Metro

Monday October 26, 2009

Pushing the need for better public transport

By YIP YOKE TENG and CHRISTINA LOW


PETALING Jaya will “burst at the seams” after 2020 if public transportation still fails to gain popularity among its inhabitants, traffic consultant Goh Bok Yen said.

“No amount of additional highways or road works will be able cope with the development of PJ after 2020.

“There’s no way to catch up with the city’s rapid growth,” Goh warned.

His company was recently commissioned by the Petaling Jaya City Council (MBPJ) to conduct a macro traffic study to look into the congestion-plagued Lembah Subang area.

The area alone would take in another 48 new projects by 2020 — 20 under construction, 23 proposed, four completed recently and 1 abandoned.

A total of 17 short-, medium- and long-term solutions were then proposed and later endorsed by 29 residents’ associations and the relevant elected representatives through six dialogues.

Necessary: Bus services must also be improved in Petaling Jaya.

The proposals costing RM86mil were being implemented progressively to cater to another 9,300 residential units, 759 shop houses, 451 hotel rooms and commercial space measuring 1.7mil sq meters.

But, after 2020, the efforts are doomed to failure, as the highly lucrative city will continue to pull in development, unless public transportation can be developed in tandem with the growth.

“Public transportation is the only way out.

“Sadly, only 12% of the population in PJ take buses and the LRT but we have to push it to at least 30% to strike an equilibrium,” Goh said, adding that community bus would be a good tool.

More worryingly, there are not many plans to improve the city’s public transportation in the near future. RapidKL is currently servicing 27 routes in PJ. as well as the providing feeder bus services but many have complained about the low frequency.

The recently unveiled proposed locations of new stations for Kelana Jaya and Ampang LRT extension lines are not in PJ.

The other hope is the Kota Damansara-Cheras line announced in 2006, estimated to be ready by 2012, but there is still no concrete news till now. One wonders how many years the line will need to take shape.

Petaling Jaya Utara MP Tony Pua admitted that he was among those shocked at the high number of projects approved for PJ without careful consideration on the traffic impact, adding that the problem was compounded by a public transportation system that could not meet the needs and expectations due to poor planning.

“Developers are not required to submit public transport plans as part of the development approval while the local authorities do not have plans either when approving the projects.

“Although developers submit reports as required but they focus on the immediate vicinity while turning a blind eye to the overall area.

“Worse still, the traffic consultants are paid by the developers, resulting in vested interests,” he said, adding that fragmented land ownership made the matter worse.

He highlighted that having 13 government agencies to handle public transportation issues was a killer.

“Centralisation of public transport decision-making at the federal level makes it practically impossible to make the best decision for each town and city all over the country.

“On the other hand, route networks are largely left to private or semi-private entities who favour profitable routes, and local authorities have no say at all,” he added.

The solution to this, he suggested, was to have a local transportation authority controlling and managing the system with guidelines issued by a federal body.

The authority should also keep the necessary checks and balances with reformed mechanisms, such as a regime of limited competition adopted by the European Union states.

Malaysian Highway Authority (MHA) director-general Datuk Ismail Mohd Salleh also agreed that the focus should be steered towards public transportation now in view of the massive development along urban highways, especially the Damansara-Puchong Highway.

“We cannot keep on building highways, there will not be adequate space and it is not feasible, hence the government has set its sights on boosting public transport,” he said.

He said development projects were under the purview of the local council and the only way MHA could give its input was approving or disapproving applications of access from the projects to the highways.

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