Singapore has an excellent living environment. We have trees, parks, clean roads, good drainage and fresh air.
But we seem to lack certain public facilities, such as maps, signages and public toilets. I wonder – why are these essential items overlooked?
Maps
If you are familiar with your neighbourhood, you can get around well, even with your eyes closed.
But, if you have to visit another neighbourhood or town, you are advised to bring along the bulky street directory. You will need it to find your way in your car or on your foot. Even taxi drivers have trouble finding their way in Singapore.
If you do not have a directory, you are likely to have difficulty in asking for directions. Singaporeans are bad at giving directions. They either do not know the way, or give unclear directions.
Recently, I parked my car at Suntec City and had to get to Millenia Walk. I was not sure about the direction. While trying to identify the nearby buildings, someone approached me and asked, “Excuse me, can you tell me how to get to the National Library?” I knew that it was somewhere near North Bridge Road, but I was not sure about the directions.
I wished then, that there was a map showing the location of the major buildings, roads and bus stops within a radius of two kilometres. This map is best displayed at the bus stops.
We have a bewildering network of bus services in Singapore. The bus guide published by Transit Link is unwieldy to carry around and difficult to use. Many people find it confusing to take a bus to an unfamiliar place. They have to drive a car or take a taxi.
If we have a map displayed at each bus stop showing the buses serving various places within two kilometres, many people will be encouraged to take the bus to get to the nearby MRT station, bus interchange, town centre or other public place. Even tourists will be encouraged to take the bus, instead of waiting for a taxi.
Signages
Singapore has poor signages. I find the signages at MRT stations to be unhelpful. I had a lot of trouble looking for the right escalator to get to the right level, especially at stations serving two MRT lines. I also find it difficult to locate the correct exit to get to my destination. The signages are usually small, poorly located and confusing.
I used to have a lot of trouble locating the exit from the MRT station to the shopping malls at Junction 8, Bugis Junction and other shopping malls. I get the nasty feeling that the SMRT management does not get along well with the management of the shopping malls. This probably contributes to the poor signages from the mall to the station and vice versa.
Public Toilets
Public toilets appear to be non-existent in Singapore. Have you ever seen a sign at a public place pointing the direction to a “public toilet”?
If you need to use the toilet, you have to find a shopping mall, office or shop and ask them for permission to use it.
Once, I parked my car at a multi-storey car park at Telok Blangah HDB estate. I needed to use the toilet urgently. There was no such toilet at the car park. I asked a resident but he could not tell me where to find a public toilet. I had to walk for about 500 meters, and searched through a dozen HDB blocks, to no avail.
Finally, I found the community center. It is a big community center, so it took another five minutes to locate the toilet.
On another occasion, I visited my stockbroker’s office. The office is visited by many customers who had to settle their transactions. Again, I had to use the toilet. I found a toilet near the lift lobby but it was locked and reserved for employees only. There were no toilets for customers or the public.
I went back to my stockbroker and made a complaint. Does it mean that the public does not need to use the toilet?
Thirty years ago, I stayed at Marine Parade HDB estate. I was active in the grassroots organisation. There were frequent complaints about people urinating in the lift. Children were suspected to be the culprits.
In my view, the actual culprit was the HDB planners. They did not deem it necessary to provide public toilets. If children are playing outside and had to ease off, they are expected to run all the way back to their homes. Of course, they found the public lifts to be more convenient.
What about workers who had to work around the estate? Where can they go, when nature calls? Again, the lifts seem to be the only available places.
Cause of this inadequacy
What is the reason for the lack of maps and signages? I suspect that these facilities are not defined to fall within a specific department. Do they come under the Land Transport Authority, the Land Office, the Tourism Board or the HDB? If the Prime Minister does not make a decision, it seems that all the agencies will be pointing to each other to take on this cost in their budget.
Public toilets clearly fall under the purview of the Ministry of the Environment. The Ministry does provide these facilities in markets and food centers. Beyond these places, they seem to want to avoid carrying the costs in their budget. It seems to be quite convenient to leave it to the shops, offices and businesses to take care of their customers and the general public.
Sigh! This is Singapore. I hope that there is someone responsible to look after the needs of the citizens that do not fall clearly within the defined ambits of the existing ministries.
Kin Lian’s column, Out Of The Box, features every Wednesday on TOC.
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I have also been approached often, by people asking for directions to specific buildings and even to the MRT station.
I carry a slim street directory with me. I often has to refer to the directory to know the way to give directions.
If street maps are available at our bus stops and other places, people can get around more easily. It will be easy for our locals to help our many visitors and tourists to get to the right place by walking.
People approach me even for directions to the MRT stations. Come to think of it, I do not recall seeing any street sign that point to the “MRT station”.
We seem to be quite bad at providing signages. Perhaps it is again the question of “whose job is this?” Is it LTA or Tourism Board or Town Council?
Singapore is very small, so people do not plan before they start to travel. Get a GPS or plan before you travel. That’s how it works in the States at least.
As for the public restroom, I do think Singapore should have more signages. But seriously, public restroom is not that common here too and people lives with it.
I am just making a comparison between two places I am familiar with. So, draw your own conclusion about the adequacy of public restrooms and signages.
Cheers
I used to travel often in Germany. Usually, I decide to go to a city or town in the morning, and then hop onto the high-speed train. I never bring a map along with me, because I know that there’d always be a map outside the train station (and several dotted all around the city centre). There’re also lots of signs pointing to key attractions in the city / town (markets; churches; town hall; bus stops; train stations etc).
Mind you, I barely speak a word of German but I could still find my way around the town on foot with no problem.
Thanks, Eveline, for that wonderful contribution.
The Germans are very good at signages.
I visited Germany during the World Cup 2006. I find their the signs in the train station and their trains schedules to be very helpful. The trains are punctual and you can get from one place to another quite easily, without having to understand the language.
I think that the signs in the UK are also quite good. But, I have not visited UK for many years now.
If someone starts a business out of making online interactive maps of Singapore and its urban districts and transposes it to every bus-stop and mrt station, he may reap big bucks!
Hi JustMe
Who will pay for the maps on the bus stop and MRT station? I hope that LTA will do it as a public service. But they seem to be reluctant.
The Ministry of Environment is the right agency to provide public toilets. But they do not wish to employ people to take care of the toilets.
Can someone think of a solution? How to provide public toilets, accessible to the public, with good signage, and yet the relevant agency does not need to take care of it?
These toilets need to be maintained. Unfortunately, we Singaporeans are too cheap to pay for services like this. In Germany (again) I had to pay DM1 (and then Euro 0.50) to use the toilet but the toilet was always SPOTLESS. There’d be a well-dressed attendant (wearing office clothes!) who would clean up after every user leaves.
If I’m not wrong, these public toilets are leased out to private operators.
I usually look for toilets in department stores and train stations to avoid paying the charge.
Anyway, between free and dirty toilets and expensive (e.g. 50cts per use) and spotless toilets, cheap Singaporeans probably will go for the former.
On the issue of Public Toilets at MRT Stations, most of the MRT stations have toilets which are well maintained and best of all, they are FREE!
I hope they would really look into putting back the toilets at Outram Park MRT station. There used to be a toilet but for unknown reason, there are no toilets after the station was converted into an interchange.
SMRT replied to public inquiry that the public could used the public toilets at Pearl Centre – which charged 20 cents and is 500 meter walk from the station.
I used to get along just fine going to new places using streetdirectory.com because they offer both maps and bus/MRT directions, which are very useful.
Then our dear SLA shut it down, and till now I can’t find anything quite as good.
So at the moment I have little choice but to use the SBS journey planner – not as good but still manageable. The only irksome, and throughly ironic thing is, whenever you click on a “show map” link or similar, you get a “We do not have this service” thing because well, apparently SBS relied on streetdirectory.com, too.
As for maps, actually I think there are maps at MRT stations. But they usually don’t show a very large radius and I agree that they should be at bus stops.
On the issue of toilets, I think it is rather sad that when I’m shopping around in my neighbourhood and suddenly need the loo, the first place I think of for a toilet is McDonald’s. Just imagine, we think of a privately-owned, globalised fast food company when we need a public toilet, instead of a “real” public toilet.
And actually, I wouldn’t mind paying $0.50 for strategically located, always spotless toilets that are well-maintained. Sure, we’re all kind of used to the “free” toilets in shopping malls now but not all of them are very clean or well-maintained.
Everyone,
Try a cashless toilet entry using our cash card? Anyway the most important facilities i think most people will agree on is building more sheltered walkways and also over head pedestrian bridges. Many are still lacking shelter and young children and elderly are prone to falling down on slippery walkways and bridges without proper shelters. Why all the town council so rich and there are still many without shelters? Waiting for another GE2010 to come before they are willing to construct?
Who
It would be great if someone (maybe the government) can build some public toilets at the high human traffic areas and let the people who need a job to take care of them for free, and allow them to charge a fee for the usage while making sure the toilets are clean.
Some 15 years ago, I used to help my dad with maning a toilet in a coffee shop. It’s not difficult to average $30 a day on weekdays and double that on the weekends. Those were the 10 cents per entry days. I think this makes a decent income, as compared to those senior citizens who are currently being hired as cleaners at very low wages. Although doing the same thing, they are earning a better income, and in a way, running their own “business”.
How about barrier free access to places? Walkways, five foot ways(most of them have steps now), padestrian crossings (instead of overhead bridges), etc. They do not just benefit the disabled, but also parents with prams and tourists with luggages, not to forget old folks who may not be wheelchair bound but have weak knees.
Hi Mr Tan, maybe can get LTA to chip in on a “cost-recovery” basis. Any profit thereafter will then go to the operator. Problem is, which operator will want to volunteer for “national service” before profits :)
Even the issue of traffic congestion during peak hours in MRTs, buses and public roads cannot be properly addressed, thus I don’t expect LTA to do anymore better.
There are 2,000 bus stops in Singapore (my guess). It cost $200 to put up a map at a bus stop for 1 year. The total cost is $4 million a year.
Many people will stay that this is a lot of money. But I think that it is money well spent, as it will help many people to use public transport (i.e. bus) and also get around by walking.
Singaporeans can become great guides overnight. And give a good impression to tourists.
Any views about office buildings that look up their toilets to be used for staff only? I think that they should have a sign that says, “members of the public are invited to pee in the lift!”
My wish is much simpler.
In every big city in China, you will find North, South, East, West directions on the road signs. Eg. a rectangular sign showing “Nanjing Road” will indicate at the sides where’s E and where’s W.
(They really just need to show one, and the other 3 directions follow.)
Just a simple alphabet can save locals and tourists alike a lot of trouble. How many times have we waited on the wrong side of the road for a bus when we are in unfamiliar neighbourhoods? Or when we open the street directory, and still find it difficult to locate ourselves, especially when we are unfamiliar with the buildings around?
I understand that there might be ambiguity since Singapore roads are not in grids. But still I think it’s only small effort. Meanwhile we can only depend on the direction of our shadows to guess the direction, and think of other ways when it’s cloudy or at night or midday.
My wish is for the M of Environment to make public toilets available. There should be signs on the road to lead people to public toilets.
The public toilets can be outsourced to private operators. The operators can levy a charge (as agreed with the agency) or provide it for free, for a monthly fee paid by the agency.
Some busineses may welcome the chance to be selected to provide this facility. They get a monthly fee and attract traffic who can be potential customers.
The public have access to the facility and can find them easily, through the directional signs.
IMO, toilets in Singapore are already sufficient. Shopping centres, coffeeshops, community centres, MRT stations, etc are some of the places where we can find toilets. Most toilets in Singapore are free.
Cheers
hongjun
oh yes! great article..=) have a few comments to add..
Bus-stop directories
can LTA/SMRT/SBS Transit or whoever-in-charge please have some consistency in their bus-stop directory? Some bus-stops list down every bus’s stopover (the ones that the bus has passed are in light grey, the ones that are up ahead in black) — this is excellent n easy to read! But strangely, the bus-stop directories are inconsistent. Some have the full list, some only show the bus stops up ahead. gosh..
Maps at bus stops
and yes, please give us maps at bus-stops. For places undergoing development / redevelopment, sure..let’s do without a map for the time being. But for developed and areas with not-much-changes-to-be-expected, a map is warmly welcomed (by locals and tourists!)
For the toilet issue, I pity those who suffer from IBS (irritable Bowel Syndrome) or those suffering from loss of bladder control and even pregnant women. Thankfully there are more and more shopping centers being erected everywhere.
Well, I believe planners in Singapore are very myopic. Yes, they do plan massive and amazing infrastructure, but they often overlook what is necessary. A prime example is NTU. Expansion of the schools are massive, money is being pumped into every school in mind-boggling amounts. However, with this expansion, they do not take into consideration the distance NTU is from ANYWHERE. Moreover, their promise that EVERY undergraduate student is guaranteed a hall stay. With the ever-growing student body but constant number of places in hall, NTU has overlooked the welfare of the existing student. Well, the sad reality is, once you’re in NTU, you are trash. When you are deciding which uni to go to, you are the VVVVIP of the year. Prime example of myopic planning. Great plans and execution of expanding NTU as a school, but no concern whatsoever for the student population. Wouldn’t it make sense to increase the number of halls in conjunction of increasing the student intake into the school? Instead, they proposed a triple room into an already small double room. Welfare? Go figure. Considering NTU? Consider hard AGAIN.
I do agree that more public toilets should be made available. However, I also feel that the conditions of public toilets have improved somewhat.
I remember in the past that it was quite hellish to visit a public toilet. The stench and dreadful sights were atrocious and nauseating. Now, it is not so bad. So, kudos to Amy Khor, who was put in charge of raising the cleanliness standard of our toilets.
Mr Tan,
Thank you for bringing these subjects and hope the relevant departments will look into it but but but it may or may not happen until the next election.
If you travel to Hong Kong, I like their MRT maps/signage, it is very easy to understand and helpful. I wonder why our SMRT did not follow this good practice. And it will be great if maps to the nearby area can be found at MRT/Bus stop, it will definitely make our lives easy.
As for toilet I do not mind paying for a clean toilet like those found in Europe. We just need to deposit a coin into the cubicle and we can use it.
On my trip from Jakarta to Bandung, I passed therough many small towns. My friend stopped at many public places along the way. I found that the sign “Toilet” is prominently displayed.
The Indonesians recognise that public toilet is a necessary facility and make it easy for people to look for it. There are no charges to use the toilet.
I’ve just got one pet peeve with public facilities – if you can call this that. I am talking about the announcements on MRT trains, specififcally the announcements for the name of the stations when the train pulls into the station.
Many a times, you can’t hear the announcements, especially on the older trains. When a train is underground, it is extremely noisy, people talking, sometimes kids switch on their mobile phone radios or MP3 players, and so on. The trains are crowded and you can’t even peer out and see the station’s signs.
I think the SMRT and SBS Transit should consider installing marquee crawlers at the top of each exit door of the train. This way, we can all see and read and know which station we’re at.
I agree with Andrew Loh’s posting 9.52 pm. I also faced difficulty in identifying the current MRT station, as it may be blocked by passengers. The announcement is not clear, as mentioned by a few people.
When I was in Taipei, I saw the marquee crawlers. It shows the previous station, current station and next station. This is helpful.
If we missed the previous station, we are also alerted. It is also nice to know what is the next station to expect.
I agree that maps should be placed at Bus-stops especially in City Area. I had seen quite a few maps, but I think it is not sufficient.
As for signage, I’m not sure how they going to do it. Buildings in Singapore are are built quite close to each other. Too many signage may confuse drivers or pedestrians instead of helping them.
As for toliets, i don’t see an urgent need for it. There are plenty of coffeeshops, shopping centres, Hawker Centre, MRT Stations, Interchanges, etc in towns or in city. Unless we are visiting friends in HDB estates, then toliets are hard to find. But since we are visiting friends, that means we should be using the toliets of our friends or relative shortly anyway.
Adrian Khiat
http://akhiat.blogspot.com
For the signages and maps issue, I believe this is not just a government issue, but a design issue too.
In Singapore, there is not a standard on how signages and maps should be designed. We have a multitude of signages, with an euqally bewildering multitude of typefaces and symbols. With the exception of those put up by the LTA, signages are often designed more with aesthestics in mind, sacrificing function in the process. Maps are often quite lacking – unless you happen to be at a bus stop in the city area (usually) or an MRT/LRT station. And even then, those are usually frought with inaccuracies and are not easy to read for the uninitiated. Bus network maps often show the bus routes for only one company, totally omitting the routes of other bus companies. It’s not unusual to find two bus network maps at bus interchanges where both companies’ bus routes serve. Such unnecessary duplication of information and recources is not only wasteful, but confuses and frustrates the hurried commuter.
And I think it’s time someone seriously tackled the lack of public toilets. I was at the Changi broadwalk some time back, when I needed the toilet. However, there was no public toilets anywhere near – all the toilets are located within private clubs – and it was only after taking a long walk to the Changi Village hotel that I managed to find one. Not only that, but it’s not unusual to find public toilets – when you do get to one in a rather unusual spot, such as a park – badly maintained and dirty – a combination of inconsiderate users and poor maintenance.
For the signage issue, I believe the relevant authorities should set up a joint authority to standardise signages and put up more, standardised maps in Singapore. Such a standard should follow some of the standards already in place, such as LTA’s symbols denoting a facility for buses, MRT, LRT, or taxis, and the white-on-brown standard used to indicate a tourist attraction, to minimise further confusion. Once a standard is agreed upon, these should be released as guidelines for property developers to follow while new signages and maps be put in places under the authorities’ control.
As for the toilet issue, it could be desirable to mandate a public toilet in all commercial buildings within the city centre. There should also be a public toilet within 500 metres of any location within a new town, as well as within public parks and park connectors. There should be a standard of cleaniness for public toilets, and property owners have the responsibility to ensure that they meet the standards. Chronically-failing toilets will be placed under the care of the Ministry of Environment and Water Resources until the owner can be shown to maintain the toilets to the desired levels of cleaniness.
All this will inevitabily cost a bomb, yes, but seeing how much has been spent on other projects such as covered linkways and new elevators, all these shouldn’t be too much to ask for.
Hi Alex Ong
Thank yo for writing (9.53 pm) in a clear manner, the points in support of maps, signage and toilets. I agree with your observations.
I like your point about a relevant authority to decide on the standardisation of signage. I think that it should be the work of the Land Transport Authority. I hope that they will take this item into their budget.
So much of our lives involve moving around. As LTA is now encouraging the use of public transport, the maps and signages will be a big step to achieve this goal.
A senior correspondent of the Straits Times said that “Park and Ride” should be made more convenient for motorists. I think that there will be insufficient parking spaces to cater for this need.
A better solution is to have local transport, using light buses. I also hope that LTA will take the lead here. Many motorists will be happy to take a feeder bus (if convenient) to the MRT station and take a ride on the MRT. They can leave their car at home, instead of a place at the MRT station.
At the other end, they will need maps and feeder buses to move to their destination.
With the increase in ERP charges announced today, and the higher petrol prices, it makes a lot of sense to use public tranpsort. But LTA must make it convenient and confortable for the commuters.
I hope that all commercial buildings should be required to open their toilet for use by the public. It is wrong for them to lock up the toilets and reserve it “for staff only”.
Went to May Bank some months ago. No toilet the staff said, she suggest I goto the Raffles Place MRT basement. How do the May Bank staffs shit?
Mr. Tan:
Yes, indeed, if the government is to encourage more people to give up private transport in favour of public transit, they must use the extra income collected from raising car ownership costs and such on improving the navigability of public transport, among other things. Simply jacking up it’s cost is not going to help if public transport continues to be difficult to navigate for the uninitiated. I often hear about people who are absolutely lost when they go from private to public transport.
I like your suggestion in regards to using light buses to link people to the nearest MRT station. I have often envisioned bus routes using such buses plying straight into residential carparks to pick up commuters almost directly from their doorstep and ferrying them to an MRT station or bus interchange. Such a system could be more efficent than the current feeder bus system or the direct-to-city premium bus services, which are fixed to not-always-conveniently-located bus stops within a new town.
The navigability of Singapore both by public transport and on foot must be improved – there are a lot of areas that are sorely lacking in Singapore when compared to other cities in developed countries. Nobody likes to be lost, and non-existent or confusing maps and signages will only serve to compound the problem.