What’s the greatest form of public transportation? Not the MRT, not the LRT, not trains, or even buses. It’s your legs.
We all walk, or move around on wheelchairs. Anyone who’s taken a bus, train or taxi stands or sits around for the vehicle to arrive. Any effort to generate mass participation in public transport will falter unless we make our streets and stations safer and more comfortable for walking and waiting.
Trouble is, we are mired in a mindset that development means owning more cars, then building more roads and lanes (shoulders and kerbs maybe, if there’s leftover space), then building some elevated or tunneled rail transit when roads become choked. And wait for the public to stream in.
We make plans to spend RM36 billion or more to construct an MRT while driving past derelict bus stops, and don’t bat an eyelid at the contradiction. Much opposition to the MRT points out the exorbitant cost, but even if it is much less expensive we undermine potential gains by not doing things in the right order.
Is it not logically obvious that to expand public transport we must first make it easier to get to transit points and improve the bus system, as the mode of transportation with the widest coverage, then figure out if we need those mass transporting trains and if necessary build them?
Class mentalities pervade official, as well as popular, thinking and handling of transportation issues.
Policy is being made out of desire for other people to use it and free up the roads for the rest of us. Policy is written by people who drive or are driven from door to door, so the focus is always on the ride, not the shuffle in between rides.
Transport woes are viewed from above, by people who seem to think that the MRT and LRT are for middle class folks who will drive or be driven to stations. Down the pyramid, walking and taking the bus are for people who are poor or young, who don’t mind the heat, grime and chaos.
Plans were laid in early 2010 to increase the bus fleet, improve connectivity and upgrade bus stops, but since the MRT’s confirmation the common modes of walking and bussing have to compete for the remaining scraps of funds, not to mention being so out-glamourized.
These days public transportation morning rush hour usage in the Klang Valley is around 12 percent. 88 percent of commuters drive private motorized vehicles.
Current drivers are probably not going to abdicate easily, especially when it continues to be cheap to rule the roads. Petrol prices will go up, but we tolerate the squeeze and keep revving, unencumbered by congestion charges or single occupancy penalties.
There’s also a treacherous possibility that success can undo itself here. If public transport usage increases, won’t this reduce congestion and make driving more appealing again?
Consider too how we get away with driving with utter disregard for pedestrians and public transport users. Zebra crossings are usually meaningless, sometimes dangerous for giving a false sense of security. Drivers barge past with impunity. The steering wheel is a status symbol and power charm.
I’m not sure how much of these realities factor into the grandiose target of increasing public transport usage to 50 percent by 2020.
But I’m sure there is no escaping the prospect that many more people will have to walk and take the bus. The Brazilian city of Curitiba, paragon of green urban development, operates an enviably efficient and sleek bus-based public transport system and preserves abundant walkways and lush spaces. They’ve been at this for over 40 years – it takes time, patience and integrated planning.
Surely various measures must be taken in the Klang Valley, in sequence or simultaneously, and customized to conditions here. Getting the bus system to operate smoothly and comfortably, though, is the best way to demonstrate that we can efficiently and reliably transform public transport.
We have a long way to go. The Pan Malaysia Bus Operators Association (PMBOA) recently lamented the lack of coherent policy for their industry, and an exasperating array of government agencies they have to deal with. According to the Government Transformation Programme Roadmap, about 40 percent of bus stops in the Klang Valley have no shelter or signage.
Building and refurbishing transit points offers a fairly simple and highly visible means for raising the profile of public transport. And it won’t hurt to raise the comfort of walking or waiting for those who currently bear with the heat, rain and other hostilities.
One of Malaysia’s pastimes is complaining about rude drivers. We cannot just wait for drivers to magically turn nice. We need some regulation that tilts the balance of road power from vehicles to pedestrians.
If not congestion or other monetary charges, at least driving should cost more time. People who sit and press pedals should be made to slow down or stop more frequently to make way for people who walk.
Then maybe we’ll stop thinking of walking as backward means of getting around – even see it as a step forward.
This article appeared in the Selangor Times, Issue 7, 7-9 January 2011.
