The Mystery Of The Short-Distance Bus Stops At Potong Pasir: What Can You Do in 33 Seconds

My journey to work involves taking bus service 142 at Potong Pasir Exit B and alighting a few stops later at Tao Payoh Stadium. It’s a brief ride that runs the length of Upper Serangoon Road before turning onto PIE and traversing Toa Payoh Lorong 6. But my journey to work is not what makes this article interesting, no.

Rather, it is the bus stop after Potong Pasir Exit B that leaves me part intrigued and perplexed. It is situated a mere 134 metres away and is located directly outside the gate of Sant Ritz condominium. To put it into context, 134 metres is a breath more than the 100 metres dash that Usain Bolt ran with a timing of 9.58 seconds. Also, this bus stop serves the same buses at Potong Pasir Exit B.

It takes me a quick 33 seconds to walk between the two bus stops. I wondered what anyone could do in that short time. In the spirit of curiosity, I set about to find out what I can accomplish in the time it takes to walk from bus stop ID 60269 to 60209.

• Six gulps of a bottle of green tea
• Three wantons out of eight
• 7 tinder profile swipes

• Before Michael Jackson says a word in Billie Jean: “She”
• Getting the OTP from DBS PayLah! without having the time to top up the account
• Three Nursery Rhymes (Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Humpty Dumpty, and Ba Ba Black Sheep)

• A half-completed process of untangling my earpiece

It is incredible to see the number of things that cannot be completed in that short distance. I was left wondering why is there a need for a bus stop that is so close to the train station. Perhaps, the existence of the condominium is one reason why this bus stop was created in the first place, but what does it say about entitlement to have a personal bus stop created specifically for their usage?

I went scouring around the area to find out if there are any landmarks there that gave rise to a reason for having the bus stop there. Unfortunately, it left me more puzzled than before because there was nothing in plain sight. The fact that the same bus services are at both bus stops makes no sense for the second one to be there.

It is not cheap to operate a bus stop in Singapore, as bus stop benches in Singapore cost between S$500 and S$1,500 which excludes the installation costs. There will also be added cost to have boards to showcase advertisements and taking everything into account, it is not a small figure given that there are more than 5,000 bus stops in Singapore.

The public transportation system in Singapore is perhaps one of the world’s best. It is hard to deny that the wide array of public transportation has provided us with convenience and accessibility in most areas, partly due to the fact that Singapore has a small geographical area, and travelling is made a breeze here. However, has this convenience drove us to the point of being incredibly lazy that walking 134 metres seems like such a laborious task?