High number of bicycles is an overlooked factor contributing to traffic congestion in Malaysia – UPM VC – paultan.org

A lot of fuss was made last week about extraordinary traffic jams in the run-up to Chinese New Year and Ramadan, which are next to each other this year. Naturally, this has given rise to many views and opinions online about the state of our transportation infrastructure, both public and private.

Some brought up the old habit of the lack of convenient first- and last-mile solutions in our public transport, while others brought up Malaysia’s voracious appetite for cars (a record 820,752 new cars were registered in the country last year).

According to Transport Minister Anthony Loke, his ministry is focused on improving public transport, and the government has no immediate plans to curb car ownership, which, as many of us know, is among the highest per capita in Asia.

So if not much will (or can’t be) done on cars, what about bicycles? Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) Vice-Chancellor Datuk Prof. Ir. Ahmad Farhan Mohamad Sadullah believes that the large number of motorcycles in the country is an overlooked factor contributing to traffic congestion, and that more should be done to encourage cyclists to switch to public transport.

“We need to start thinking about the push factor, how we want to move people from private to public transport. The alternative is already there, it’s just how we want to ensure that the overall cost of travel will make people from middle and low-income groups feel like they have no choice but to use public transport,” he said. Astro Awani in a video interview.

“We have a small problem compared to other countries because our private transport also includes motorcycles, and we have a large number of them. They also disrupt road capacity and affect the level of congestion. That is the problem we need to understand and solve.”

“Now that we talk a lot about car users – too far (one step) – I think motorcyclists should be shifted to public transport. But of course the motorcycle has the advantage that it look (lane-split),” Ahmad Farhan added.

We are sure you have a lot on your mind. Share your thoughts with us in the comments. Maybe you have an unprecedented solution to our traffic problems?