I was reading online that the Land Transport Authority (LTA) was considering giving rebates to commuters who travel on the MRT system during non-peak hours, to alleviate the rush hour overcrowding on our public transport system.

While I applaud the effort and consideration (could this be their way of making up for the recent MRT breakdowns?), I was thinking to myself, what a ridiculous idea.

I mean, come on.

Do these people actually think that the public takes public transport during peak hour just to be irritating?

Of course not! Public transport (and also the roads) is overcrowded because everybody needs to be at the same place at the same time!

It's not like people can decide, "Oh, I want to wake up at 6am in the morning and get into work early", or, "Oh, I want to go to work a bit later today to avoid the jams."

Especially those who live quite a distance from their workplaces, they would have already spent quite a considerable amount of time accounting for their long journeys. To ask them to head out even earlier would, frankly, be ridiculous.

It's so much more than simply asking people to not take public transport at certain times, and penalising financially those who do have to travel at peak periods. There are so many fundamentals to look at. Flexible working schedules, decentralisation of workplaces, managing the population, maintaining the transport system, etc etc.

I just wish these people would not just look at the surface and apply arbitrary monetary incentives, and instead examine the underlying causes and get to the root of the problems.