Can you live without a car? Many would say ‘of course not!’, but what if you live next to a train station, and your city centre office is served by one or more train lines? If you’re a young worker and don’t have a family to ferry around, that’s feasible, and for non-routine journeys, there’s always e-hailing. This is actually quite common elsewhere, and you don’t even have to look far for an example, just across the Causeway.
That’s the idea behind transport minister Anthony Loke’s suggestion to housing developers to reduce the number of carpark lots in new projects located near public transport stations. He said that a proposal has been submitted to the Housing and Local Government Ministry (KPKT), noting that the current requirement of one or two parking bays per apartmemt unit was among the factors contributing to higher property prices.
“For projects close to public transport stations such as the LRT or MRT, parking requirements could be lowered to encourage residents to use public transport,” he said at a press conference after officiating the new Multiplex Land office building and the pre-launch of Residensi Alamanda Heights at Serdang yesterday, reported by Bernama.
The Seremban MP said that several transit-oriented development (TOD) projects in Kuala Lumpur were allowed to apply for relaxation of parking requirements from local authorities. He reiterated that the proposal applies only to new developments and is primarily aimed at young residents living near urban rail networks.
“If they live close to public transport stations, the need to own a car may be lower. This can also help reduce their living costs,” Loke said, adding that the initiative is intended to support a long-term shift toward a lifestyle that depends more on public transportation.
Forget your family needs for a moment and put yourself in the shoes of a young worker in the city – what do you think of this carless idea?
Looking back, it wasn’t so easy to do this back in the day when I was a young commuter – there weren’t many train lines (Star LRT, Putra LRT, KTM, that’s it) and schemes like My50, where an entire month of public transport rides cost just RM50, didn’t exist. Money saved on a tool car can be put into a tabung for the downpayment of a first home. Then again, these days, many young people have cars waiting for them to get their lesen, and when the time comes, daddy will assist in that first home.
By the way, the image above is of Residensi Far East, which is literally connected to the Kuchai MRT station. TTDI Ascencia is another perfect example of a TOD, but that’s on the higher end of the condo scale. Lili Apartment is a Rumawip just across the road from Kuchai MRT, so there are affordable options, and this one is just two stations away from TRX.
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No wonder lost in Sabah. People still need car to fetch their families especially those with aged parents and young children. why not he give up his official car and take public transport to parliament and his office?
More Sabahans now reject peninsula based political parties, whether it’s BN, PH or PN.
Just fire Loke already! We are fedup with him mismanaging the transportation of Malaysia!
you can do that in the next GE.. unless you are still holding that fake IC which prevents you from buying RM1.99/L RON95..
No need wait, PMX can fire him now!
good luck in trying to get him to hire u as the new MoT
I understand where he is coming from with this suggestion, and I fully support the intention. However, I don’t think it’s a practical solution for now. Not everyone’s office is close to public transport, and many people work outside the Klang Valley area. In some cases, it’s simply more convenient to drive than to rely on public transport.
Ah Lok Kor, developers if given a choice also don’t want to provide car park. Simpler to design, build and sell. If it is a very tight property even better if no car park. It’s just that if no car park cannot sell! Customers will run to buy another property that has car park. Even better if got EV charging point at the car park lot itself like landed.
I personally won’t buy a property if no car park eventhough I take the train to work. Can park a weekend car. If got another lot for wife even better.
People is getting stupider. The residents will park at road side, kiri kanan. Also, do they expect the developer managed to sell apartment with limited parking lot? Parking lot is usually the 4th or 5th question (after price, floor size, maintenance fee and land title) when a person is shopping for an apartment.
These people is really out of touch, just like how he approved the unlimited darkness on rear windscreen tint.
You should have told them several years ago you dumb B
Bodo ke
Want to see our minister doing that first. So, no need escort service during traffic jam. Save others time as well
dkt dgn lrt.. bagi 1 parking lot cukup…1 kereta , 1 motor… nanti susah mau pegi PD kalau takde kereta …ekekekekeke
In Hong Kong or Korea (Seoul) , ordinary people seldom needs a car to move around because of the extensive coverage of their public transport systems. The idea is not bad but it will takes time for Malaysians to digest it. Simply because Malaysians are not getting used to walk even for a few hundred metres.
Ur welcomed to walk on the flooded roads during rainy seasons ya.
Ohh we do. We used to walk when we had to. But here’s no HK nor Seoul. It’s HOT AND HUMID here. We can walk non stop inside the biggest mall in SEA, no problem at all.
Smart. But please change the Malaysian weather first because many aunties are not ready to walk in the hot weather.
klu boleh, motor2 nak park depan pintu bangunan. kami malas jalan kaki.
the rationale here is to ensure people who reside next to LRT station, are the type who really are geuinely interested in consistently using said LRT
just take the example you pick .. kuchai MRT.
our super smart government for some reason decided to designate the state in the middle of no where .. smack right in the middle of mainroad and highway. And now, you smart politician putting blame on ppl saying ppl should use the train. If our smart government build the station somewhere along Jalan kuchai maju … then the station will be 1000000 times more useful and practical.
It is very unwise for the minister to say this without much thoughts-if there are less parking for areas near the LRT MRT-how would commuters parked their vehicles to take the train? And given the frequent breakdowns of rails and even the KLIA train-do you realistically expect this to go down well with commuters who drive? And dont forget the rainy seasons-even if the ppl dont drive-inevitably they will park their cars at places to take the train.
somehow i find this abit weird. How much price different w/o parking? Does he ever think tht if not enough parking, ppl will double park at the roadside? Even now apartment with parking ppl still park at roadside. Plz introduce car scrapping policy for over 20yrs vehicle. every yr new car sold 100-200k units without thinking a way to reduce it!!?
Reduce car park lot definitely will not solve the issue, please go around KL taman/condo/flat area, especially night time, all the cars parked at road side, resulting 2 way road become 1 way.
Same for widening highway or main road, this will not reduce the amount of CARs.
Most effective is implement ELV, with a proper market and strategy study before start.
Subsidies manufacturers who willing to work together with government ELV policy.
Cheers
Typical Malaysian dilemma… install ecosystem first or introduce policy/main techology first… EV is prime example
How about you go talk to your kawan Nga in his ministry first before buka mulut? What a half brained idea. Fix public transport reliability first. If it is as reliable and punctual as SG/JP/SK then people will use it. How many times want to say ‘sorry boss, bas/tren lambat’ before you lose your job?
Bring back bas mini and enforce sustainable development. Don’t build new shop houses 4 stories tall. It’s bad for business and there is never enough parking. Those businesses 2nd floor and above go see whether viable to sustain with their outgoings or not. Boleh bayar sewa or all empty? Stop building 30 storey apartments. Enforce height and density limits before start this nonsense. Decentralise development not concentrate everything in Klang Valley. Sudah lepas 2020 and still so retarded. But if you wanna just help your developer friends and businesses then say only la. No need to wayang like this.
wah! in next GE, u shld contest against loke. don’t forget to inform when & where u r going to do your campaign speech & i come see u..
“Fewer carparks, more trains — sounds good on paper! But if the LRT/MRT isn’t reliable or walking to the station is a hassle, people will still drive. Good idea, but only works if the whole transport ecosystem works together.”