A bus rapid transit system can carry as many passengers as a subway system, as the city of Curitiba in Brazil has shown.
I like this quote in the above video clip: “The problem is not the people who use the buses but the people who use the cars.”
If Vauban in Germany could be like this…
why not Penang? What is stopping us from becoming more sustainable?
The government is introducing new rules to plug serious abuses in the Approved Permit allocations for car imports.
I guess most of us will not be surprised by the scam that has been going on in the AP system. It’s all very muhibah, don’t you think? But not the best example of Malay-Chinese cooperation, unfortunately.
This excerpt from a Singapore Straits Times report:
The rules came about after a yet-to-be published government audit exposed serious irregularities.
The audit looked into the business practices of a small clique of well-connected Malay businessmen who received their AP allocations each year.
The audit revealed that a large number of the businessmen were hawking their import permits to mainly ethnic Chinese car dealers who dominate the country’s luxury vehicle dealerships, documents reviewed by The Straits Times show.
Photo by Henk Graalman, Adelaide
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:
Malaysians are bent on building more infrastructure for cars and other private vehicles at a time when many other countries are looking for alternatives to private vehicle ownership as oil prices soar.
Even in the United States, notorious for promoting private vehicle ownership, an increasing number of Americans are turning to public transport – and even bicycles. Nearer to home, New Delhi has bitten the bullet and opted for a Bus Rapid Transit, which it is now introducing with a lot of teething pains. Nobody said it would be easy, but it has got to be done if we care for our environment.
Think again. Do we really want to entrench the use of private vehicles with more highways and road bridges? Shouldn’t the new link for Penang be a rail link? The Penang state government should do the right thing, and not take the easy way out by opting for a KL-inspired solution, which is more focused on inflated construction costs and lucrative toll collections.
Trains, buses, guided buses, trams and bikes are the way of the future. Let us not go against the tide and burden future generations. Even that might not be accurate. At the rate we are going, as one blog reader cautioned me, there might not be any “future generations” left to inherit our polluted and poisoned world.
Trains, Buses and Bikes, Oh My!
Last week, Isaiah reported on the 7% increase in mass transit ridership, and also how limited that increase is. Because the Bush administration did nothing to make mass transit more convenient and accessible, many Americans who want to quit paying for high-priced oil don’t have that choice.
It’s not just mass transit. It’s bikes too.
Today, my local paper headlined “Bike Sales Rise With Gas Prices. In fact, local outlets across the country are reporting the same spike with bikes. And interest seems to be growing beyond the stereotypical hippie bike messenger. Read more