A peek at the Pulau Tikus town hall meeting

This is for those of us who couldn’t make it for the Pulau Tikus town hall meeting organised by the Penang Municipal Council as part of the Penang Transport Council’s pilot project to de-congest Pulau Tikus.

Dr Lim Mah Hui of the Penang Transport Council addressing the town hall meeting – Photos courtesy of Dr S P Choong

The participants, journalists and police at the town hall meeting

Maybe the following exchange will encourage public discussion and participation in the initiative towards more sustainable transport.

First the write-up by soohuey, who attended the town hall meeting:

A meeting was held in the Pulau Tikus Town Hall on Saturday, 10 October 2009, to enable the Penang state government and local council members to meet with stakeholders to discuss implementation of plans to decongest traffic in Pulau Tikus. The implementation in Pulau Tikus is to serve as a pilot project with potential to be expanded state-wide.

Reproduction of meeting invitation can be seen here. The invitation defines “stakeholders” as “the local communities and traders, commercial and office commuters, school children and the public at large”.

Having grown up with fond memories exploring the streets of Pulau Tikus and now living in possibly the most congested street in Pulau Tikus, I attended the meeting as a Penangite and avid resident of Pulau Tikus. Below is my personal account/impression of the meeting.

The meeting was scheduled for 4.00pm, but only started well past 4.30pm because we were waiting for the arrival of Chow Kon Yeow (State Exco for Local Government, Traffic Management and Environment) and Koay Teng Hai (Adun, Pulau Tikus) who were stuck in Butterworth. Whilst this delay was unfortunate, it did allow for small talk between those present. At this time, a common question asked was “How come so few people?”

Attendance: I counted seven or eight people on seats allocated for the press, and turned around to estimate about five people who may be people who actually live/work in Pulau Tikus. A few more turned up after the meeting started and some came and went, but I doubt people who live/work in Pulau Tikus outnumbered everyone else at any point during the meeting.

Commencement: “Rajan”, who introduced himself as a representative of the local council (MPPP), eventually called the meeting to a start and explained that Chow and Koay were caught in Butterworth; so the meeting would proceed without them. (Koay made it to the meeting in the later part of Q & A session). It was never made very clear to me what role Rajan plays in MPPP.

Rajan stated that the meeting was to discuss upcoming plans to relieve traffic congestion in Pulau Tikus and invited a “Dr Lim” to tell us more about the plans. Although Dr Lim went on to explain that he was part of a relatively newly formed “Penang Transport Council”, it was again not very clear to me what role he played within the council. Throughout the meeting, the people who were speaking on behalf of the State/council were “Rajan”, “Dr Lim” and “Dr Choong” (but I’ve no idea what their full names are or their specific roles/involvements. I’m not even sure if “Dr Choong” was one of them or one of us! I was starting to realise I had no idea whom I was talking to. This felt like an “insiders’ meeting” where people should already know each other. It is difficult to work out how much each person should know or be responsible for without knowing their titles and credentials. Perhaps someone else who was present can tell me if it was mentioned very quickly but I missed it?

Penang Transport Council: The Council (PTC) was set up by the State in June 2009 to tackle transport problems and issues within the State. There are 15 primary members in the council and they are comprised of civil servants and volunteers (presumably including academia in traffic management).

Background: According to Dr Lim/PTC, Penangites own more vehicles than there are Penangites — 1.6 million Penangites own 1.7 million cars and motorcycles! In addition to general congestion due to due sheer volume of traffic, illegal parking is a main cause of traffic obstruction and congestion. PTC has identified 400 parking spots within Pulau Tikus, but they are under-used because people prefer to park illegally right in front of their destination than to park at a legal parking spot and have to walk.

The Plan: PTC plans for improving traffic in Penang are divided into three phases — short term, mid term and long term. At this juncture, I must admit I wasn’t planning to report back formally on this meeting, and so didn’t take detailed notes of what is involved in each phase and I am now working from memory. Perhaps others who attended can assist. Short and/or mid term plans include setting up bicycle lanes, dedicated bus lanes, providing feeder buses, educating the public and promoting public transport. These were run through rather quickly, but although promising, they were still too vague and uninteresting for me to remember the long term plans.

Tyre-clamping: The main initiative to be discussed at the meeting was the introduction of tyre clamping for illegally parked cars. This is to be implemented along Burmah Road between Codrington Avenue and Brown Road, along Cantoment Road between Jalan Berjaya and Kelawai Road, and along Bangkok Lane. If successful, this initiative will be scaled up to other parts of Penang.

Rationale: Reducing illegal parking = Reducing traffic obstruction = Reducing traffic congestion.

Step-by-step implementation: Public awareness and “education” campaigns will begin 19 October 2009. This involves putting up signs, informing the public of the initiative and discouraging illegal parking through various media. After a “warning” has been disseminated, tyre clamping will begin on 3 Nov 2009.

How does it work? When a car is parked illegally (eg. on double lines), an appointed MPPP employee will sound a whistle. If the owner of the car does not return to the car after the whistle is rung, the car will be clamped. Drivers who return to find their cars clamped will have to contact MPPP to get the clamp removed, wait for the MPPP to arrive and will be charged an administrative fee for clamp removal. Cars will not be clamped if the owners arrive to their car in time after hearing the whistle, when there is a driver inside (i.e. cars waiting, not parked) or if it is double-parked such that clamping the tyre will obstruct legally parked cars from coming out. In its early phase, tyres will only be clamp at fixed times (i.e. not 24 hours), but this may be extended at the end of this pilot phase.

Why I’m doubtful – The Pulau Tikus scenario

During the meeting, members of the public highlighted that much of the traffic obstruction in Pulau Tikus was due to cars waiting or double-parked and thereby trapping a car inside. In both these scenarios, clamping would not be applicable and does not serve as a deterrent. Tyre clamping was grandly presented as “The Solution” to our traffic woes, which is funny because it doesn’t seem to be designed to address our problems!

In response to a question, “Where in Pulau Tikus do we have traffic obstruction due to illegal parking or parking on double lines??”, Dr Lim responded opposite the police station, along Burmah Road between Moulmein and Cantoment Roads. People who live and frequent Pulau Tikus can easily tell you that the cars in front of the stores opposite the police station are almost all waiting. Everyone who frequents those stores knows that all you need to do is honk and you’ll be served at the window of your car. If the driver can’t stop right at the front, then he/she may pop out, but definitely not long enough to be clamped or even have the whistle blown. Clamping is barely applicable here. This stretch is also not the best example of traffic congestion because moving traffic generally passes by these waiting cars rather easily. I expect minimal impact on traffic flow even if they are able to prevent cars from waiting in front of the stores.

A stretch of unarguable traffic congestion which is included in this initiative is in front of Public Bank and the post office along Cantoment Road. However, while there is indeed congestion here daily, it is caused mostly by cars waiting or double parked. Again, clamping is not applicable.

It was brought up during the introduction that Bangkok Lane is another street with bad traffic congestion and people parked illegally. While it may be true that Penangites like to park illegally, including along Bangkok Lane, I find it extremely amusing that Bangkok Lane should be highlighted as a street with bad traffic congestion and plagued by illegal parking. Instead, it is probably one of the better streets in Pulau Tikus! I’ve found myself walking down Bangkok Lane almost in the middle of the road during the day because it doesn’t have high traffic! One day when I was desperately looking for a carpark during lunchtime to get to the post office, I drove down Bangkok Lane because I knew I’d be able to find a park there. In fact, I could drive in comfortably because there were so many slots! Yes, you may have to get close to the Kelawai Road end, but it really isn’t hard to find parking along Bangkok Lane and there is no need to park illegally. Again, not the best place to test the effect of tyre clamping on relieving traffic congestion. Try Jones Road.

Taken together (along with other statements made by PTC/MPPP representatives during the meeting), it is clear that PTC has a poor understanding of traffic in Pulau Tikus and proper study was not conducted to truly understand the root of problems in Pulau Tikus. The solution that is being offered will create hype and may work initially. However, as explained above, because tyre clamping is barely applicable in the above scenarios, this initiative only serves as a scare-tactic at best and does not offer a solution. It is very disappointing that PTC was not able to show more credibility in having done its homework on Pulau Tikus and show evidence of insight into how this initiative can realise its potential.

Why I’m doubtful – Drawing conclusions for expansion: Discussions on my doubts on why the application and applicability of tyre clamping in the designated zones in Pulau Tikus cast doubt on the usefulness of any success as a determinant whether the initiative should be expanded State-wide.

It is vital that pilot projects are designed so they can effectively test the condition being examined. I strongly believe that this pilot project would be much more meaningful if it is carried out where it is more applicable. Is this failure due to lack of homework, lack of sincerity or mere incompetence somewhere along the chain?

Why it will “work” and then won’t work

It is likely that traffic congestion in the designated areas will be alleviated when this project is run. This is because they have received commitment by the police to focus as many personnel as they can in these zones during the pilot period. This is to ensure that the project runs effectively. Representatives from the police were present at the meeting and showed strong commitment to providing the personnel. Hence, there will be more police going around getting cars that are waiting to move along. However, a reduction in traffic congestion because there are more police patrols preventing people from waiting is not the same as tyre clamping working being successful in deterring traffic congestion. It is the increased policing that will move cars that are causing congestion, and therefore creating the *illusion* that tyre clamping is working because it coincides with the initiative!

What will happen at the end of this pilot project is that they will declare tyre clamping a success, expand it to other parts of Penang, all the police seconded to Pulau Tikus will return to their original placements, occasionally cars will have their tires clamped but it will never fulfil its potential and won’t have much effect on traffic congestion in Penang. By this time next year, the hype will be over and it will be business as usual. Nonetheless, the DAP can say they’ve done something – that it was successful! Tyre clamping will be another initiative that is all smoke and flares but without substance. How often have we heard of grand promising plans that end up amounting to nothing? Koay nodded to me and said this won’t just be “Hangat hangat tahi ayam”… Let’s wait and see.

In the meantime, we can be more assured that we can stay comfortably in the store/restaurant after parking our cars illegally because we’ll be notified by a whistle when it has to be moved.

Dr Lim Mah Hui responds:

It is encouraging to receive the report by one of the participants at Saturday’s town hall meeting on decongesting traffic in Pulau Tikus. While I agree with some of her comments and not others, I nevertheless welcome her contribution and engaging in public discussion. That is the essence of participatory democracy.  I can fully understand the writer’s scepticism about political will to see projects like this through, given the dismal track record of politicians.

At the same time, the writer also has the responsibility to continue to monitor and push this new set of politicians in the state of Penang to live up to their promises and more importantly to provide constructive suggestions on alternatives if he/she thinks this will not work.

It is useful to get the writer’s feedback that members of the public want this to succeed and that “whistling” and just giving warning (the soft-approach) does not work. That gives more support for the council to go ahead with a firm approach after the initial period of education.

Finally, it is noted that next time, proper introduction of the organisers should be helpful. Dr. Lim Mah Hui is heading the task force on public awareness and Dr Choong Sim Poey, heading the task force on public transport in the PTC. Mr Rajendran is the engineer in charge of traffic management in MPPP.

It should be emphasised that this was not an insiders’ meeting. Great effort was expanded to publicise the meeting through press statements, blog sites, and over 1,000 leaflets were circulated to shopkeepers and public in the market. It is up to the public like this writer to help inform their friends and invite them to such meetings.

Hopefully, this is the beginning, not end of such meetings. The above are my personal views and not that of the PTC.

And an observation by Dr Choong Sim Poey:

Most locals (present) were supportive – that finally congestion was going to be rationally addressed. This proposal has been mooted by STEP working with Dr Teng since 1990; discussed many times but never fully implemented. Once there was a short trial run in Gurney Drive but the government backed down (in the face of) public objections.

As for me, I just want to add that I am looking forward to future sustainable transport moves by the Transport Council, especially if it involves converting certain streets of George Town into pedestrian malls, providing bicycle lanes and promoting wider use of public transport.