LETTERS: TRAFFIC congestion has worsened since the country announced the shift to endemicity on April 1.
According to the TomTom Traffic Index, the streets of Kuala Lumpur are 10 to 30 per cent more congested today (depending on the period) than they were in 2019.
The main reason why people choose to drive into the city, despite the billions poured into our public transportation system, is simply because it's not a convenient and comfortable alternative.
On Dec 1, 2015, the Land Public Transport Agency (SPAD), under the Transport Ministry, revamped the bus network system by reorganising the bus routes into eight corridors. The corridors were designated based on the main trunk roads that connected with Kuala Lumpur city centre.
The main bus service provider in the Klang Valley is Rapid Bus, which commands a fleet of 1400 vehicles comprising RapidKL, Go KL City Bus and Mass Rapid Transit feeder buses. Now, 179 routes integrate with the Klang Valley's rail systems.
The major problem for an efficient bus network in the Klang Valley is the gridlocked roads formed due to geometric barriers during the construction of the roads.
Buses ply the same roads and lanes as private vehicles, and this harms their efficiency and punctuality.
Recently, Rapid Bus and KLCH launched a bus lane pilot project for the Jalan Ipoh corridor. The bus lanes would be in operation on weekdays from 6am to 8pm and would be free for all on the weekends and public holidays.
However, the bus lanes fell victim to double parkers and this forced buses to use the normal lane instead.
One way to solve this is to establish permanent bus lanes in the Klang Valley, where the bulk of the congestion lies.
Although the gridlock nature of the roads in Kuala Lumpur remains the biggest obstacle in implementing the bus lanes, it has been done in other countries with even worse traffic conditions.
The TransMilenio is a bus rapid transit (BRT) that serves as the only form of public transportation in Bogota, Colombia. Bogota is known to have one of the heaviest road congestions in the world.
TransMilenio consists of several interconnected BRT lines, with raised floor stations in the centre of a main avenue (truncal). Passengers typically reach the stations via a bridge over the street.
Usually, four lanes down the centre of the street are dedicated to bus traffic. The outer lanes allow express buses to bypass buses stopped at a station.
Instead of building more highways, Penalosa closed down lanes to give space for the buses to operate. The result? A 30km journey that took two hours and 15 minutes in 1998 now takes only 55 minutes by TransMilenio.
To mitigate the worsening traffic conditions and overreliance on private vehicles, EMIR Research suggests that the administration revitalise the Greater Kuala Lumpur/Klang Valley Bus Transformation Plan that was introduced as an initiative under the National Key Results Area -- Urban Public Transport.
Under the Greater Kuala Lumpur/Klang Valley Bus Transformation Plan, a BRT feasibility study identified 12 bus corridors that would be used as the main reference point. However, the plan was cancelled and we're left with an inconsistent and inconvenient bus system instead.
JASON LOH SEONG WEI
ROSIHAN ADDIN
EMIR Research, Kuala Lumpur
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of the New Straits Times