1. It is only the first day, not many have yet to change their waking up time, and hence their travelling time has not changed. People need time to change their schedule.
2. Many workers are already deprived of rest due to long working long hours and hectic schedule; hence they do not want to wake up earlier, just to get the free ride. Moreover many offices in Central Business District (CBD) are still starting work only at 8.30 am or 9am. They do not want to reach the office early with nothing to do.
3. Many of the CBD workers do have a family. They would rather to stay at home a little bit longer to have a proper breakfast with the family, rather than rushing off to workplace immediately after a morning bath without any proper breakfast and family bonding time.
4. The incentives were not attractive enough to change their commuting schedule. Some might find that amount of savings is too small and not significant enough. It is not worth their effort.
5. Some of the Singaporeans were not aware that the trial for the free rides had already started. This initiative hasn’t really spread from mouth to mouth around the offices in Singapore.
I do have some suggestions to make so that more Singaporeans can benefit from this initiative.
1. Land Transport Authority (LTA) could implement the free ride scheme to all island wide stations, where more people benefit. Currently, only CBD workers will benefit, while other workers (especially those working in industry areas) are unable to benefit. Workers working in industry areas would need more of such transport savings.
2. LTA should also extent the timing for the free ride. The current timing ends too early, many people will miss it. Instead, the timing for free ride could extent 30 minutes longer, up to 8.15 am.
3. The current incentives could be made more attractive, maybe even collaborating with food outlets to give out breakfast discount vouchers to early birds to have a proper breakfast.
I hope LTA will not be demoralised by the first day result. I am very sure that if LTA make use of its citizen feedback wisely and make improvement to the free ride scheme, such as extending the time and to a larger group. The scheme will definitely work and Singaporeans will be supportive of it.