Poorly-designed Bus Handles
Vivi and I was on the way home from Orchard on the bus 167 which was crowded, shaky and had a nasty odor from someone’s feet near we were standing. It was another one of the uncomfortable public transport journeys one can get, no seats, lousy driver, smelly people and the bus handle which was poorly designed didn’t help either. I thought it might be a good idea to share my thoughts.
VOTE FOR ME!
I submitted this article to 10TouchPoints - Better Living, Better Design, for the top 10 worst designed public property. If I can get into top 10, this item will get redesigned! So please vote for me! I’ve registered as a designer as well so maybe I can get a chance to redesign this thing myself.
Here’s a picture I took with my Motorola L6 while doing the balancing act.
That’s the bus handle I’m referring to, in case you didn’t know what I was talking about. If you have a more appropriate or correct name for this plastic piece of shit, please let me know.
Why do I say it’s poorly designed? Considering the negative experience while using it in extreme environmental conditions (the crowded, shaky, smelly bus), it is. To be an effective design, it has to be pleasant and comfortable to use. In this case, the bus handle got to make your already bad journey a better one, by providing a good support so you can stand properly without all form of discomfort. Noticed I used the word discomfort several times? That was precisely the feeling it gave me. Although I wouldn’t consider it “painful”, it is still highly uncomfortable and definitely warrants a summon from the design police.
What makes it uncomfortable? People come in all sorts of sizes. For example, I’m 178cm tall while Vivi is 158. She also has a considerably small pair of hands than me. My fingers are fatter and thicker, probably above the national average. When people have such a varied range of finger sizes, I don’t think it’s a good idea to make the handles ergonomic with those contours, ridges, ribs, whatever which aren’t even rounded enough. The feature is supposed to fit the handle in people’s hands better but it has in my opinion, failed.
Take a look at this picture. Please pardon the quality, my mobile phone camera doesn’t have megapixels.
Look at how my hand / fingers grip the handle. My fingers are large and doesn’t fit into the grooves. The raised ridges actually dig into my fingers when I pull on it hard, when the bus is negotiating a corner or brakes suddenly. So instead of providing better grip, it is now very uncomfortable in someone like me, with larger fingers.
Here’s what I have in mind for a solution.
A very simple design with a thicker grip. That’s it! As simple as that. Consider this. Which is more comfortable to hold? The existing poorly-designed handles or the support poles in the bus? The poles of course. When ti’s thicker, there’s less stress on the finger joints. The load is more evenly spread out and thus results in a more comfortable grip.
It’s probably not going to cost more to produce handles like that. It’s just plastic injection molding anyway.
Posting comment, please wait…
Karl Theis on Dec 11, 06 – 7:29 pm
I have to agree on this. Some things in our daily life are just so not there. They get Pininfarina to design the buses but something as simple as the handles which passengers hold are so poorly designed. The handles are an important part of the entire interface and I agree it certainly deserves attention.
DT on Dec 11, 06 – 8:01 pm
Hi Aen,
Nice post and you are right, often designers focus too much on the exterior they forget about the interior.
You might consider submitting this for the 10 touch points project. Whereby people in singapore vote for the 10 worst designed public property in Singapore and get it redesigned.
Here is the link: http://www.10touchpoints.com.sg
Aen on Dec 11, 06 – 8:14 pm
Thanks DT. I’ve registered as a designer in 10touchpoints but I don’t see any submission or application information. Is it closed?
Are you submitting anything? Curious!
EDIT: I think I know how it works already. I’ve submitted my nomination and voted for some I agree with.
tinkertailor on Dec 11, 06 – 9:47 pm
i don’t know about you, but i prefer these triangular handles to those completely round ones. those are meant for 3 fingers only.
Aen on Dec 11, 06 – 9:50 pm
The round ones on old buses are worst. MRT ones are still ok, without the nasty ridges but the more rectangular (rounded rectangular) cross section of the grip area is still not very comfortable.
Aen on Dec 12, 06 – 3:05 am
VOTE FOR ME!
I submitted this article to 10TouchPoints - Better Living, Better Design, for the top 10 worst designed public property. If I can get into top 10, this item will get redesigned.
So please vote for me! I’ve registered as a designer as well so maybe I can get a chance to redesign this thing myself.
Harro! on Dec 12, 06 – 9:35 am
Have you seen the bus handles with advertising on it? Bus designs not for the commuter. Its for the bus company.
The biggest farce are disabled-friendly buses. There is just NO reasonable way that a wheerchair person will ever successfully get onto a bus. If you have seen that, then I am very curious about how he managed to:
1) Flag the bus early
2) Wheel his chair onto the platform.
3) Avoid irritating the people who are waiting for him/her to get on board
4) Even find space on the bus for his wheelchair.
The ads promoting disabled people to use the bus is just ridiculous.
Global Voices Online » Blog Archive » Singapore: Bus Handle Design on Dec 12, 06 – 12:27 pm
[…] AEN Direct (via Tomorrow.sg) analyzes the standing passenger’s support in a public bus in Singapore and says it fails in meeting the needs of passenger. The blogger conceptualises a more optimum design and urges the bus company to implement it. Preetam Rai […]
Aen on Dec 12, 06 – 5:52 pm
Hi Harro,
Thanks for visiting. Have you seen the handles on MRT trains? The design is so much better and nicer to hold. I’ll upload a picture soon.
I don’t really agree with disabled-friendly features on buses being ridiculous. In fact I have seen someone on a wheel chair board a bus. It wasn’t that bad. Now there are no steps when boarding the bus, it is easier for the disabled to board. Unless it is during peak hour and overcrowded with irritated, sweaty people rushing to get home, I don’t think passengers will be really that annoyed.
I’m not saying you aren’t compassionate. I would be irritated if it happens to me when I’m late for work in a really crowded, smelly bus. If the bus isn’t crowded, we should give them a chance. I would say the government hasn’t really addressed the problem.
Thanks for the comment Harro!
Aen on Dec 13, 06 – 6:26 am
I got tomorrowed, as someone told me.
http://tomorrow.sg/archives/2006/12/11/poorly-designed_bus_handles.html
I’m still pretty new to tomorrow.sg. I’m getting nice traffic from there so I guess it’s like the technorati/digg of Singapore?
OJT on Dec 13, 06 – 5:07 pm
Nice write up, Aen.
I just wanted to add that the designers for the bus companies are probably small people (kids or midgets, you decide). That can probably explain why:
1. The handles are so small, but how can someone with such small hands be tall enough to use them effectively?
2. The seats are too close together. The designer is most likely less than 1.64m tall.
Anyway, standing in the bus should actually be illegal. If you’re required by law to wear seatbelts in other vehicles, then why not in a bus? Is passenger safety compromised for higher profits? In my opinion, the handles are a moot point. They should not be there at all. Has anyone looked at the seating/standing capacity of the bus that you’re on?
Aen on Dec 14, 06 – 1:32 am
I was thinking about the same thing few days ago. Now you remind me of it. It’s really strange that we have to wear seat belts in cars when we don’t even have decent support in a bus.
My guess is that buses have speed limits well below vehicles in the Category A and B and usually travel at relatively slow velocities, thus the low level of risk negates the need for seat belts.
So far I haven’t heard of anyone getting seriously injured as a result of standing on a bus.
kel-ly on Jan 23, 07 – 2:00 pm
I chanced upon the 10touchpoints website and felt that it is a great initiative to get Singaporeans to improve their environment. Kudos to you for participating in the campaign. By the way is that the only entry u submitted?
Aen on Jan 23, 07 – 2:54 pm
Hey kel-ly, thanks for the comment. Yes it’s my only submission and I plan to submit my redesign for it as well, in the 2nd phase.
Remember to vote for me!
OHJ on Feb 17, 07 – 11:28 am
Hi,
Im a product design student of TP, currently doing a research on the interior design of buses. Firstly, I agree with Aen that the handles on buses are badly designed and uncomfortable to hold on to…and this is one design area im looking at in buses intially too.
Anyone here care to share more about their experience on the bus; what other design faults or what improvements can be done to public buses?
I have identified 1, which is the seat design…besides a lack of leg-room, spore public bus seats lack proper support eg headrest: u c ppl sway around their heads as they doze offin lala land, & if ur unlucky u will hit ur head on the window or the passenger beside u. Secondly, a lack of legroom: hard to get in/out, taller ppl put their neel caps on the backrest making the passenger infront irritated/uncomfortable.
What other improvements can be made?
Thanks
Regards,
OHJ
Aen on Feb 17, 07 – 2:14 pm
Hi OHJ,
First of all, Welcome to my blog and thank you for sharing your observations. Besides the bus handles and the other 2 faults you mentioned, I believe there are lots of other design flaws present in our buses. Another such flaw is the design of the ez-link sensor, that device you tap your ez-link card on. It’s too small and not sensitive enough.
To me and I’m sure to many others, it isn’t much simpler to use than the old farecard system. At least for that machine, it’s a 100% success rate. So how can a device which you cannot even be sure that you can do a successful tap the first try be simpler and more efficient to one that’s 100%?
According to my observation, the ez-link system is the what slows down passengers the most. There’s bound to be at least one passenger who will have problems with the ez-link system while alighting the bus. He/she will keep trying while “tee tee tee tee tee” sound irritates the hell out of others.
What would make a better system? Why not use a barcode scanner?