THE best option to mitigate Penang's worsening traffic congestion is for the people to now use the Rapid Penang stage bus or ride sharing services.
This is because private vehicle ownership in Penang is among the nation's highest at 95% of households with some families owning up to three vehicles, Zairil Khir Johari said, adding, for now, the best redress is using public transport.
To worsen the matter, the roads in Penang are aged and encounter over-capacity to handle over two million vehicles crossing its tiny stretches almost daily.
"Penang definitely wants to encourage Penangites to use public transport and that’s why we have invested a lot in the last few years. Although public transport is under the federal side, the state has spent a lot of funds to subsidise charter bus routes (such as the CAT George Town, CAT Bridge, CAT Bridge BM) and also subsidising the Mutiara monthly pass," said the Penang state executive councillor.
Zairil, who oversees traffic management and infrastructure, said that monthly commuters, who use the Rapid Penang bus services, are doing it for free.
He implored on Penangites to water down their expectations and opt for public transport.
"Our road network is underdeveloped. Hence it gets clogged up easily," said Zairil.
"Of course, the more people use public transport, the lesser our roads will be congested. But at the same time, bear in mind that our only existing public transport right now is the bus system (and the ferry) pending completion of LRT, and buses also use the same roads so it’s a difficult situation and why we need to invest both in more public transport as well as road infrastructure."
Zairil made these observations while supporting the Penang Island City Council (MBPP) and its Lord Mayor Datuk Anthony Rajendran, who decided to hike up public parking charges by 40% to encourage more road users to use the bus or ride sharing services.
MBPP will also impose time limit on parking lots along the tourism belt of Chulia Street and Little India while five main town roads would be under constant monitoring to deter double parking and reckless driving.
Zairil said that pending the completion of the LRT and other highway bypasses, it is laudable if commuters can consider public transport services.
Penang is also mulling congestion charges during peak hours as part of efforts to reduce the jams, which has now become notoriously part of the traffic system.
In the past an average travelling time between the Penang International Airport in Bayan Lepas to George Town used to take 30 minutes.
Now, it may even reach 90 minutes due to peak hours and if a road mishap occurs, the jams are worsened, especially if there are public festive gatherings. - March 6, 2025
