Sunday, October 01, 2006 The Illusory Improvement In Traveling Time
In an hour, a person can walk 5km, run 10km and cycle 15km at a reasonable pace. A motorized vehicle, unobstructed, can easily cover 60km in the same time. I live about 10km from the city centre, which means that in the days before public transport became available, I could expect to get downtown on a bicycle in about 40min.
The transportation system has developed much since then. In place of dirt tracks, we now have a complex and efficient network of roads. Everything is optimized. From the routes and schedules of buses and trains to the timing of traffic lights, nothing escapes the improvement process.
Yet strangely enough, if I were to take a bus with a direct route downtown today, it would take me at best 40min and at worst 60min, excluding the waiting time. Obviously not a great improvement. Unfortunately, this is not a localized anomaly. Despite the tremendous advancement in transportation technology in terms of speed and passenger capacity, the impact of such progress to the traveling individuals is actually quite small.
This is so even for car owners. While the automobiles of today are far superior to their predecessors, their drivers can hardly claim a mind-blowing savings in time.
Why is this so? Is the progression of technology just barely able to keep up with the increase in population? Or did the authorities fail to exploit the technology that is available to us?
Probably neither. It seemed unlikely that the government's only concern in this area is to get people where they want to go as fast as possible.
Many things have been implemented to improve traffic conditions. Roads have been widened. Expressways were built. ERP was implemented. With all these in place, traffic conditions are bound to improve. But they did not. The only possible explanation is the constant addition of cars to the network of roads. But COE controls the number of cars. And that brings us to one conclusion, that making the traffic super smooth is not the primary goal of the government.
And why should they? I certainly would not build plenty of roads just to improve traffic for a few cars. If you are going to have this much road, then you should have as many cars using it as is reasonably possible. If you did something that drastically improved traffic flow, then it makes sense to allow a few more cars on the road and earn some profit from the COE at the same time. Just stay within reasonable limits and this scheme will work.
What is considered reasonable? As long as the average traveling time for the general public does not increase over the years, it is deemed acceptable.
Take the NEL for example. It travels much faster than the older trains. But its waiting time is also longer. Add the fact that now many people are forced to travel to the train stations due to the removal of other options, namely direct bus services, it is not difficult to realize that the average travel time via that route did not really improve much. It's a lot faster if one lives near a train station but slower if one is forced to take a bus to the train station.
The only difference is that the new system can carry a larger volume of passengers using less vehicles and making more profit. For the average commuter, the significant improvement in traveling time is but an illusion.
