For the past 11 years, the people of Penang have been teased with promises of a light rail transit project costing RM10 billion as part of the solution to the island’s transport woes.
Yet, the LRT, which is part of the Penang transport master plan, has yet to be realised, despite the state government spending a considerable sum and time on the plan.
This overly ambitious transport master plan was conceived by the new DAP-led state government after its euphoric victory over Barisan Nasional in 2008.
Since then, it has been harping on the same LRT plans in two general elections (2013 and 2018) but have nothing to show.
This week, Penang chief minister Chow Kon Yeow had the cheek to make yet another promise on the missing LRT to connect Komtar in George Town to the airport.
For people who voted in the party at three consecutive general elections, 11 years is a long time to wait.
Acute congestion
The problem with Penang is not just the high number of cars on the road caught within the many narrow road corridors that cannot be easily expanded.
It is the lack of a mass transit system to cater for the heavy movement of people (who now use cars) to travel from Seberang Perai (where housing costs are cheaper than the island side) to their place of work on the island, especially in the Bayan Lepas free trade zone, where jobs are mostly located.
The main missing link required for mass transit is between these two places, currently served by the Penang Bridge.
Since there is no public transit system available, these commuters have no choice but to use private transport to commute every day.
Roads and bridges have limited capacities and the daily convergence of large volumes of traffic on available road space has led to reduced traffic speed, congestion, accidents and delays.
Some state planners see congestion as a problem but they never look beyond its causes.
ART as a cheap solution
The planned LRT (within that infamous PTMP) will not serve this route. It is not cheap either.
There is an immediate and cheap solution available for the taking. This is in the form of the autonomous road tram or ART.
ART is a road-based, articulated-bus type of system, running on an existing road, but given priority to cars and other road vehicles.
It provides a high-capacity road-based system, similar to a tram but without using fixed rails.
ART is the one to consider along this high demand corridor, as a means to replace cars or buses.
Basically, it will replace the role of cars, especially single occupancy cars, which are no longer useful.
A rapid ART can be designed to carry 200 to 300 passengers at one go in each direction, thereby replacing about as many private cars.
A rapid ART system also means high-frequency service, such as an interval of five minutes, or a departure every 5 minutes.
Therefore, within an hour, there can be 12 ART trains, with 200-300 passengers each – a considerable reduction of over 2,000 to 3,000 cars in an hour. A very significant reduction.
People in the state government must put their heads together and think along this line to solve the so-called traffic congestion, instead of banging their heads continuously on non-existent LRT columns.
Congestion charge
Once the ART system is up and running, then the officials can think about introducing a congestion charge or, up the road, toll charges or parking charges. This way, motorists can contribute to the public transport system.
The cost of using the public transit system will be kept low, but the cost of using private transport is purposely kept high.
Such a strategy will encourage people, even those who own private vehicles, to switch to public transport.
In addition, minibuses and motorbike e-hailing can provide effective first mile and last mile connectivity from ART stations to the residential areas, offices, malls and factories.
Thus, this combination of public transport modes can be designed as a door-to-door service using a single ticketing system.
This method has been found to be effective and cheap in many countries, including many developed countries as well as in China
ART capacity can also be added according to daily demand by adding more coaches or using double-deck vehicles. - FMT
The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.
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