Exploring Singapore through Bus 174

In a densely connected city like Singapore, I grew up taking public transport. I enjoyed taking the buses and trains – in fact, the longer they were, the better. It was soothing to stare out the window of a particularly long bus ride while taking in the city landscape all at once. 

There was one bus route, bus 174, that made me acutely aware of the economic differences in Singapore early on. In one uninterrupted route, the scenery moved from the modern, utopian skyscrapers in the Central Business Districts, to run-down rental apartments of Jalan Kukoh – the poorest neighborhood in Singapore. Before frequenting bus 174, I knew about Jalan Kukoh in abstract. I heard about the stories of residents complaining how dirty the estate is and I read about youths who were exposed at an early age to drugs and vices. 

Route of Bus 174

So taking the bus ride felt a little ironic: how is it that the shining displays of Singapore’s economic success could coexist so closely to the pitfalls of capitalism and aggressive growth? To its fairness, Singapore’s public housing and social support systems are relatively robust compared to the rest of the world. 80% of Singaporeans live in public housing and its pension system received an A rating in the global index. 

Still, those numbers cannot discredit what I saw from the window of bus 174. In fact, what it does show is that poverty in Singapore is incredibly well hidden. Jalan Kukoh is awkwardly couched between an amalgamation of expensive condominiums and private property that only the uber-rich in Singapore can afford (much like the characters of Crazy Rich Asians, but to a less caricatured degree). That invisibility is exactly why, once, a comment from a friend stayed with me. I remembered she casually, and almost proudly, said that “there is no poverty in Singapore”. In some sense, I understood what she meant. There were no tents, no homeless people living in the train stations, no sprawling slums that are typically associated with urban poverty. However, bus 174 reminds me that manifestations of urban poverty are contextual. While desolate poverty does not really exist, relative poverty in terms of being unable to purchase a house or living hand-to-mouth still reflect the lived realities of a hidden community. 

Rental flats of Jalan Kukoh with private condominiums in the distance

Bus 174 also taught me that visibility is inherently political. There is a sense of shame from the city in being unable to acknowledge its shortcomings. In the process of projecting this polished, utopian image to the rest of the world, Singapore has literally relegated poverty to the fringes of society, which makes hardship less publicly disruptive and noticeable. This makes it easier for people like my friend, and honestly for younger me, to say that there is no poverty. However, “there is no poverty” often means that “poverty does not enter my daily routes. If a city can shape what you see, it can also shape what you believe is true.

From then on, it changed the way I approached my bus rides. I saw the passing views as a window into the spaces I had rarely visited in Singapore and the communities I have yet to interact with. On bus 857, I was enamored by the festive lights all around Little India and the Peranakan houses lining the streets – a reminder of Singapore’s multiculturalism. On bus 975, the rustic views of Kranji coast (or what is left of it) is a manifestation of the trade offs we made as a nation that prioritized growth over the ecosystem.

Public transport became my way of engaging Singapore precisely because it moved into spaces that were “unglamorous”. Every bus ride showed me a new space or community, like how cultures can coexist harmoniously with each other, how nature barely survives in an urban metropolis, and how inequality can sit closely with luxury. Looking back, the way I learnt the most about my city was through being in positions of transition and letting the city unfold from a window seat. So next time you visit a city, maybe your beliefs about it will change based on the routes you take (or the routes you choose not to).