Malaysia’s low usage of public transport and high number of vehicles on the road is putting a heavy burden on infrastructure and will affect the quality of life of the rakyat, says deputy prime minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.
The DPM pointed out that public transport usage is around 25% in Malaysia, which is far lower than cities in first world countries like Japan’s Tokyo (73%), South Korea’s Seoul (63%) and Singapore (67%). On the flip side, the car penetration rate is super high – with 38.7 million registered cars as of end-2024, we have 727 cars for every 1,000 people, which is more cars than drivers.
“This trend doesn’t just put a heavy burden on infrastructure, but affects safety and the quality of life of the rakyat. We need a shift of attitude that can be achieved with a system that can be trusted, as well as comprehensive awareness campaigns,” he said.
Prasarana management, led by president and CEO Mohd Azharuddin Mat Sah, paid a visit to Ahmad Zahid in Putrajaya to discuss the direction of public transport in Malaysia and Prasarana’s role as the leader in the agenda of mobility for the rakyat. Prasarana is the operator of Rapid rail and bus public transport.
In the meeting, Azharuddin explained Prasarana’s strategic role in empowering the public transport system, including continuous efforts to improve the quality of service, the widening of the network and a customer-focused approach.
The company said that the DPM stated his confidence that with the commitment of agencies like Prasarana and the support of all stakeholders, Malaysia can move away from its dependency on private vehicles and head towards a public transport system that’s people friendly, sustainable and efficient.
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37mil registered cars..? Really..? Maybe JPJ needs to allow cars to be de-registered in the first place..! Then this will also allow use of old registration / number plates on used cars.. Much of our road rules and regulations are still stuck in the 1960s..
Increase public transport use and many more car brands will run to other countries to make their Asean cars. We need the demand to keep the jobs.
All these labourer jobs will be replaced by A.I. bots soon KEK
there are several companies that do scrapping of old vehicles and they even come to your doorstep.
I used Car Medic before, super convenient, they’ll sort out all the paperwork – thumbprint etc. on the spot, and tow the car off to be scrapped, the will even pay you for it (i got about RM2K for a renault captur that had a dead transmission)
most of these companies (the legit ones) are actually registered under the Department of Environment as well.
sembang. God knows how many under his name.
Why does he compare Malaysia with the cities mentioned? Are such comparisons valid, given that it would be more appropriate to compare city with city or country with country—excluding Singapore, which is a city-state?
I’m a public transport user in Penang. I find that buses are not always full, even during peak hours. For locals, the passengers are mostly made of schoolchildren and old folks. For foreigners – mostly banglas and few indons. Buses are almost always predictable and efficient.
Some buses need the digital monitor to be replaced, but this is minor issue. They could’ve also added TnG on top of cash payment, but season pass is also available. Also, there’s app tracking and planner called rapid pulse. Busses are ‘fairly’ clean except for certain times when some stupid passengers decide to tapao plastic drinks and spill it on the bus.
I would say the level of service is comparable to that of overseas public transport.
Makes me wonder the viability of Penang LRT since the buses aren’t fully utilized. Who’s gonna foot the bill?
No choice but to penalize car usage. Malaysians are generally too lazy to walk and give all sorts of excuses like the comments here. Expensive parking, parking tickets for illegal parking, congestion zone charges etc. But before that, in Penang case, we need the LRT to cover more of the island and mainland. Penang traffic is out of control, busses are inefficient due to jam. But to encourage people to take public transport, they need to be efficient. Chicken or egg problem.
car AND motorbikes – otherwise we just turn into vietnam. bikes everywhere and super noisy.
Oh well, WHY DON’T YOU LEAD BY EXAMPLE?
Ni tak. Satu orang travel, convoy satu baris kereta bukak jalan.
Walk the talk and join kami rakyat naik public transport
menteri guna public transport dulu ok? no more outrider convoy
Tell me how to go to work from Shah Alam section U8 to Ampang KL! Time too!
not sure what your exact location is, but based on google maps; it’s doable with transit and it’ll take you 2hours.
you’re living in shah alam which is so far away from everything. someone living in franklin square getting to new york for work via public transportation also takes 2 hours.
to travel the equivalent distance in Tokyo’s fantastic system will also take you 90 minutes.
We cannot solely put the blame on public transport system, instead the urban plan fail big time. Look at those cities like Tokyo, Seoul and Singapore, people staying in high rise building and in small areas there are hundred of high rises. It is ultra high density of population and people are concentrated in one area. This will increase the usage of public transport. Whereby in Malaysia even if in KV many high rise but it is considered loose and not concentrated of population. It is extremely hard to cover all areas by buses and this is even far from topic for railway.
Even in KL many people staying at landed houses. To encourage people take railway the station should have sufficient carparks. Local council need to build sheltered walkway from station to bus stations or to prime areas.
People who stay landed houses especially gated and guarded, people may need to walk more than 10 min to reach the exit Nd may take another 5-10 min walk to nearest bus station. Walk alone to nearest bus station easily over 1km which is less ideal. In many cases many people have to walk over 2km.
Even in Kepong got many new high rises nearby Taman Metropolitan Kepong, the nearest MRT2 station is about 2km away. It is not realistic to walk. The biggest problem is urban planning.
not sure what the problem is, i’ve known people who worked in Tokyo and live outside the city – most apartment complexes are walk-up (no lift) and only 3-5 floors; not many high rise condos.
on average they walk 30mins and another 30-40mins on transit (bus/train) to get to work every day (one way). if he chooses to take a taxi to work it’s only 15-20mins, but it’ll cost you approximately RM50-60 one way everyday.
it’s normal in most cities. is driving more convenient? sure, but it’s also expensive (parking too) that’s why everyone takes public transport – and that’s how you manage traffic in CBD areas.
Malaysia is less ideal to walk for far compare to Japan. In Japan temperature is low most of the time. Even in summer the highest temperature is within few weeks and people always take annual during this time. In spring, autumn and winter season people can walk on the street even at 1pm without need of going sheltered place.
But in Malaysia we have 2 issue, it is either very hot or sudden downpour. Who will really dare to walk at 1pm under the sun at 35c and then 2pm downpour. Malaysia government should build more sheltered walkway to encourage people to walk even in sunny or raining day. I only see more sheltered walkway in KLCC and surround areas but other part of KL hardly seen.
unpopular opinion: make private vehicle ownership unpopular choice – has to apply to both cars and motorbikes otherwise we just turn into vietnam.
what do Japan, S.Korea, and Singapore have in common? vehicle ownership is costly (whether it’s purchase price, COE, end-of-life policies) therefore most people resort to public transportation.
It’s not just about pricing, other methods can also deter ownership:
1. Revise margin of financing for vehicle purchases (e.g. 60% or 70% loan maximum) – this deters buyers and also reduces credit risk exposure.
2. Introduce vehicle end-of-life policies (e.g. 8 or 10 years etc.) – those who can’t afford to replace a car every 8 years won’t buy one to begin with.
naysayers will say “oooh then only T20 can enjoy driving”; yes that’s the way the world works. In cities like new york even the T20 don’t drive – maybe T10 or higher.
naysayers will also diss our local public transportation but in city centres where traffic is at its worst – our LRT and MRT operation is actually on par with most developed nations, heck…it’s even better than the London tube system.
we’re pampered to think everyone should have the privilege to drive around in a private vehicle. so yes, some will downvote this but it only proves my point.
Naysayers has little to no power to overturn anything, and there’s not much of them beyond social media anyway. It’s more about to protect local automotive scenes especially those P1, P2 and local vendors, not to forget those shareholders that have link to govt, individual or not. Those industries worth billions.
malaysians complain jam, but nobody wants to give up driving…haihz
if everybody want to drive at some point the road will saturate – the only way to solve traffic is less people driving…tapi malaysians tak nak…haihz.
and someone will come along and say “public transportation not convenient and it’s longer to get to work vs self drive”
little do they know, it’s the same thing in every country – 90 minute transit to work (combination of bus, train, walking) is nothing if you live in suburbs.
of course self drive is more convenient, it’s not a privilege everyone can enjoy, otherwise semua jam on the road don’t complain.
Charge congestion rate to enter KL and you would see a great reduction of cars, just one good example. Especially if the payment is RM25 per entry per day.
Not a popular solution but it does solve problems of non moving city grid in places like London, Paris and Singapore (COE PARF and 10 years scrappage scheme)
Cakap lebey. Buat le tram/lrt in every city. Go study public transport in Netherlands or Switzerland. Make the infra and the usage will follow.
of course low public transport usage , is because of cheap petrol price everyone prefer to drive own car or bike. increase Ron95 to RM3 and see usage of public transport spike.
but then PlainBS and Rakyat Malaysia will come here spam nonstop complaint comments in paultan.
scrap all cars more than 15 years.
First and foremost our public transport is not adequate that why everyone whi has a driving license needs to own a car.
I listen to this and see how crowded the trains are during peak hours and how ktm is just terrible and I just don’t get it. Like how more cramp you want us to be? Do they calculate the usage during off peak and weekends too? For other cities?
never see Tokyo metro before? even more penuh than your penuh ktm.
people still need to ride it, no choice.
why this happens? becoz we consumer pay more tax on a cheap junkie, while need to change, we don’t want to lose too much, rather then keep it.
I am from Singapore and once I tried to use public bus in kL out of curiosity. First there bus stop marked in Google map in mont kiara I have to ask passerby and they told me to stand somewhere at a location.
I was wondering what will happen if it rains.
On the way back. I waited at bangsar train station bus terminal. The bus did not came as scheduled but was over 30 minutes late. Instead of moving straight away the driver told me and another white women in Malay that can’t you see , I just came and slowly walked away. I decided not to take public transport and take grab .
Malaysia public transport really need to improve.
Walk the talk la deyy… Please tell us how many times havw yoi usw public transport in yoir life zahid… Sembang kari la deyyy
All vehicles above 20yrs must scrap. The only way to solve the jam. U will see instant results
the main problem to take public transport in Msia is the last mile….with a dedicated bus lane from housing area to MRT/LRT/ERL station. buses on time with only 3-5 mins intervals like mrt/lrt during peak morning/evening rush…Then only all this ppl driving cars will switch to public transport when they can easily reach their offices from home using bus-lrt/mrt/erl and back.