Random thoughts

Today I took the MRT home (next 156 was 27min away based on IRIS) and saw something interesting and had a thought.

One of the exit (E) at Serangoon MRT required you to take 3 escalators up to reach the surface. There were also flights of stairs next to the escalators. Upon walking out of the gantry, the first escalator is right in front of you, so most people would take the escalator rather than the stairs.

Escalators are usually placed in opposite directions of each other, so to get to the second one you would have to turn left, walk a bit, and turn left again to take the escalator. The interesting thing is this: the flight of stairs were to the left of the second escalator. This means that for people to take the escalator, they would have to walk past the stairs first, then take the escalator.

Food for thought: was this made on purpose? For me, I may climb the stairs just because I would have to walk that extra distance to take the escalator. I wonder if it is part of the plan to subtly make people climb stairs - for whatever reason. It is a pretty smart move on the developer if that was their intention.

This led me on to think about some of the innovative ideas I heard about before. For example, making stairs that would play a note (much like a piano) each time someone steps on it. Or make rubbish bins play some sound when a rubbish is thrown in. Simple and effective ideas. Maybe all the problems that we face may have simple solutions as well?

And today, I took the stairs.