As a Singaporean, we wouldn't need this stupid law if people weren't stubbornly blasting music despite years of PSAs advising against it. Even this law will be useless without active enforcement (As with other offences like littering, not flushing toilets, etc)
As a Brit living in Singapore, genuine question: Will this actually stop Uncles and Aunties blasting Mandarin AI slop at full volume? What about the MRT? That seems worse than the busses.
I don’t understand why the concept of earphones is so alien to these kinds of people. Like it’s not a matter of IQ or tech savvy , it’s super easy and cheap, what am I missing??
It’s not actually as strict as it’s made out to be, loads of people jaywalk smartly and don’t get fined, just done do it in front of a hawker like in recent cases and you should be ok
This is a FAR bigger issue than the police. Singapore - and a number of Asian societies, have a culture that just ignoring laws is not cool. And an understanding that laws are usually for broad public good.
The UK - and US have a culture that laws that inconvience you pesonally are bad & an example of you being oppresed or some bullshit
I think in reality it's that ignoring laws in a noticeable way is not cool. People in these countries will still break / bend rules in ways that they feel they can get away with. It's as much about not stepping out of line and risking embarrassment than it is about civic sense.
In my experience it's a mix of both - there's definitely a greater deference of authority, not quite like how it used to be in this country but more than there is now. But you're also right that there's also a stronger sense of "doing the right thing in public" - again, something which used to be far stronger here and has dissipated in the last 20-odd years.
I still remember the shock my Singaporean friend expressed at seeing someone a Liverpool Tesco in pyjamas at 2pm. That kind of thing just isn't "done" in Asian societies, due to the stigma I guess.
I think the COVID period and the outcry there was in the UK over the government taking away our human rights by asking everyone to wear masks and socially distance was a clear indicator of that.
A lot of which was a watered down copy of Singapore's policies by the way, even using the same naming "circuit breaker". Of course, it all worked far better in Singapore than the UK.
Yeah, people losing their shit over their "human right" to not wear a mask was insane. In what fucking world is that one of your core human rights? In what way did putting a mask on as you entered a shop so catastrophically harm people that they lost their shit over it.
Its a GREAT example of the very segment in the UK being just utterly unwilling so do fucking anything if it might cause them the tiniest bit of effort and a direct line to cycling down the footpath, listening to their phone out loud etc.
COVID damaged by faith in humanity and our collective ability to deal with the enormous challenges we need to navigate in the near future. c.90% of people are basically decent, considerate people who did their best to follow the rules, then there was another 10% who didn't give a fuck and wouldn't consider even minor personal inconvenience for the good of society. Those people are a real drag on progress.
In Japan school trips consist of going around the neighbourhood and picking up litter. Kids also have to clean the classroom at the end of the day, like proper mopping and everything. This obviously instills discipline that stays with most of them their entire lives.
Such a simple thing, but could the UK ever implement it? Never mind the kids, maybe their parents would object to it.
We had the same in Slovenia that I grew up in. Picking up rubbish around the school on a weekly rota throughout the year.
It instills very good practices and in general the environment is very clear of rubbish. It's quite shocking how dirty and full of rubbish everywhere the UK actually is compared to it.
100% this. A number of East and Southeast Asian societies in general view laws as for the good of all, for the betterment of society and communities, and there's also a sense of personal pride and responsibility to play a role in ensuring this. We just dont have that here.
Its a bit of column A, a but of column B, rules and laws are respected for the public benefit they bring, but also enforcement, stigma and a healthy fear of the law brings compliance to near 100%.
I was told the opposite of this by a Chinese bloke. He said laws and norms are strict because the Chinese are actually quite rebellious people. People bend and break them all the time. Whether that's accurate or not, I can't say obviously. And he only spoke of China. But he maintained 'civic mindedness' etc that Westerners come out with is nonsense.
I remember seeing an interview with Lee Kuan Yew (first PM of Singapore) and he was explaining that to become a first world country they had to stop people behaving like third world people. He then explained the means by which they stamped out habits like peeing in lifts and spitting in the street. It's quite authoritarian but I think we'd all rather live in a place where people respected each other and their shared spaces.
Mostly it's because we don't enforce most laws. See shoplifting as an example or burglaries.
Singapore and Korea as 2 examples actually looked up to the UK, as a high trust society, but they knew that the only way they can get to the UK level is to enforce compliance through law. It's funny how the last 80 years the UK and Singapore basically went the opposite directions. The UK went from a high trust to bordering on a low trust society these days (and due to the Broken windows theory it's getting worse), whether Singapore went from a very low trust society to top 5 high trust ones, globally. We have another example of this happening in real time in El Salvador today.
Depends on the law. Loud music on the metro in Thailand will definitely draw criticism, but obeying laws? Try driving there and see how law abiding Thai drivers are.
Singapore also has laws that we don't want. e.g. having to cross roads at designated points, and zero tolerance of recreational drug use. We have a far more light touch approach to rules and responsibilities placed on ordinary citizens, there are both advantages and drawbacks to that.
The justice system in Singapore is also famously brutal and not really conducive with Western civilisation but people seem to sort of forget that. Huge fines for minor mistakes, death penalty for drugs, a friend of mine was caught doing graffiti and amongst the traditional punishments was publicly caned (lashes) - he was quite young at the time, maybe 17 or 18.
The difference is that these get enforced. My home country (Ireland) has stricter laws in some cases (e.g. pet droppings) but no one cares because if there is a law that is never enforced, its not a law.
Im delighted this has come in, now I dont need to listen to a stupid phone call or online game or song on in full blast in the bus or MRT.
Smartphones have turned us into rude assholes. Checking phones at the dinner table, playing music/vidoes loudly, videoing everything, etc.
Was going to post something similar, but this is it basically. There needs to be a basic standard of manners across society but it's gone wrong somewhere down the line. People are leading busier lives than ever so an issue like this is "not that deep" as the kids say.
There is a famous speech given by Lee Kuan Yew, basically the creator of modern Singapore, talking about the London he knew after the war that was full of manners and respect that he wanted to replicate in Singapore. Now both countries have gone in opposite directions to each other
Well our own cultural norms have heavily deteriorated over time. And immigration from cultures, where there's no such thing as a high trust society also didn't help.
We've really gone the opposite way compared to Singapore.
The society isn’t just compliant by chance. Singapore police will cane you until you pass out with a 1.2m stick. They’ll have to drag you out the cell when they’re done with you and recovery can take weeks.
Not suggesting this but obviously you’re going to have a more compliant society when the stakes of offending are higher
Is that a bad thing though? You're basically saying there's a punishment for crimes, and that punishment is known and accepted by the population, which leads to a lower crime rate that benefits society at large.
We can debate the merits of the actual punishment in question; but the principle at least of a functioning justice system appears quite sound.
Singapore has been able to do this because they monetarily incentivise their people to report the violators.
While it’s good for compliance, I found that it also causes a lot of creativity block because it’s so much easier to follow the mold. It’s one of the reasons I left.
There’s pros and cons to having an overly snitching society.
Paris has a similar law for their metro. I wouldn't imagine Parisians to be far more law-abiding than Londoners.
And yet the fine there, seems to have had the desired effect.
This is backwards. The reason Singapore has high compliance is because their government punishes stuff like this. Here everyone knows they can get away with it so why even bother.
Start punishing people and compliance will become a habit.
During the London Blitz, some people ignored blackout regulations. Thinking everyone will follow the rules is a bit naive. There will always be some idiot who knows better or does not care.
Tbh not playing music is a lot easier for most people than wearing masks. To be clear I think it’s very easy to wear a mask and there’s no excuse, but generally it’s easier to make people not do something than to actively do something.
Also banning it would help a little because a lot of people think it’s ok. For example parents who let their children play games on their ipads with sound all the way up.
I agree it would be hard to enforce, but I think that just promoting the fact that it's an offence will reduce the problem by a lot. It will also encourage other commuters to report it. The idea is to create a more hostile environment for the clueless people who do it :)
And competent CCTV that actually works. I should know as a victim of abuse on transport when the train company has said “sorry no cctv” twice! When the police fill out the paperwork incorrectly and let the evidence slip.
If the police intervened, they would have a load of expense and court cases and everything that comes with it. There would be violent confrontations.
Then a lot of the people doing it would be on benefits or otherwise very low income, or would be under eighteen. Or would have extenuating circumstances.
They would say all that in court and they wouldn't have to pay the fines.
There could be trouble the first few months or even year when strict enforcement is actually implemented. But then people also adapt when they feel like it’s not worth it.
But I also think this says a lot about how the legal system needs adjustment.
Checks and balances are good, but disruptive loud music on transport,- and most anti-social behaviour, really isn’t an ambiguous case in 2026, let’s face it.
- Is there recorded evidence of the person performing the act they’re accused of?
were they “caught in the act” by law enforcement?
are there witnesses?
did they persist on the behaviour?
are they a curring offender?
Once certain criteria like this is met, I can’t really think all will have extenuating circumstances.
Singapore also has a $500 (roughly £250) for eating and drinking on public transport. It’s not normally the police who will stop you, you will be reported by the other travellers and then fined. They will also take your picture and the keyboard warriors will track you down.
You also have to bear in mind that crime is so low in Singapore that the police can operate a zero tolerance on many things that the UK police don’t worry about. For example they did a full CSI on a stolen bike
We already have the rules and fines for it, what we lack is enforcement. Not just police to monitor and issue fines, but staff to process the fines, chase up non payment and handle appeals. And all to get blood from a stone because the people who break the rules just ignore the correspondence because they know going after them will cost more than the fines and they don't have much to take to begin with.
All of that is to say someone has done the math and enforcing the rules costs money and passengers don't want to pay more money.
As a Londoner who has lived in Singapore- trust me, they have their own bus issues. People pick their toenails on public transport, loudly burp and gargle, I saw one guy flossing… like flossing his teeth. They need this law just as much as we do
Amateur psychology but I guess it's similar with people riding deliberately loud motorbikes and cars - the friction with society is part of the motivation.
Lol the number of people who throw rubbish on the ground in London and get away with it suggests we have nowhere near enough enforcement officers. And let's not get started on the numerous fare Dodgers who barge through the tube barriers...
And it really is a versus situation. Certain liberties are not conducive to others' rights, believing so is kumbaya. If people really believe so much in civil liberties then stop complaining about people blasting their phones, celebrate their freedom of expression!
Singapore is a well run country with an effective government and civil service. It's people are brought up to be conscious of their responsibility to their community and to behave with respect towards others. (I am British and lived in Singapore for several years). The population is very law abiding so once they have been asked to do something they will do it.
Lmao you talk as if we're North Koreans. As a Singaporean we know that our local press is government controlled and we have access to as much information we want as any other first world nation. No idea what cost you are referring to
I certainly don't think Singapore is North Korea (but it's worth pointing out that Orban's Hungary was 68th). I do, however, think it is not the utopia it is made out to be. And I don't think it's system of government is compatible with our national values.
It's people are brought up to be conscious of their responsibility to their community and to behave with respect towards others.
Singaporean here. If what you said was true, we would have no need for this law to be implemented at all. Selfish and entitled people exist everywhere regardless of culture lol
It's great as long as you are fine with authoritarian one party rule, restrictions on freedom of assembly and freedom of expression, detention without trial and capital punishment. Basically be a good little economic unit and you will materially benefit.
I used to genuinely believe all this, until having to go there quite regularly. Now I realise we just suck compared to them. I don't know why, just everyday life choices, facilities, your freedom to be out and about as a family at all hours of the night in complete safety, all the facilities, a government which genuinely cares that people are actively engaged in and often pushing where they aren't good enough
It's less authoritarian one party rule and more a managed democracy.
There are restriction on marches and demonstrations in the UK as well as in Singapore.
Material benefits have accrued to the vast majority of the population regardless of them being good or not. It's the product of a successful country.
114 people were executed from January 2007 to 9 September 2026. So over the last 20 years on average about 6 people p.a. are executed. About 80% of those are for drug offences related to "trafficking serious quantities likely to cause serious harm or death". The remainder were mostly for murder "with the intention to kill". Not sure who you want my heart to bleed for?
Managed democracy made me giggle. In a free society one party doesn't win every election for seventy years. It's authoritarian, but I guess you j won't see that if you think it's legitimate for a state to execute people for drug offences.
The right of assembly is regulated in the UK and has become more restrictive in recent years.
In general in east and south east Asia countries expect a higher level of respect for their society from citizens. It's a common value. If people don't show appropriate respect by committing murder ("with the intent to kill") or drugs offences where "trafficking substantial quantities creates serious harm and a risk of deaths" then they see a death sentence as appropriate.
That's is the situation in China, Singapore, Vietnam, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Thailand, Brunei, Myanmar, South Korea and Taiwan as well as India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and The Maldives.
You are free to have whatever view you want but should recognise other cultures have different values to yours.
hey from Singapore. this is not going to be implemented because the enforcers are the bus conductors and there are not a lot of them and you see them once in a blue moon. It's just optics.
There are certain cultural and societal values that Singapore teach (in and outside school) that influence the behaviour of the society and community, which is different than the UK’s.
We can’t even stop and fine people who openly barge past the barriers.
Singapore is at the turning point and clamping down before the behaviour is normalised.
We are well past the turning point and it’s Wild West now - feet on seats, loud music, vaping, bumping past the barriers, large rucksacks on back during rush hour, it’s all normalised now.
Those community assistants or coordinators that aren’t the real police are perfectly suited for this work.
Real police patroling the streets and these coordinators on public transport. Sorted.
I also want people to stop thinking it's reasonable to have phonecalls on loudspeaker and talk like it's a walkie talkie. When did that start being a thing? It makes you look a fucking prat and is wildly inappropriate.
we can’t even enforce properly the no vaping/no opened alcohol rule in the tube smh. No one’s going to even bother with this if it’s ever a thing. Mind you I’m all for stricter enforcement but at this point I’ve lost all hope, because civic sense/family education is not common anymore.
I was in a&e. I’ve been quite alot. I have arthritis. (I’m 55). I was feeling unwell & in pain. Some selfish sod was playing his music with no earphones. I asked if he had some. He said yes. Well i said use them then! He looked shocked that i had confronted him. (He looked in his 30’s). I’m not his mother. He should have been taught don’t be so bloody selfish).
the social contract has broken down, we live in a society, we all have a responsibly to make it better. if there are 10 people on a bus and one person annoying everyone, no matter how much of a hard person they are 10 v 1 will always win. but people duck there heads down and bare it and then complain online. everyone needs to put spoon of cement in their breakfast and harden the fuck up, what’s the worst that can happen.
Simply put; society has become more selfish and the there is a vastly higher rate of individual “I don’t give a shit” attitude. Those same people are also more comfortable and likely than ever to use violence if challenged. The looming threat of weapons is apparently, too.
idk peer pressure is more effective and takes less enforcement. If everyone had the guts to say "hey, do you have some headphones?" this would barely be an issue. Instead people silently seeth and the people who do it continue to be oblivious
I did it for the first time a couple of months ago on the Southeastern back from London Bridge. It was a group of spotty, broccoli-haired teenagers, so I felt pretty sure they weren't going to confront me. But even then, I probably only had the courage to do it because I'd had a few drinks!
The kid playing music immediately went quiet and switched it off, but then I could hear the rest of his group muttering curses at me under their breath. Didn't bother me though! I was talking about it to my fiancee as we got off at Hither Green and an older couple in front of me shook my hand and said, "Thank you". Honestly felt like a hero haha.
To be honest sometimes it's just not worth it. I read a story once about a mum who asked someone to turn it down and they just then assaulted her. Some of these people are genuinely deranged and if the police aren't going to do anything about it anyway I don't blame people for not wanting to take a risk
A lot of them do it because they want someone to say something. They want the opportunity to assert themselves over someone else. Not just the deranged, also people who for whatever reason feel slighted and want to take it out on others
well, sure if they are an able-bodies, sane person, but the person in the story is a mum, presumably with a child. Bearing a mild inconvenience is not worth risking getting shanked by some deranged playing travis scott on full blast in front of of your kid.
Also “die on your feet”? Lil bro we’re talking about people playing music loudly here
I did it the once, a few years ago on a train, before it became widespread and I was really shocked that this guy thought it was OK to make everyone else listen to his music and TV programmes for the journey. He initially tried to argue with me, and even told me at one point that I was a racist (which I just laughed at). But then when I made it clear I wasn’t going to let it drop, he did turn it off.
I do look like the sort of person that can’t be fucked with (even though, in reality, I can be fucked with), which probably helped.
I confronted an older guy at my GP surgery who was watching TV show with sound on on his phone. The waiting room was dead quiet besides his phone. He told me that, nobody else is bothered and that I'm mad. Then proceeded to ask me if I speak to my grandparents that way. So no, peer pressure is not enough. There should be an enforcement
I did that once i was coming home late on the bus from a long double shift. This lady was watching something on her phone really loudly and it was making my headache worse. I asked nicely although slightly irritated but i was polite I did get a “is this your bus? I can do what I want” as a response. Mind you this is a 30-40 something year old supposed lady. It took a while of back and forth but she did eventually at least lower her volume. I don’t know wht happened to the signs on the bus in london at least, that say do not eat smelly food and be mindful of your noise levels on the bus and offer a seat to the elderly. All that gone along with it everyone’s manners 🤷♀️🫠
The more people do what you did, the more these offenders realise "I can do what I want" isn't true. It's not your bus, or her bus, it's everyone's bus and therefore you've got to behave accordingly.
Because I don’t want to get clocked in the face by someone who is clearly an antisocial asshole by virtue of the fact they play their shitty music on blast
Society cannot raid the coffers of social security services and still expect the benefits of those services (i.e. judiciary, social care, education).
Additionally, the individual cannot expect the sit back and allow their world to crumble, unwilling to take action to stop it, and still expect the ruins to meet their expectations of society.
I absolutely loathe people who blast music. But Singapore can afford to be this strict because it's actually an extremely strict and uncompromising regime.... Sorry you can't recognise that.
Oh give me a break with this horseshit. Singapore is one of the best run countries in the world. I’ve visited numerous times, have friends there and I can assure you they are ‘free.’ Stop making excuses for awful behaviour and our societies weak, soft touch approach to antisocial behaviour
I was in cologne the last few days, they have stickers on the windows if the trams for where wheelchairs spaces and buggy spaces are so you can see more easily where to get on. Imagine taking all these little ideas and implementing them in one place (like this from Singapore, it would be amazing)
Fining people is genuinely really hard though. We can't fine kids because they don't have any source of income and it's really hard to fine adults without much money either.
The kinds of societies that have good compliance with rules have it because there's a strong culture of rule-following, enforced by social pressures. The actual legal penalties tend to be symbolic and rarely needed.
I am thinking of getting some stickers made that look like tfl saying do not play stuff out of your phone speakers. It seriously impacts my MH. I've had enough. People need to show basic respect to others
We have two problems: lack of incentive to comply and lack of resource to enforce.
To fix the lack of incentive to comply, we should definitely increase the fine from a measly £100. $5000SGD is about £3000. A few more people (but of course not everyone) would think twice about doing some of the stuff they may or may not know is unlawful. To really ensure compliance you still need the ever-presence of enforcement.
Last time I saw an enforcement person on the tube (not DLR) for example was maybe 2003. c2c I'll see a team of enforcers maybe twice a year. Buses about the same. And they won't do anything but check for valid tickets; there's no rule enforcement beyond that. And vaping or feet on seats is not something the general public is really going to text 61016 about.
I would be intrigued how that is implemented.
There's meant to be punishments for fare-dodging but it seems that many people squeeze through the gates. So who would fine that person who plays loud music?
If camera and surveillance society is being suggested, I would be concerned.
You need that exact mix of social/communal living and individuality. We are certainly not there in the UK at the moment, but I personally don't think new laws limiting liberties in any way are the way forward. I think we need a change in mindset, we need to appreciate each other without being 'forced' to do so.
things like this should be 'moderated' by common sense, not by the law. Using the law for this - is a slippery path, where it aligns with 'sensitive minority' that does not like this or that
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