The chart above by Penang Forum shows us that cars make up 96% of the modal share in Penang compared with just 33% in Singapore.
What is more striking is that we have 100 metres of highway per 1,000 people in Penang while Singapore has just 30 metres of highway. So we have 3.4 times more highways per 1,000 people than Singapore has.
Notice that even though we have more highways per 1,000 people, we have zero stretches of roads where public transport has right of way (ROW) eg dedicated lanes.
Now here is where it gets more interesting. The aim of the Penang transport masterplan is to raise the public transport modal share from the present 4-5% to 40% by 2030. That means the car modal share would have to drop to 60%.
What would happen if we reach 40% use of public transport? Why, the number of cars on the road in 2030 would be 29% fewer than now! (See the chart below)
If that’s the case, we don’t need to build more highways and in fact, we could just as well provide dedicated lanes for public transport along certain stretches. It is that simple.
So why are we planning to build another 70km of highways (including 32km of elevated highways and 23km of tunnels) in our tiny state?
It just doesn’t make sense that the Penang government wants to spend a fortune on highways. Why don’t we just invest a fraction of those billions of ringgit in a top-class cost-efficient public transport system.
Thanks to the Penang Forum team for preparing these charts.
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Such assessment by Penang Forum is difficult for average Malaysians to understand. The behaviour of Malaysians is different. To them owning a car is a priority in life, more important than owning a home which is static and cannot go with you to show that you have ‘arrived’. Such behaviour is so deep rooted and I doubt many will switch to public transport however efficient or cheaper it could be.
We have to first improve public transport and then raise public awareness of how people can benefit, environmentally and financially, by switching from cars to public transport.
How to promote public transport when you make car ownership so affordable with easy bank loan?
Impose road pricing or higher road tax and fuel price. Use the money to subsidise public transportation!
Yes, but also got to invest in cost-efficient public transport as well.
the chart big blunder is wrongly assume number of private cars will decrease in penang. based on what? more people will own car to moonlight as grab drivers to supplement income.
Based on genuine improvements to public transport.
Does lim mah hui and other members of Penang forum themselves take the bus on a regular basis ?
A question Penang Forum folks never answer.
Reality is different.
The “Elites” very rare taking buses. Again bin chooi reason lah.
If u take lrt it is different. Lrt is class and is fast. Smooth operator. No jam. Which gf wants to ride in jerks n jams?
Improve public transport? Only 60% occupancy in rapid. Where are the rest?
Bus can be chip but never efficient. That is very the capacity is only 60%. Only ah peks.
unemployed, Schoolers and migrants taking them
Those with cars above 1500cc will pay more for RON95 petrol next year.
This subsidy can be misleading for cars below 1500cc – since Ron95 pricing will be floated based on market value, a rise in price may negate the 30cents subsidy. Anything rising above the 30cents threshold defeats the purpose of helping the Rakyat. To say this floating price mechanism is for controlling petrol usage & abuse is just a front to tax us more. If you ever go to the wet market to buy vegetables or meat, actually the prices are not lower but some like veggie’s are costing more. This is not promising of SST to say the least. I… Read more »
Above 1500cc, the moment you ignite your car starting counting burnt oil and burnt pocket. Expect RON95 to float at RM2.70 a litre when crude oil hits US90 a barrell.
So if you drive your big car out just to buy The Star, your paper may actually cost RM2 a copy. Save your money read Anilnetto.com, and money saved can be contributed to sustain the justice river of the blog.
What about traffic jam?. Car stop burn £€¥$¢
Crude oil price expect to go up, be prepared to pay more for RON95 (aside from the RM30 monthly subsidy for 100 litres for car 1500cc below) especially fuel guzzler 4WD. This is good to make people think twice before buying a car now. Free float pricing means RON95 could likely be RM2.80 per litre.
Tung lang marketing executive?
How many pg forummers travel by public transport when they meet cm at recent discussions? Ask others to use public transport but they use cars. How about those 12k or more who sign petitions?
order of priority by typical malaysian guy: car, girlfriends (plenty), wife, house (rent).
car loan first before paying ptptn loan. also smartphone hire purchase…
Car loan is very common among young people with or without PTPTN loan. Highly leveraged including credit card debt at young age when disposable income is not commensurate with their lifestyle causing more bankruptcies today.
So making car ownership difficult can actually help the young people and teach them the meaning of affordability and not becoming a slave to the bank.
Slavery to the banks – that’s exactly the consumer economy of unsustainable lifestyle of credit payment.
Banks will never lose even if borrowers were to default & claim bankruptcy as they would have gotten much from the compounding interest over many moons & default fines.
They loathe the AKPK which has the power to negotiate on behalf of borrowers for a longer period of settlement at reasonable interest rates.
IF YOU HAVE CREDIT CARD PROBLEMS, GO TO AKPK NOW.
Who said bank did not go burst and pokkai? Why many has bank negara as backup?
Tell me which banks in Malaysia gone bust b’cos of credit card defaults? You must be joking yourself? Pls try harder & harder!!!
I live in the Klang Valley close to an LRT line and many Klang Valley residents, including myself, use the LRT, monorail, MRT and KTM Komuter services, especially when they are close to our homes and place of work, and if they are not, people will take a taxi or bus to the nearest LRT, monorail, MRT of KTM Komuter station. My Singaporean cousin said the same thing about Singaporeans being unwilling to switch from driving to the MRT whilst it was being built in the 1980s, but after it started running, many Singaporeans switched. Thus I am pretty sure… Read more »
go ask Penang Forum, LRT is big no no, it is ugly, it is expensive and it blocks the blue sky. they like bus. maybe they like how the bus jerk…not sure. Although there is already a quite ok bus service in Penang..these people who talk a lot do not take them, only foreign worker take them…hehe
Malaysians want to be behind steering wheels to be in control, never mind the traffic jam but complain a lot if waiting long time if to take public bus. They are patient in cars stuck in traffic congestion because face value more important having taking car loan to be a car master, but bank slave. Irony indeed.
Yet pg forum instill insist using has which will caught in the jam and difficult to tell the time of arrive. Lrt sure on time. No one can stop.
Sim Tze Tzin: No, China is not buying up all our durians
https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2018/11/01/sim-tze-tzin-no-china-is-not-buying-up-all-our-durians/
Yes, Swarovski and Jabil has swallowed up our library at Mayang Mall.
https://www.thestar.com.my/metro/community/2017/04/11/mall-getting-a-makeover-rm10mil-plan-to-turn-mayang-mall-into-global-business-services-hub/
They also in the process of swallowing up public Post Office for Jabil GBS expansion, as PDC lacks vision now that Ho Chin (wife of Singkarpor PM) apparently pull out Temasek investment.
So much complain. Local needs not addressed.
Sim must turun padang to meet the residents to understand their needs.
Sim asks BB residents to trade books for cangkul in line with his agriculture portfolio, hehe
Sim is not focusing on local issues after becoming minister. Could not see another term unless he leave Bayan Bari where residents are simply fed up!
Bayan Baru voters played out by Sim! This is the ‘last nail on the coffin’ spelling an end to his opportunist political career in BB. Sim = No Library.
Sim’s empty promise in 2010: Big plans for Bayan Baru mini library
https://www.thestar.com.my/news/community/2010/01/19/big-plans-for-bayan-baru-mini-library/#dOaJ7MUYOHRg8TGC.99
He said: “We have plans to get 10 computers for this library in the next two months and open classes for the senior citizens to become Internet savvy by teaching them how to use Facebook, blog, You Tube and even write e-mails to their grandchildren who are studying or living abroad,”
“We want to create not only a reading society but also a know-ledgeable society,” he said, adding that a coffee-corner would also be set up inside the mini library.
Ps: no mention of GBS.
Big tin kosong Sim, no library yet once even promised a coffee corner? I am going to invite Sim to Lorong Susu for kopi o session about the plights of BB B40.
BB B40 in need of a mini library (not big one as promised) now not sustainable by Sim. No wonder BB seniors and juniors alike now grow fast into furious mode!
Hashtag #SIM_BBNoLibrary going viral?
we cheated by not caring politician. thank you for the news. Deepavali more joy if we can have our mini library back. This library was done by Gerakan time. …. 8 years (after, it has been taken) away. Please replace one. We want simple one only.
All the big talks of digital library, but ended up bulls (with the ‘s’)!
BB voters truly played out by Sim.
No need digital library, but normal ones since Penang has many old folks (according to Sunday Star yesterday) who are not digital savvy!
You will be surprised many urban Baby Boomers (born between 1946 – 1964) are computer literate. A digital library certainly helps seniors in terms of free online access (goodbye to expensive data), social connectedness, friendship (not home alone), mental ‘greasing’ & of course butter fried Kopi-O kau kau.
Tunglang, u no under stood. U no been to library. Books needs to catalogued. Put into computer system for you to use apple computer at home or library to search. When books about to due, send reminders. Orso, those late, fine them. Those no return have to make them return or pay.
Don’t shout as funds are orso required to set up a library with a to z daily newspapers weekly or monthly magazines
Can’t even understand what is digital library, trying to shriek like an idiot! Pls lao go read pdf files, go Google, Kindle, etc. It’s all there in the www.
Why the hassle to catalog physical books, to shriek at those who borrow but don’t return books. And employ people to do these outdated chores.
Are you still in the 20th century circa library? Use your brain before you open your orifice!
Cannot make such comparisons because Malaysian drivers want wide road with no congestion for them to cruise comfortably and to allow fast and furious action at night.
Who wants to get struck in traffic or riding in jerks? Who wants to pollute more and increase global warning and sea level rise?
Fast & Furious & die young? What a way to live & waste life!
If there is such a thing as a life span bank account, I would love they deposit some of their life span into mine.
One life, why waste it on the highway of fast & furious???
a friend of mine called these youngsters temporary residents. I asked why. He said they wouldn’t be around for long.
Columbarium business is now good business as the asking prices go from Rm10K -Rm100K. Funeral with hitech music bands & psychedelic props for the young + trendy can do wonders to a deceased image: you can order a sleek + shiny fast + furious car as the leading vehicle in a last parade from the funeral parlour!
You invested your £€¥$¢ into this scheme?
Tung Lang’s new product investment scheme?
Pls try harder! Btw, Niao Kong is no more Pg CM, so no more dedak for useless spinning!
Do not forget religion promise them afterlife.
a way to live & waste life? then why mat remit and mat lajak still around?
it is all about thrills, ecstasy like getting high while on speed.
same as people smoke knowing the cancer risks, faham?
Ask the parents of Mat Rempits who have their life spans shortened!
Or those Rempits who are now paralysed or lost a leg or both!
Or why not try to be a Mat Rempit for the sheer thrills???
Faham after the fact of the consequences!
How about those who smoke despite cancer risk and life shortening? Addiction knows no consequences. Penyangak steals rakyat money despite knowing the consequences, be it present or after life.
Applaud The Forum for the analytical efforts, despite the fact that private car ownership to many is for binchui status telling acquaintances that they have arrived at certain height of social ladder. A driver may own a BMW to show off as business assurance and hehe or herher bank account is deficit.
Bank account is deficit & when fast & furious on highway leads to accident, cannot foot repair bills nor possibly pay traffic compound nor compensate damages to others’ cars! What a way to live miserably Bin-Chui!
need to be analytical to find out why people prefer to drive and not take public bus if so far all the reasons given by readers here could not convince the forum.
I dont think you need to be analytical to answer that question because its obvious why they dont.In this hot humid climate you are reluctant to walk even 1km to your bus stop and you dont want to wait for another half an hour or more for the bus to arrive,thats why.
Cannot compared to Singapore since its highway and MRT routes were planned long ago in the 60s. Penang has no planning at all for roads and highway, all done ad hoc because unlike Singapore cannot anyhow grab private (note Malay reserve land) for public infrastructure.
How to compare? Pg is trying to find buses to put on road and run. LKY employed Yankee consultant to plan. Yankee tell LKY to use buses. LKY throw it away and give birth to MRT. Today, what u see in singland? In Hong land, MRT carries 2/3 of the population.
Why sit in the bus or car for hours, burning fuel, warming the climate and smelling the foul air?
more cars so more roads needed, stating the obvious.
want less road, then make sure less cars around, simple as that.
no need to tell us what modal is.
don’t confuse to convince.
Should compare Penang with ASEAN cities like Bangkok, Jakarta and Manila.
How can use 3 advanced first world cities to compare with Penang?
Don’t Penang lang want Penang to be world class or does the Pakatan state government of Penang suffer from a third world mentality?
World class is LRT, pg forum third world thinking of bas only.
penang forum regards penang as first world city?
otherwise how else can they fool the ignoramus to believe their fantasy vision..
Wish readers of Anilnetto.com a joyful Deepavali.
Happy & Bright Diwali!
Not really accurate alot residents of Kedah and northern districts of Perak have Pg plates
Car with Pg plates now lower resale value because of flooding – buyers suspect car could have submerged in flood water.
Now even Penangites register their new cars with Kedah K plates, to safeguard resale value.
penang cars likely start stop often because of traffic jams and cause long term damage to overheated car engines and components, can result in lower resale value compared to kedah car usually on cruise mode less wear and tear.
Penang forum won’t tell you that Penang has larger land size than Singapore, higher numbers of vehicles with much smaller population…and therefore longer road length per capita…Penang forum is good at presenting half truth to destroy fact, guess this is their forte…hehe
Apart from land mass, aren’t those details reflected in the charts?
Sorry Penang forum, if you are trying hard to spin, try harder! Comparing road length per capita ?? Have you ever been to Singapore ?? Did you not see their 3 or 4 lanes highway?? Comparing to Penang just 1 major back bone road LCW?? And most roads in Penang have been built decades ago with just small and narrow road. Only your kind of people would believe and buy in your claim about length per capita. Please study harder will you ?
Kena CROSS-examined!
Try harder to see how others in Europe can run trams safely on narrow streets like in Italy. Try harder to look at the options instead of being fixated on LRTs or even dark + dangerous tunnels.
The first and third chart refer to Penang Island. Dunno about the second chart. Perhaps Anil can clarify.
If no no second chart, then third world mind.
You don’t need a dedicated bus lane 7/11 or 24/7. You just need the highway for peak hours 7pm to 9.30pm and 4.30 7.30 pm. Instantly pg can have most public transport lanes in the world. Remember those cities have other transport.
Bwt is it fair when these cities have trams and rail services. Singland does not need highway as like old Malaya the trunk roads are very good enough. Highways are to by pass certain towns like gopeng, kampar Ipoh tapah.
Anil what is your reaction to the new budget from PH? Can kickstart a new discussion on this?
If RON95 float above RM2.50, then the subsidy is meaningless. Many cannot think about this!
You are spot on bru.
But some cannot accept criticism of PH Budget. Already conditioned to ‘toe-the-line’.
Same with you. Criticise u, u ask for a fight. Seniors must examples la
Soda tax is timely.
Read this:
Sugar industry withheld possible evidence of cancer link 50 years ago, researchers say
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/amp/science/sugar-industry-withheld-possible-evidence-of-cancer-link-50-years-ago-researchers-say
https://www.theverge.com/platform/amp/2017/11/21/16684448/sugar-industry-health-effects-research-funding-project-259-heart-disease-cancer