard Road. Pretty elaborate isn't it?



This is a National Workplace Safety and Health Campaign.