Researchers are looking for at least 20,000 rail commuters in Singapore to take part in a new study on travel patterns.
The joint study by the National University of Singapore and Stanford University, wants to determine if incentives such as extra credits for off-peak travel will help lessen the crowds during peak hours.
Called INSINC (Incentives for Singapore's Commuters), the web-based study comprises a reward system where commuters earn credits proportional to the distance they travel on the rail system with extra credits for shoulder-peak travel.
Credits are earned based on the start times of commuters' trips at the Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) stations and the distance of their journeys on the rail system.
This will be tracked through commuters' EZ-Link cards.
The study has the support of the Land Transport Authority (LTA) and is led by Professor Balaji Prabhakar from Stanford University.
He's done a similar study in Bangalore, India involving 14-thousand commuters who travelled to work by road.
It managed to increase the number of off-peak commuters by about 20 per cent, over a six-month period.
But Associate Professor Mehul Motani from the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, at NUS, acknowledges there will be challenges in carrying out the project in Singapore.
"One of the big challenges is the work constraints that people have, they have to be at work at a certain time and so on. So as was discussed before, we might have to talk to some of the employers about putting in some flexibility into work hours. I think the other side of this that's unique to our local context is schools, a lot of the morning time congestion is due to parents sending their kids to school, so I think that's going to be one of the key challenges, (because I think that's not going to be able to be changed."
The Land Transport Authority also says it is exploring other ideas to address peak period congestion on public transport.
The public is invited to send in their ideas and suggestions to the LTA starting today.
