THE Klang Valley has always been synonymous with traffic congestion, more so in the last two years. This is despite the ambitious construction of new rail lines, with the sole purpose of reducing traffic congestion in the Klang Valley.
The National Transport Policy 2019-2030 saw the national government targeting to achieve 40% public transport usage by the end of 2030. Further to that, Malaysia is targeting 50% urban public transport use by 2040 as part of the Low Carbon Nation Aspiration 2040 plan, which is part of the National Energy Policy 2022-2040.
The question we should ask ourselves is: “Are we on the right track to achieving these goals?” It does not 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 is still at dismal levels.
In fact, the congestion levels have worsened after the construction of these new rail lines.
With the recent report that Malaysia’s car sales in 2022 hit an all time high, it does not seem likely that we will be seeing the light at the end of the tunnel on this issue anytime soon. This is in addition to the news last year that there are 33.3 million registered vehicles nationwide compared with 32.6 million previously.
One aspect that needs to be looked into is the serious under utilisation of the MRT 1 Kajang Line and Phase 1 of MRT 2 Putrajaya Line.
The MRT 1 Kajang line has 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 drastically low, but is also 50,000 short of the minimum number needed to break even. And, we are not 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, it is expected to hit 200,000 within two years after the launch of full operations next month. Again, this target number, which is an optimistic prediction, is severely short of its full capacity.
There are many reasons why these new rail lines remain under utilised, with inaccessibility and bad first and last mile connectivity being some of them.
The government does realise this and is taking measures to tackle the problem. Among such measures are plans to introduce ride-sharing, with the 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 MRTs.
Prasarana Malaysia Bhd’s recent announcement that they will be spending 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 stations, given 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 recent video went viral on social media showcasing how a journey from a residential place advertised as “nearby” to an MRT station actually is. The journey includes having to make a big circle to reach the station, although the residential place is, in fact, quite close to the station. The pedestrian could be seen 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. 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 developing pedestrian infrastructure leading to rail stations such as sidewalks, trails, crosswalks, intersection designs and even pedestrian traffic lights to make it easier, safer and encouraging for the public 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 “who’s responsibility is it?”
The government should take the lead and work with state governments, local councils and developers to spearhead this development. It will cost money, take time and there is the bureaucracy involved, but if not now, when? If the government does not take the lead, then who will? Rome was not built in a day and nobody is expecting these things to be done overnight, but we have to start somewhere.
Perhaps, a good start will be to come up with a solid framework or standard operating procedure 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 pedestrian 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, in particular, 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 look into as it will 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%-170% after protected bicycle lanes were installed. Together with other facilities, such as shaded bicycle racks in rail stations, this would definitely encourage more people to cycle to MRT stations.
Another study also correlates every 10% increase in bike ridership to a 2.3% increase of average daily ridership in rail.
There is overwhelming evidence that protected bicycle lanes improves 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 does not need to spend on expensive infrastructure to develop these protected bicycle lanes. Simple measures like flexible bollards as well as markings for the protected lanes are enough to keep vehicles off bicycle lanes. This will encourage more people to cycle to MRT stations.
With all that being said, the Transport Ministry should take the lead 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 the government look into developing more pedestrian walkways and protected bicycle lanes to tackle the issue of low ridership in our MRT lines. It is sad that something that was planned to tackle traffic congestion has yet to serve its purpose.
It is a waste of taxpayers’ money if these MRT lines that cost billions of ringgit are not utilised to their fullest. What more with MRT 3 in the plans. Action needs to be taken or else it will be another case of under-utilisation.
I am optimistic that these MRT lines will reduce traffic congestion in the Klang Valley, provided accessibility to the stations are improved.
The writer is a Malaysian working in the railway industry as an engineer. Comments: letters@thesundaily.com
