Which bus service do you prefer? SMRT Vs SBS?

For the last few weeks, unless I have an emergency, I take a bus to and from work.

It's only a short walk for me to the bus stop and the bus drops me off (either ways) in 20 minutes. That's not bad, considering that it only costs me 89 cents one way! As opposed to between $8 and $10 depending on what time I leave home / work!

So I almost always take the 143 from Newton Road to get to Chinatown. It is a fairly pleasant ride, with not too many people to crowd the bus and enough space on the double decker to ensure that you spend 20 minutes on your rear end thinking about what you want to do when you get to work.

For coming back home, I have 2 options. Two busses that go on almost the same route. There's the 166 and the 851. The thing is, both busses are run by seperate bus companies. The 166 is an SBS service while the 851 is an SMRT venture. And that is where the difference starts.

The 166 is pretty like the journey on the 143 (another SBS route)...calm and without too many jerks (not the people jerks, the jerks caused by braking and accelerating sharply). The 851, however, is a completely different kettle of fish.

All the drivers for the 851 route are as if they had their racing dreams still born and they want to take vengence out on the streets of Singapore. The acceleration out of the bus stop is enough to push you a few seats down the aisle. Then there is the zig zag as the driver gets into a smaller car's slipstream and then races by them with a nod of his head and then the sharp late braking as if he is making an overtaking manouver on the race track, but in actuality, he is just stopping at a bus stop where he was flagged off more than a few tens of seconds ago.

All in all, in my limited bus experience, I think the SMRT drivers are way more rash at their driving as compared to their SBS counterparts.

I know I may be wrong and that generalizing in this manner is not fair. But in my observation, almost every single SBS bus ride for me is more of a pleasure than an SMRT bus journey. Then why don't I just take the SBS bus all the time, you may ask.

The reason is that if I miss the 166, it comes back in around 15 minutes. And sometimes in that time, the 851 comes around twice. So in the interest of time, I have to take the 851. Though every single time I see a 166 approach, I catch myself going "Yesss!!!!" in my mind :-)