JustinLee.sg

One fine evening heading out after a day’s work, I was at the MRT station (that’s what they call trains or subways in Singapore) heading somewhere and a woman behind me proclaimed loudly in an irritated manner, “Why don’t they have 2 escalators going up instead?”

I’m sure everyone noticed this at Clementi MRT station with 3 escalators that 2 escalators are always going down in the evenings (I’m not too sure about mornings), and 1 is going up. Many have complained many times while going up the escalator that the other 2 escalators going down are empty. Just to give some context, 2 escalators are going downwards to the exit of the station, and 1 escalator going upwards to the platform.

Here is the rationale of why it might have been done this way, instead of 2 escalators going upwards to the platform.

Logically speaking, you do not want to your platform to be filled with people. If you have 2 escalators going up, that means for every 4 people going up, 2 people are going down (hypothetically speaking), assuming 2 people can get onto the platform per escalator. If you do the math with a normal constant distribution across a period of time, your platform will eventually get filled up. However, this is not a normal distribution, because we have to take in account the number of people getting on the train and off the train.

Assuming that every time a train comes, the number of people exiting the train into the platform is lesser than the number of people entering the train. This means the replacement rate is lesser and less people are exiting. It does not make sense to have 2 escalators going downwards. However, during the evenings after work, since Clementi is a heartland, i.e. residential area, we can assume that the number of people exiting the train will be more than the number of people entering the trains. Therefore it make sense to have 2 escalators going downwards to allow these people to exit.

Does that mean that in the morning while people boarding the trains at this station will be more than the people exiting the trains? Does that justify the 2 escalators going downwards? Since I do not take the train in the mornings, I cannot comment on the current situation. However, it still make sense to have 2 escalators going downwards to channel more people to exit the station.

Do you want to take the risk of overcrowding your train platform if you were in charge of the station? No. How about if there is a sudden influx of passengers into the station from the trains, which happens every 1 minute or so during peak hours? You need to channel them out of the station quickly. So it only makes sense that the station is designed to prefer channelling more people out of the station rather than into the station.

That, is why MRT stations don’t have 2 escalators going up instead.

I’m truly moved and convinced by Jamie Oliver that we need to do something to fight obesity. For me, that will be utilizing Social Media to educate the masses in a social way, a crowd sourcing way, a way that I know will make a difference in my own way.

Even though obesity is not as rampant in Singapore as the US or the UK, but we still need to be aware of what could happen. The Singapore Health Promotion Board is doing a great job right now curbing the increase number of obese children, but with the effluence of current society in Singapore, are we slowly moving towards becoming an obese society, especially when eating is a common past-time, more importantly eating out? I think we need to continue to be cautious and promote a healthy lifestyle.

Here is an article from 2008 on Obesity Prevention and Control Efforts in Singapore which I think touches on various issues and initiatives by the Singapore Health Promotion Board to control obesity.

How can you do your part in this fight? Teach your children, educate your parents. Always have a balanced meal – grains, meat, vegetables and dairy.

Are you making a difference to fight obesity today?

I won’t be blogging for the next few days. Just in case anyone is wondering what happened to my daily blog posts, I’ve gone to Hyderabad, India on a business trip for a conference till Sunday. Hopefully I can sneak in a blog post or two during my trip there, but I’m doubtful. Anyway, see you guys soon!