Our Bus Journey - From Past, to the Present & Future Bus Transportation

March 20, 2016

Our Bus Journey - From Past, to the Present & Future Bus Transportation

A week ago, my brother and I went to an indoor bus exhibition that chronicles how buses evolved from the 60's up to the present time and also how future buses may look like and we even got to board on past, present and future buses and man, the difference between each one was so different. I remembered back in the 80s I hated taking the bus because the journeys back then were so much longer, there was no aircon and the infamous windows that could not close properly. The seats were also uncomfortable making the whole bus journey so freaking uncomfortable. Then in the early 90s, they introduced aircon in some bus services and the improvements just got better and better up to the present times that even the older folks and the wheelchair bound passengers could board safely.

Now who cares about taxi rides, lol..which I so depended on back then in those early days. But as I read through this history of bus services, I realized the older generation had it tougher than us. Scrambling for the last bus and then risking from falling over people on the bumpy rides as the roads back then were not as smooth as now. It was still bumpy when I was in school taking bus rides because somehow, I would hate taking certain bus services because for some reason, I would ALWAYS fall over someone. The bus mechanism was not smooth and throughout the bus journey, it was so jerky that I kept holding on for dear life.

Of course I still do that especially on crowded buses but it was much smoother now except for of course, some random jam breaks. In any case, safety always come first and don't always take it for granted. I would say the new future buses look like a dream with usb charger at every seat (cool huh?!) and two staircases, one at the front and the other one at the back just like the London buses.

We were also excited to board an immobile bus from the 60s that was actually refurbished to give it a brand new look that looked nothing like the state it was in when they first found it at a junkyard. The seats were not as much as now so I had no idea how the people back then rode on buses with so little seats and I could imagine most of them were standing on jerky bus rides, no less.

Looking through history, and based on my past experience as well, I now truly appreciate what we have as compared to our neighbouring countries in terms of our transportation, be it the buses or the train services. Of course, breakdowns always sucks but they're doing their best already to keep it to a minimum. In any case, there are alternative routes that we can take, even if the journeys are slightly longer, but it's better than not having any.

The exhibitions are on the next weekend at Vivocity and you can google Our Bus Journey for more detains where their next locations will be. The bus enthusiasts were also there with their own booth and I remembered seeing them before, all these young looking kids, with so much interest in the London bus back then. They had such extensive knowledge on buses while we normal people just view a bus as just..er, bus, and they even had memorabilia which are actually taken from the real thing and they kept them as their prized collection. Looking through their collections, I'm amazed how passionate they are over their hobbies and with this level of enthusiasm and passion despite their young age, I hope I can replicate it as well in terms of my own hobby be it in writing or papercrafting.

For now, enjoy the pictures!!