Good public transportation depends on the right system

The government aims to achieve 40 per cent public transport usage by 2030. -NSTP/EIZAIRI SHAMSUDIN

LETTERS: The Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system uses better fare collection system, road design, and bus station facility to optimise the reliability and efficiency of bus to encourage people to use public transport.

The BRT was born in Curitiba, a city in Brazil in the 1970s. Today, BRT in different shapes and sizes can be found in more than 170 cities around the world. One of them is in Klang Valley.

Malaysia launched the first BRT in 2015, connecting Subang Jaya to Bandar Sunway. It has seven stations serving 16,500 passengers a day.

Johor is implementing a RM2.56 billion large-scale BRT, with 39 stations, to begin operation in 2022. Sarawak had initially planned for BRT in Kuching but later turned to consider the sleek-looking autonomous rail rapid transit instead. Penang is studying feasibility of having BRT on the mainland.

The government aims to achieve 40 per cent public transport usage by 2030. BRT could help to achieve the target. Authorities, however, need to study the benefits, weaknesses, and best adaptation of BRT for each locality.

One BRT system for planners to study is Bogota’s Transmilenio, the first recipient of the ‘Sustainable Transport Award’ by the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP).

Transmilenio is a large-scale BRT that started operation in 2000 and managed to shorten average travel time by 22 per cent, reduced air pollutants by 40 per cent and road collision by 79 per cent, increased the city’s GDP by 1 per cent, and won more than 90 per cent public approval in its opening year.

The Transmilenio was called “the best bus system in the world” by Bogota’s former mayor Enrique Penalosa, a “success story” by Petaling Jaya MP Maria Chin Abdullah, and “the world’s most successful BRT” by Penang Forum’s Lim Mah Hui. The Transmilenio was crowned the “Jewel of Bogota” and often showcased by think tanks such as ITDP as “model for replication” to promote BRT to policymakers.

Then the system started to break. Overcrowding became too frequent. Passengers have to wait up to 40 minutes to enter the station, before another long wait to board the sardine-packed buses. Although BRT buses use dedicated lanes, there are still road space with accident risk, for example, junction, pedestrian path, and merging road.

Collision involving Transmilenio buses is not uncommon with an average of six cases per day. The BRT meant to reduce private car usage but daily cars on Bogota streets increased by 153 per cent from 509,000 in 2002 to 1,290,000 in 2012. The pent-up frustration against the Transmilenio escalated into public riots in 2012, with five BRT stations destroyed.

By 2015, the popularity of the “Jewel of Bogota” fell to 20 per cent. Some are calling it “the worst transportation system implemented in a city”. Despite having one of the largest BRT systems on the planet, Bogota was ranked as the world’s most congested city in 2019 Inrix Global Traffic Scorecard, rose from being the third worst in previous year.

Besides BRT, there are other transport systems such as light rail transit and mass rapid transit that are more efficient and pose less traffic problems. Newly developed middle-range magnetic levitated train known as ‘maglev’ has added to the variety.

If Malaysia wants to make public transportation a mainstream choice of mobility, we have to start now with the right system, adopt the best practices while anticipating problems with solution.

JOSHUA WOO

FORMER COUNCILLOR OF SEBERANG PRAI COUNCIL