MARCH 1 — The Klang Valley has always been synonymous with traffic congestion, more so the last two years than ever before.
This is despite the ambitious construction of new rail lines with the sole purpose of reducing traffic congestion levels in the Klang Valley.
The National Transport Policy (NTP) 2019-2030 saw the national government aiming to achieve 40 per cent public transport usage by the end of 2030.
Further to that, Malaysia is targeting 50 per cent urban public transport use by 2040 as part of the Low Carbon Nation Aspiration 2040 plan.
The honest question we should be asking ourselves is, “Are we on the right track to achieving these goals?”
It doesn’t take much analysis to know the answer. It has been more than six years since the opening of the MRT Kajang Line and eight months since the opening of Phase 1 of the MRT Putrajaya Line but traffic congestion levels in the Klang Valley are still at dismal levels.
In fact, the congestion levels have worsened far more prior to construction of these new rail lines.
With the recent reports that Malaysia car sales in 2022 have hit an all time high total industry volume, it does not seem like we will be seeing the light at the end of the tunnel with this issue anytime soon.
This is in addition to the news last year that there are 33.3 million registered vehicles nationwide compared to 32.6 million people in the country last year.
Currently, the MRT 1 Kajang Line is severely underutilised despite having a ridership capacity of 500,000. Current daily ridership for this line is at 200,000 which is the same as pre-pandemic levels in 2019.
This number is not only severely low, but is also 50,000 short of the minimum number needed to break even to cover costs. (We aren’t even talking about profitability here.)
The complete MRT 2 Putrajaya line on the other hand has a ridership capacity of 529,000. According to Transport Minister Anthony Loke Siew Fook, it is expected to hit 200,000 within two years after the launch of its full operations next month.
Again, this target number which in itself is an optimistic prediction is severely short from its full capacity. There are many reasons as to why these new rail lines remain underutilised, inaccessibility and bad first and last mile connectivity being some of them.
The government does realise this and are taking measures to tackle this problem. Among such measures are plans to introduce ride sharing with cooperation of e-hailing companies to make fares cheaper and including a large number of MRT feeder buses to encourage more people to travel on the MRT.
Prasarana Malaysia Bhd’s recent announcement that they will spend a total of RM2.8 billion to improve train and bus services which includes increasing the number of buses is most welcomed as it will improve first and last mile connectivity to MRT rail stations provided that the bus frequencies are high and route networks are expanded.
But one aspect that often gets overlooked in improving first and last mile connectivity to rail stations in Malaysia is the idea of developing pedestrian walkways and protected bicycle lanes.
A video two months ago went viral on social media showcasing how a journey from a residential place advertised as “nearby” to an MRT station actually is.
The journey itself includes having to make a big circle to reach the station even though the residential place is in fact actually quite close to the station.
The pedestrian could be seen in the video walking along unprotected pathways beside busy roads with vehicles passing by at high speed, having to cross roads without zebra crossings and walking over dangerous slopes.
More recently, a new video made its rounds on Twitter showing how dangerous it is walking to the Pusat Bandar Damansara MRT station with ongoing construction work taking place.
The pedestrian had to walk along paths with vehicles coming fast with only a few inches by her. There was no provision for a temporary pedestrian route amid the congested construction works.
This in a nutshell reflects the issue of accessibility to rail stations at hand that hinder the public from using them.
The government needs to take a serious look into prioritising development of walking infrastructure leading to rail stations such as sidewalks, trails, crosswalks ,intersection designs and even pedestrian traffic lights to make it easier, safer and more encouraging for the public to make the effort to walk to rail stations.
This should be especially prioritised for rail stations situated nearby or in residential areas, schools, office centres or transit-oriented developments (TOD).
One of the obstacles in developing pedestrian walkways is the question of whose responsibility it is. The government should take the lead and work with state governments , local councils and developers to spearhead this development.
Yes, it will cost money, yes, it will take time and yes, there is much bureaucracy involved but if not now, then when? If not the government taking the lead, then who else?
Rome was not built in a day and nobody is expecting these things to be done overnight but you have to start somewhere.
Perhaps a good start would be to come up with a solid framework or SOP for the government, state, local councils, developers and other relevant stakeholders to work together to build pedestrian walkways which otherwise are always left to the other party.
Secondly, current guidelines or standards for building walking infrastructure should be reviewed to ensure suitability with present transit needs and conditions.
Countries like Singapore which have developed pedestrian walkways in weather no different from ours have proven to encourage walking to rail stations more.
Perhaps we could look to them for reference. There are overwhelming studies to support the fact that improved walkability improves transit ridership, particularly rail ridership in TODs.
Apart from pedestrian walkways, protected bicycle lanes to rail stations should also be prioritised, especially for rail stations in TODs.
This is something that the government should really look into as it would tremendously encourage the public to ditch the car and take the train. Research by a study team in five major cities in the US led by Christopher Monsere of Portland State University has shown that bicycle ridership increases by 20 per cent-170 per cent after protected bicycle lanes are installed.
Together with other facilities such as shaded bicycle racks in rail stations it would definitely encourage more people to cycle to MRT stations.
Another study also correlates every 10 per cent increase in bike ridership to a 2.3 per cent increase of average daily ridership in rail.
There is overwhelming evidence that protected bicycle lanes serve the purpose of improving rider safety which in turn inspires people to ride in the first place. Why not implement this to encourage more people to ride bicycles to MRT stations?
The government need not spend on expensive infrastructure to develop these protected bicycle lanes. Simple things like flexible bollards as well as markings for the protected lanes are enough to keep vehicles off bicycle lanes. This would encourage more people to start cycling to MRT stations.
With all being said, the Ministry of Transport should take heed and act. Perhaps including the development of walking infrastructures like pedestrian walkways and protected bicycle lanes in the National Transport Policy will set the tone for this change to happen.
It is time that the government seriously look into developing more pedestrian walkways and protected bicycle lanes to tackle the issue of low ridership levels in our MRT lines.
It is sad that projects that were planned to tackle traffic congestion have not yet served its purpose. It would be a waste of taxpayer money if these MRT lines that cost billions of ringgit do not get utilised to their fullest potential.
What more with MRT 3 in the plans, action needs to be taken else it would be another case of a rail line having low ridership.
I am hopeful and optimistic that these MRT lines are able to reduce traffic congestion in the Klang Valley provided accessibility to the stations are improved.
I hope the government takes a serious and planned approach in developing pedestrian walkways and protected bicycle lanes.
* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail.
