85% of motorists ready to switch to buses and trams
Trams in Adelaide, the “twin city” of George Town, Penang Photo credit: lightrailnow.org
It looks as if a huge majority (85 per cent) of urban motorists in Malaysia are ready to leave their cars behind at home if there is an effective and integrated public transport system comprising buses and trams. That is the outcome of a just concluded poll of 551 visitors to this site.
The main reason I put out this poll is that I wanted to allay the fears of those who are worried that dedicated bus and tram lanes may cause road congestion for motorists. The results confirm what many of us may have already guessed: many motorists are ready to abandon their cars in favour of buses and trams. So why are we still talking about new urban highway projects, ring roads, and other infrastructure for more cars?
Here are the poll results:
Start Date: 11 July 27 June 2008 @ 11.00am
End Date: 19 July 11 July 2008 @ 5.24pm
If you had efficient buses and trams in your city, would you leave your car behind at home?
- Yes, I am drooling just thinking of how much I will save (85%, 470 Votes)
- It depends/Not sure (6%, 35 Votes)
- No, it is quicker and more convenient using my car (5%, 29 Votes)
- I don’t have a car-lah (3%, 17 Votes)
Total Voters: 551
Of course, the usual caveats for these kinds of polls apply, but the results do suggest that a majority of motorists are wiling to switch to more effective public transport options - if they are available.
Check out the next poll on the right sidebar: Who do you think will be PM in 2011?
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- Why is Petronas delaying release of financial results?
- Why spend only RM4 million on trams when you can spend billions on mega projects
- Milan and Penang: Trams vs Monorail/PORR/PGCC
- Old tram railtrack unearthed along Penang Road
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Hi Anil, Richard here, …
Your poll for “If you had efficient buses and trams in your city, would you leave your car behind at home?” ends only on the 19th July, but its taken out of your blog.
I think most Penangnites will surely go for a good system public transportations. It does not matter what kind, so long it is within reach, timely and efficient.
Thanks Richard for pointing that out. The poll actually began on 27 June and was supposed to end on 19 July. But for the last week or so, the result showed a fairly constant 85% of respondents indicating that they are willing to leave their cars at home, so I decided to end the poll earlier than scheduled.
Dea Anil
There can not be the slightest doubt that an integrated mass transport systems with bus, mrt,trams, monorails and taxis and peak-hour CND zoning and levies is the ONLY direction to go if we do not want to be wiped out in a few years by smog, pollution, stress from sitting in traffic jams and loss of FDI from foreigners who will go elsewhere where business can be concluded speedily.
The operative word is INTEGRATED. If you have been to Munich, Paris or London you will know what I mean. To expect 100% efficiency is unrealistic, but even at 80% effficiency we will be doing all right.
Most importantly, we will reduce CO & Co2 emissions and not be held hostage by rocketing petrol prices.
We must stop the Govt from spending billions wastefully on more toll-roads (esp. the one in JB), 2nd penang Bridge, extensions to Putrajaya & KLIA,.. and subsidising Proton, MAS, UEM etc. The Govt should charge car uyers directly for AP’s (as for CoE’s in S’pore) and use that money wisely for building toll-free roads and controlling petrol prices instead of criminally giving it away to 4 individuals.
http:/donplaypuks.blogspot.com
I’m still waiting for the concrete proposal. Anil-sir, are you personally involved in it? It would be too long to wait for the state government with their hands full and budget constraints. After all the trams would take some time to implement and would not be of immediate help with the current fuel hike. It would be great if we can see more concrete proposals. Is there any ‘tram committee’ apart from yourself to sort out what sort of trams that are suitable for Penang? Startup costs? Routes? I think I’ve brought this up before but it seems that your tram campaign did not reveal much details or publicity other than how many bloggers supported it and nice pictures of trams in other countries. But I did read somewhere in your blog about possible routes that were proposed and some like that. I hope you could let us in on the meatier stuff and if it’s really that good I’m sure people would even chip in and for a share in it. Just my two cents.
Response from Anil:
Thanks for your comment. No, I do not have any vested interest in this. Just highlighting this option, as it seems to be the direction that many cities in developed countries are taking. There is enough material on the Internet to show that this could be an attractive, environmentally friendly, feasible option and would encourage motorists to switch to public transport - more than buses could. As for the concrete details and specific routes, I leave it to the transport planners, consultants and experts. I would like to think that sustainable public transport would be a major priority for the state government, and PR leaders would be wise enough to find the time and resources to work towards it.
cheers
Anil
Hi Anil,
Yes.. that’s what we want… a tram system that is continuously running 24/7/365.
Recently i had to work for a 3 weeks in KL..staying in my sister’s place in Sentul and commuting to work in Pandan Indah… it was a real hassle using the Putra/Star line.. and the waiting for the feeder bus service. For one week, nearly every day I was late for the appointments and had to furiously apologize to my clients. The following 2 weeks, I decided I wud rather drive then take the public transport.
The walking from the STAR to the PUTRA stations was also a killer for me, with a laptop bag and some files. Imagine what it would be for a pregnant woman or a handicapped person.
Yes, by the way.. both the PUTRA and STAR is not handicap friendly…..
Yes Anil, i think journalist like you are the ones who should push LGE and co to start the Trams service in Penang.. Other Pakatan states, I am sure will follow suit.
I say friend, population of Penang Island is over a million.(IF malaysia 27 millions) Your poll is from 551 visitors. And you say 85% are in favor.
As a Penangite, I was attracted to the tram system introduced by you.
But on your poll results, I must say that it is bias as you as an advocate for trams hosted the poll in your blog. I think that 85% is actually little because you provided lots of information and arguments for it…yet…only 85%
However, like Richard said…as long as there can be a good transportation system…i don’t really mind what system it is…Singapore has MTR/MRT and is doing great…they don’t have trams!
Still though, I am for the idea of tram if feasible considering the narrow roads in Penang and all the flood problems…there are just a lot of issues on the ground which have to be settled before even laying railway tracks for trams!
Anil, 2011 is 3 years from now. I sincerely hope these dinosaurs won’t be in the running by then. What about Nurul? She is one pedigree which we should all be watching.
She is the one who has experienced the nasty side of politics and with Wan Azizah as her mother, God help those wanna be men.
Just by 551 sample responding to the poll is pretty good number to go by it. You can’t say just because Malaysia has 27mil people, we need to do 27mil interviews/polls to get a fair indication. Although sampling takes into account other point like gender, race, age bracket etc as well, but this snapshot poll good enough indicator of what people actually want.
And besides there are many other sites which people have responded, debated and called the government to provide better public transportation and integration which has received very positive feedback. So I guess the real issue is the sampling here, but rather the issue on hand.
Hi Anil!
I’m happy to read your blog, keep writing. Yes you are correct. I did spent few years in Adelaide. Phew! Even without trams, the bus service in Adelaide is 100 times better than any city/towns in Malaysia. Credit to the bus service which helps me a lot to complete my degree. Cheap and efficient. Additional to these 2 means of transportation there’s another one called ‘obahn’ which specifically meant for tourism and fast link Adelaide city to the countryside. They promised ‘obahn’ during election and put it available after winning it! Some complaint it’s a waste but i think it’s very cool.
Malaysia is too slow in providing services to the public. Here’s an example, when MEPS proudly introduce e-Debit, people in Adelaide enjoyed the same service (EFTPOST) about 15 years ago. We can even take out money at the supermarket counters!
Thank you.
Anil
Please look at your photo closer. To protect passengers from knocking down by cars, there is a safety island and barriers. Very good if Panang can afford to widen its roads and knock down all the old buildings to accommodate the width of the trams and cars. Or how about readers do not mind the Government acquiring their properties for the good of the people to build tramways or to bear the construction work to lay the tracks along existing roads.
For the start, the Government should improve the bus service and introduce buses that runs on NLG. The main question is how to turn people from driving their cars into taking public transport. As one writer has to resort to driving because of 2 reasons - late for appointment (but STAR and PUTRA are never delayed by traffic kams) and no intergration. Trams in Adelaide runs on time because it is a small country town with no traffic jams and has been advertsing to convince people from Sydney to move to there.
if our public transportation system is efficient, i cannot see any reason why the public would refuse to use it. Just look at Singapore.
Don’t even talk about trams. Or intercity trains are ancient. Look at all European countries, their Intercity can do 3 times our speed at prices that are reasonable to their standards. For us, from KL to Butterworth, it takes like 10 hours including delays.
So, if intercity trains, the most basic transportation network is not there, how can there even be trams? When I was int he UK 20 years ago, their intercity trains were still 3 times faster than our crap here.
We are ancient lah cause money is being mismanaged left right and centre.
Even our Astro is still analogue and many say, it would be the case for many many years to come. Some even predict up to 2015. Whilst eveyone is foolishly buying LCD and Plasma TVs, our Satellite Provider cannot even give us decent digital Tv, whatmore HD TV. Even the 4:3 ratio and 16:9 ratio is kema kabut. Biasalah, monopoly
We get such blur TV in Malaysia, the most basic of basics, whatmore want to hope for trams?
Hi Anil,
I have just posted something on Bus Rapid Transit. I got interested by chance and it is a long shot. Your comments will be most appreciated.
Best wishes,
K S Ong
All this talk about tram is wasting time. Why you all keep comparing Penang island with western city that do not have our problem ie: bad traffic jam, small and congested road, mat rempit, bus system that is not dependable, uncovered bus stop and linkway to the nearest building.
I know tram is cheap to implement and have less pollution but my point is it is not feasible in Penang.
I wonder why the megacity does not have tram, Tokyo, Shanghai, Beijing, Jakarta, Bangkok ?
Just because other cities can do it, why Penang can’t you said? I’m sure all those other cities have a lot of cyclist. Now why don’t all those who vote for tram try and ride a bicycle around in Georgetown. Go ahead, it’s cheap and environment friendly but don’t forget to buy more life insurance ya
Oh yeah, regarding your post:
From People Power to Pedal Power
Have you actually tried to cycle around Georgetown or to your work place?
Good luck on smelling like car exhaust and trying to keep your bag from being stolen by mat rempit and i would give my prayer to vehicles user on the road that tried to avoid you from getting heart attack.
Or are you like our government only know how to propose big plan and not how to mantain the plan? Talk is cheap
Will the buiding of trams be the most expensive in the world like RM150 million per KM highways?
http://anilnetto.com/accountability/causeway-toll-bonanza-for-mrcb-in-the-offing/
Tell me lah, where in the world got RM150 million per KM highway?
i don’s think that the island’s roads are big enough to accomodate the trams but i hope that the state govt will look into the possibility.