Singapore People’s Party Chairman Jose Raymond recently took to social media to express his concern about the “un-enforceable” and inefficient social distancing measures taken in public transportation.
Mr Raymond on Friday (April 18), published a post on Facebook calling out the methods of the Land Transport Authority (LTA) to ensure the safety of passengers whilst adjusting to the financial repercussions of recent measures against Covid-19 such as the implementation of social distancing as well as the circuit breaker which commenced on April 7.
https://www.facebook.com/JoseRaymondThomas/posts/2694793827421935
“The immediate aim for everyone should be to save lives and not just save costs,” he began.
Mr Raymond then cited a recent statement made by the LTA regarding the adjustments that would be made given the drop in ridership, saying, “The LTA added that the operators would ‘ensure that there is sufficient space for commuters to maintain safe distancing from one another’ and that the ‘adjustments will help to mitigate the significant financial impact caused by the reduced riderships, and help keep public transport operations financially sustainable’, meaning it was a cost saving measure.”
However, Mr Raymond stressed the problems with the actual implementation of such measures. “(T)here is no space for safe distancing and it was almost unenforceable,” he said, making reference to photos of cramped public transportation used in a recent article by mothership.com which highlighted the density of passengers within public transportation amid the circuit breaker.
“Longer intervals lead to crowding, and the risk of new clusters being formed in the community,” said Mr Raymond, as he argued that safe distancing stickers did not seem to be working given the increase in the length of wait time.
Mr Raymond then called for unity across the various battle fronts so as not to compromise the sacrifices of front liners, saying, “As our healthcare workers in the frontlines help to heal, we cannot afford to drop the ball in other areas which will end up creating new battlefronts for our frontliners.”