A journal written by orang kampung.. There is a place that you will never forget.... kampung


Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Traffic in Malaysia... new ideas

As usual, traffic jam in Malaysia starts as early as 6.30am till midnight. The peak time was between 7.30am - 9.30am, 12.30pm - 2.30pm, and 5.00pm - 7.30pm. It worsen during heavy rain or on monday and friday, and event when they day after will be long public holiday. Why?

As I riding my motorbike (the best transportation to used in big cities like KL, Penang, and JB) today to work I'm thinking how to overcome this problem.

I've heard a solution proposed by DBKL. They want to implement toll in all enterance to KL especially people that drive alone. They said that they want to enforce people to used public transport to reduce jam. The money gain will be used to enhance the public services (transportation and others) for public good.

When I heard about this, the first things came into my mind was "STUPID". Have they gone crazy or they lack of very damn good idea or they were only think of money. How can we shared car if the working hours is different, we work same office but stay at different place, we drove with our wife and drop our wife before came to work, or our time to go back is different, and at some occasions we need to travel to other place. Then goes to public transport. I stay in Bandar Tasik Puteri, Rawang. After two years, there are still no public transport goes to my block. The nearest was 5km and that was not reliable since the frequency was between 1 to 2 hours for one bus. If I managed to take the bus (if I'm willing to walk 5 km), then I had to went through series of jam before reach KTM commuter Rawang station. From there, I had to take commuter to KL central and took monorail or LRT or bus to my office. It took me more than 2 hours to reach my office (on normal days). What happen if it is raining (especially heavy rain)? It took me more than 3 hours to get to my office with half of my clothes wet (that is with condition of getting bus on time, took commuter on time, and took monorail on time). However, the public transport is not reliable at all. Once I took commuter, it stated there 7am but it reaches Rawang 7.30am. It should took around 30 minutes to get to KL Central. BUT, the train were slow, then it stop in the middle of the road for a while without any announcement and at last reach KL Central after an hour of travel. That is my experience in using public transport. What about others whom used public transport everyday?

List of public transport problems:
1. Not reliable - Always not turn up on time or on schedule. No Announcement on late departure or arrival or problems.
2. Bus always pack and smell bad (especially Metro bus and bus used around Rawang)
3. If it raining heavily, commuter and LRT always got problem (late or stuck at the middle of road)

Beside that, the introduction of toll by DBKL will also introduce new cost and this will raise other cost as well and also cause new traffic jam (at the entrance of KL).

The conclusion here is that, the recommendation from DBKL is DAMN STUPID...

So, it the idea was stupid, what was the best ideas? Well, a normal person like me can think a lot, I guest they should have more ideas. If not, then I guest I should be Datuk Bandar KL. Just to share with those people that think they have ideas but it was for the sake of their own good, here are list of my ideas to overcome jam:

1. Put time limit of heavy vehicles to get into town. If we can apply this rules during festive season, then it should be able to be implemented. The time that I suggest was from 7am - 9am and 5pm - 7pm (only public transport and personal transport, no commercial vehicles). For example, from Sungai Buloh toll to Jalan Duta or NKVE, when there was heavy vehicle on the lane, it starts to jam because the move very slow and even block the road. Sometimes, they are challenging each other and make things worst.

2. All buses shall not stop at bus stand or bus stop more than 5 minutes (else police or DBKL should produce summons). Just have a look at Australia, Canada, Ireland, US, Britain, and other europe country. The bus does not stop too long at and also does not wait for the bus to full before start (not like malaysian buses). That was one of major causes of traffic jam. Stop too long especially at Kota Raya and in front of KLCC and few others.

3. Put DBKL or police at junction where people tends to used emergency lane and also make last minute entrance. This people should be summons. They cause traffic jam when they enter the other path at end of road which causes other cars either to stop or slow down just to give them ways. If the follow the traffic, this won't happen. There is no such reason of don't know the road to be taken. If you took the same road everyday, you should know when to be on the middle lane, when to be on the right or left lane. Some of the road that I remember was after Sungai Buloh Toll towards Jejantas, Jalan Duta and NKVE. From exit of Jalan Duta toll towards city centre. From Jalan Istana towards KL Central and Kampung Attap.

4. Give 50% discount for next ticket bought if there is delay on commuter, LRT, and buses. They cannot blame heavy rain as it is normal in Malaysia. They should have thought to overcome the situations since we have face the problem/experience more than once. Once being hit, you should thinking of safety, and not waiting being hit thousands times or until Minister said so.

5. Summons should not be apply to people drive faster (within speed of 100 - 130km/h in highway) but instead to slow person that drove on the right lane. They are the cause of jam and accident as other people had to overtake the car from left or change from speed lane to normal lane. Why? Have a look at europe country? You will be summons if you don't follow the traffic speed or blocking the ways. Beside that, why we build Perdana, Kembara, Gen.2, Satria Neo, Waja, BMW, Mercedes, etc, with capability (using normal facturing tuning) of driving at speed between 100km - 150km/h if we can only drive 110km/h. We should only import cars with cc lower than 1000cc if were to implement such restriction. Beside, we are just following our leader. They drove more than speed limit.

6. DBKL or police should also produce summons to drivers that stop not at allowed places escpecially taxi and bus drivers. You can see everyday the scenario. Giving few places as sample, Imbi, Bukit Bintang, KLCC, Kota raya, and Jalan Sultan Ismail. Beside taxi and bus drivers, there were also arrogant drivers (normally in big car) stop just to buy newspaper or drop-off their wife. They should drop-off at drop-off zone or car park area and newspaper can be bought after you park you car properly at parking zone.

7. Build a better taxi/bus stand (so that we don't get wet during raining). Take a look at foreign country for sample. I can get from one building to another without getting wet because their sidewalk and structures.

8. Last but not least, please make the public transportation more reliable. From North Sydney to South Sydney (which as far as Rawang to KL) took only 5 - 15 minutes of travel. And the commuter is reliable too (maximum of 5 minutes waiting time which hardly to see here). But in Malaysia, punctuality is the main problem.

I believe, if this to be implemented and apply, traffic jam in KL shall be reduce. Beside, it shall also bring side income to DBKL and police which later can be used to enhance public transportation and others and also to raise their salary or even increase staff.

No comments: