Unless you’ve not been driving for the past few weeks, you’re surely to have noticed the increased level of traffic congestion in the Klang Valley, with traffic reportedly seeing a two-fold increase compared to pre-pandemic times in 2019 as the result of more people returning to work.
Much has been said about the issue of jams becoming more pronounced and frequent – politicians have waded in, as expected. Former transport minister Anthony Loke said the government needs to address the issue immediately, while his DAP colleague Liew Chin Tong stated that driving private cars here should be made a luxury and not a necessity and that the way forward was to have expanded coverage of public transport.
Nothing wrong with opinions, but coming up with solutions to alleviate the problem is what’s needed. One of the prongs that has been proposed in the approach to combat traffic congestion has been that of imposing a charge on vehicles entering into the city, the idea being to reduce volume.
A congestion charge for vehicles entering city centres is not a new concept, having been implemented in cities such as London, Singapore, Stockholm and Milan. The idea has been considered before, with the latest being from transport minister Datuk Seri Wee Ka Siong, who said that the government is looking into imposing a fee on vehicles entering the city after the MRT 3 Circle Line project has been completed in 2030.
The introduction of a vehicle congestion charge is something experts agree with, as it is viewed as among the best ways to reduce traffic congestion especially in the federal capital. However, it alone won’t provide the solution, and that alternative modes of transportation will have to be developed alongside the approach. Public awareness of the issue is also paramount, as Bernama reports.
Universiti Teknologi Mara’s (UiTM) Malaysia institute of transport (MITRANDS) director associate professor Dr Harlina Suzana Jaafar said although it is more comfortable for individuals to drive their own car, society must be aware that the major cause leading to traffic congestion is the high number of private vehicles on the road.
She said measures such as widening roads only had a limited impact in solving traffic congestion as it would only contribute to the increase in the number of private vehicles on the road and worsen the situation. She suggested a low carbon zone be introduced and proper infrastructure be provided in city or housing areas for pedestrians, scooter and bicycle riders to walk and ride safely.
“Improvements should be made to achieve a balanced use of all modes of transportation,” she explained. “Although many are of the view that it is not suitable to be implemented in our country due to its hot weather, with creativity we can create a proper and comfortable infrastructure (for pedestrians, scooter and bicycle riders),” she added.
Her views were echoed by Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) faculty of Built Environment and Surveying senior lecturer Dr Safizahanin Mokhtar, who said that a comprehensive study must be conducted and a pilot project be implemented for the imposition of congestion charges in the country.
“For example, in implementing the congestion charges in London, it took a 10-year detailed study including in terms of users’ movements from certain locations to another in several selected areas before the trial project was implemented,” she explained.
In the meantime, the situation isn’t likely to improve. Safizahanin said based on the 2018 Road Traffic Volume Malaysia (RTVM) report prepared by the works ministry, the quality of the main roads in the federal capital was between D (moderate) and F (fail) due to a high number of vehicles, which also resulted in extreme traffic congestion.
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Dr Wee > Lansi, Loki, Ong ong ong.
With that clueless inept WP Minister cap ayam from BN Umno. KL is literally doomed, sigh Lol.
Copy paste: “Muka temboks DAP where got admit their failures, they will just blame it on BN, UMNO, Majorities, others, etc but never themselves. They will not reflect as it would show the plain ugliness of their faults and proud people such as them would never admit so.”
Funny want to blame WP Minister when just about every MP in KL and Klang Valley are from DAP & PKR. If KL is literally doomed, it would be because of these 2 clueless inept cap ayam parties DAP & PKR.
We, BN Umno Pas are the ruling govt. If we failed to deliver, we just gotta commit harakiri. No questions asked, mne Maruah bossku Hahahahah.
So I wonder what the mechanism shall be. Only for city centre? How about people living within the city centre?
One of the most unbearably jammed road in KV is the federal highway. So how will congestion charges reduce congestion on it?
Make more congestion if people still insist using private cars I guess.
I did research on climate change paper and won consolation prize for it at international level. It is like 12 year ago and my findings are still relevant. The solution for this issue is multi mode transport and private cars as just complementing not the main mode. Unfortunately there is many stake holders for private cars first Gov collecting tax duty amounting to 9 Billion ringgit in year 2007. Gov own car company proton now gov owns less through crony and glc share in all car assembly plant in Msia, next is highway operators, car parking operators, petrol station, oil company petronas and others, car parking operators that spends millions building multi storey car parks, car spare parts manufacturers, importers, dealers and car workshops, Banks in general which earn more than a third from car loans, and last the hundreds of thousands of general workers that spend on the economy to basic necessities that have higher economic multiplier effects. These are all stake holders AKA mouth to feed. The solution is increasing public transportation modal share via dedicated bus lane not dedicated bus overhead highway bridges that are too costly and useless like BRT . Instead dedicate leftmost lane to buses and passenger vans if any roads have more than 3 lane( Including far leftmost i.e emergency lane used for emergency and motorcycles). This will work if an automated system using high speed and high resolution camera to capture traffic offenders that uses this lane and summon send immediately to their phone and pay within a week or else tol card access is blocked or auto deduction from bank account. ENFORCEMENT MUST BE TOUGH than only it can work. This proposed dedicated lane for public transportation vehicle should only be enforce during peak hours i.e 6am-8am, 12pm-2pm, 5-7pm. Public transportation need also be complemented with first mile and last mile transportation vehicles like micro-mobility vehicles such as foldable bicycle, electric bicycle, electric scooters and also taxi drivers whom are ex serviceman or retired from private sectors should be hired to ply the route to bus depo and train stations near to their housing estate by the gov for fixed salary as examples RM 2000 per monthly and vehicle cost, repairs,fuel , servicing , insurance taken care by gov and passenger need only pay small fees, this will eat into Grab share as most of this users should prioritized from old and disabled or low income. I propose this similar proposal in my research paper and I find it is still relevant today.
These big stakeholders from the private car ownership system is the reason for our traffic jams as they will lobby as hard as they can to destroy any good ideas and all train lines in KL is just useless for office worker with strict time attendance as the lines are disconnected at many places. Because this large car industry stakeholders do not want their billions of ringgit profit to wiped of due to public abandoning their car for public transportation. My ideas will remain ideas as the stakeholders will quash any good ideas and there is a need a strong political will and complete overhaul of the constitution where prime minister is currently selected by members of parliament from political parties, we need to change the system whereby Prime minister is directly elected in a national elections. By this way it is almost too hard for the car industry stakeholders to bring down the prime minister. It also can bring stability and avoid our current country mess. We should embrace the American system of President election system where it fixed tenure of 4 years that can bring stability
Meanwhile DAP solution is by making cars more expensive for EVERYONE except their T20 members, cronies & vvips.
Pls dont bash the other innocent DAP dudes due to one bad apple.U want us to bash all the innocent dudes due to one bad apple called IMDB?
It took London 10 years to do a study before implementing traffic reduction plans but for DAP stablemate Anthony Loke, no need to study just do it. Whatever “it” is always left unclear something they are so fond to do. When given the power, they never do “it” tho. I wonder what “it” is about or whether there was ever an “it”.
What does 1mdb has to do with traffic congestion? Wasnt it a DAP MP that open his gap to make such stupid suggestion which rightly got slammed? Plis lah trooper if you want to deflect use some brains at least, you make those of us who voted for your team feel real foolish when we see this kinda stupid arguments.
Should promote car-pooling and have staggered toll rates to control traffic.
REMOVE FUEL SUBSIDY will solve traffic problems by 50-60% easy and effective. Let RON95 be RM4.50/L
Traffic jams was due to:
– Keep selling more cars and fill up more population on the road or highway that leads to
Solution:
– Someone agree from the man of experience, that urging that sst tax exemption as tax holiday must not continue forever
– Impose new cars that is didn’t follow lemon law
– Somebody here also agree here from Ah Pek, that is needed to improve road condition
– Expand more lanes for every highways to lessen traffic jams
Continuation from above (while encouraging public transport to reduce traffic jams on the road):
– Refurbish Kelana Jaya Line and expand from 2 cars to 4 cars for 1998 Innovia ART 200 Trains including refurbishing 28 sets of 818 Train (2009 Innovia ART 200) to smoothen traffic.
– Build more trains for every train lines i.e. KTM lines and KL Monorail train to reduce waiting departure train time.
– Build more public transport like MRT3, LRT3 including trams
Traffic jams was due to:
– Keep selling more cars and fill up more population on the road or highway
Solution:
– Urging that sst tax exemption as tax holiday must not continue forever
– Impose new cars that is didn’t follow lemon law
– By lessen traffic jams, it is needed to improve road condition
– Expand more lanes for every highways to lessen traffic jams
Continuation from above (while encouraging public transport to reduce traffic jams on the road):
– Refurbish Kelana Jaya Line and expand from 2 cars to 4 cars for 1998 Innovia ART 200 Trains including refurbishing 28 sets of 818 Train (2009 Innovia ART 200) to smoothen traffic.
– Build more trains for every train lines i.e. KTM lines and KL Monorail train to reduce waiting departure train time.
– Build more public transport like MRT3, LRT3 including trams
may i also suggest we impose incentive to purchase small/eco cars? impose tax or something like COE for c-segment cars or medium-large MPV/SUVs. Also the person buying such large car should be able to prove they have valid parking space. doing this may reduce one-occupancy large car on the road, and improve air quality.
DAP colleague Liew Chin Tong Should answer to the people why he supported the downsizing of the rail projects and delay. This would not have happened so seriously if the original plans were not disturbed. There was no value achieved in slashing the rail budgets.
Your airasia budgets do not work in a developing country. You should reflect on your past actions and quit.
Muka temboks DAP where got admit their failures, they will just blame it on BN, UMNO, Majorities, others, etc but never themselves. They will not reflect as it would show the plain ugliness of their faults and proud people such as them would never admit so.
Those 42 downvotes goes to PHMACAI
this congestion charge is lazy solution
its akin to say, its a penalty for not taking public transportation of which not going to solve the original reason why people dont take public transportation in the first place
speaking of which, whats the solution on the last mile if you want all to use public transportation? how is it with the lrt services distrupted and whats the plan B, C and whatever?
i can keep asking these questions, but no one answering anything
Yealo. Want to collect tax.
But not providing facilities.
If ppl can be productive, government can collect more tax,
Simple.
But government is not teaching ppl how to fish,
Instead giving more fishes, `targetedly’.
Only >60 retired citizen, oku, weak ppl deserved subsidy.
Got hand got leg, got brain, government should provide better education, training.
Not just keep collect tax here, tax there.
Finally, 1990 jam, 2000jam, 2010 jam, 2020 Still jam.
Last mile services are buses, taxis, & Grab.
RapidKL response to service disruption have been mentioned here
https://paultan.org/2022/05/26/lrt-kelana-jaya-line-undergoing-rm800m-mid-life-refurbishment-19-new-train-sets-coming-in-q4-2023/
The questions were answered you just did not want to listen.
petrol want to remove subsidy, chicken want to remove subsidy, car tax kau kau, roadtax paid and every where also kena toll still pay, now jam also we kena. look in to big cities with really dense population like NYC, London etc la… arhhh…is it because they have good public transport systems??? go fix the root cause lar.
The only way to reduce traffic is to improve public transport.
More train coaches & short waiting period
Massive improvements needed for connectivity from home to train stations
Forget driving to the train stations as parking will never be enough…
“Feasibility study… Ok, 300mil for f study”… Hehehe
Please improve the public transport first before impose any kind of congestion fees. I am one of the people who give up on taking public transport & started drive to work.
Most of the jam due to traffic away from KL.
E.g Kepong, Subang, Puchong, Kajang, Shah Alam, Klang, Ampang, Gombak, Wangsa Maju.
Pity outskirts ppl to pay congestion toll while fighting to develop Malaysia Economy together..
How about promote company to adopt WFH? Everyone went through this.
No Jam during restriction period.
Alternative,
Would be good to introduce 50% toll for traveling 5.30am-6.30am, 9.30pm onwards.
Eventually, raising toll fee giving the same effect though.
But it’s punishing instead of rewarding.
Like what Prasarana did for the Train – 50% discount for 6am-7am, good.
https://paultan.org/2016/09/02/prasarana-announces-50-percent-discount-for-lrt-monorail-and-brt-fares/
academicians are only good in academics not planning and strategy.
better just wfh
Probably need to decentralize Klang Valley further. More long term incentive programs for businesses to move to other states?
Isn’t that what HSR supposed to do? Oops! We elected a Gomen that cancelled it and now it is reinstated but have been delayed 4-5 years now. So siapa salah?
The proposed HSR was supposed to do that but with that clueless inept Finance Mentri cap ayam from PH DAP who cancel it. KL is literally doomed, sigh Lol.
Congestion charge like Grab?
Peak hour up to 2X?
Then those no Toll Road will be super jam.
And eventually the jam also blocked the smooth ingress/egress of the Toll Road.