The Real Reason Why Some Bus Drivers Stop At Empty Bus Stops & Drive Slowly (It’s Not Cuz They ‘Eat-Snake’)

Last Updated on 2022-06-28 , 8:08 pm

I’m pretty sure you’ve met with such an incident before: you get onto the bus, look at your watch and go phew, still got time.

Then as the bus trundles along, you realise something weird.

The bus seems to be crawling its way down the road and the bus driver seems to be waiting for someone that you just cannot see.

It’s pretty scary when it’s in the middle of the day, but on a day when you’re in a rush, you probably were cursing the bus driver wordlessly.

Well, guess what? You’re not alone.

Because a Singaporean guy met with the same situation, and he decided to complain about it on social media.

According to Patrick Tan, he was on bus service 87 with the bus plate number, 7639.

Not only was the bus travelling slowly, but he also noticed that even at bus stops with no people, the bus driver stopped for a few minutes (a little too…exaggerated lah) before moving out.

He claimed that after he went up to the bus driver and took a mugshot of her, the bus sped up.

It’s to prevent something called bus bunching:

Here’s what SBS Transit has to say about this phenomenon:

Road conditions vary every single day but routes and schedules can only be planned according to what is expected to happen.

Which is why, sometimes, the traffic conditions and roads are clear and buses get ahead of their schedule.

Bus captains, when they notice that they’re ahead of schedule, have to adjust their speed to meet the schedule given to them.

So that you won’t meet with a situation like this:

You’re waiting for bus service 185, and three buses arrived at almost the same time. Someone who missed the three buses might have to wait half an hour for the next bus to arrive.

By ensuring that bus drivers keep to the schedule as much as possible, bus arrival frequency at the bus stops will at least be kept at constant as possible.

So, the next time you notice the bus travelling slowly, it’s not because the driver’s eating snake.

He or she had to do it.

After all, with GPS monitoring the buses, the drivers wouldn’t be able to eat snake anyways. 

#JustSaying

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