Technical Report Draft 1

2. Background

What is the current situation?

The handrails in public trains are important safety features to help commuters keep their balance. We discovered there are issues on the handrail regarding the hygiene and the obstruction in posses.The problem situation that we have decided to address, occurs in any Mass Rapid Transport (MRT) Trains in Singapore. This could be better elaborated by narrowing our views during peak hours (From 7am to 8am and 6pm-7pm), commuters would be seen rushing in and out of the carriage to board the train upon arrival.

How did you become aware of this problem and/or related issues?

As daily users of MRT, we have noticed some of the problems commuters experiences when taking MRT. We have realised that the current handrail design is causing discomfort to the commuters as well as some hygiene issues.

What is the context of the problem?

Given the average height of Singaporean male is 171cm. Some commuters find the handrails to be an obstruction as its height is rather low when they are walking through the carriage. Moreover, when the train experience a sudden movement, the handrail will sway back and forth, thus causing one to get hit (e.g. head, hands and body). While this does not cause any serious injury, it causes inconvenience and discomfort to commuters. Which affects the overall travel experience of the commuters.

Additionally, some commuters find it unsafe to hold onto the handrails as they find it not sturdy. We have seen commuters being thrust forward when the train jerks or stops abruptly. Hence, causing commuters to knock onto each other.

Apart from that, We had observed that some commuters are unconcerned of their personal hygiene. For example, a few would practice the use of their hand to cover their mouth while they sneeze, immediately after he/she would hold onto the handrail. We find that this process hinders the cleanliness of the train in a large scale. This also creates a platform for outspread of diseases to the mass public, when we consider the number of commuters that use the train daily.

In a survey conducted among over 100 people, 43% indicated that they would prefer the handrails to not be in their way, given the same level of safety. Then 20% indicated that the current design is uncomfortable and 41% indicated that cleaning the handrail daily is significant in promoting good hygiene practises.

Who are the main stakeholders?

The main stakeholders would be the commuters, Land Transport Authority of Singapore (LTA) and Train provider of Singapore (SBS Transit and SMRT).

Why is this important?

This is important as this project can enhance and improve both the safety and user experience of the commuters. At the current state, commuters can be hurt by the swinging handrail and commuters could fall down if the trains move abruptly. Through designing a retractable handrail, this problem could be solved.

We came about this problem when we were sharing during our discussion as a group. The three of us actually witness this problem while travelling individually in the past. The context of this problem situation is in the train carriage of the MRT system.