Make it costly to drive into downtown KL

Many loath the costly act of driving in central London, but making it an expensive proposition has freed the city of the perpetual gridlock that once plagued it.
Central London is now ringed with a phalanx of "C" signs to demarcate the congestion zone where a charge of STG8 applies to almost all vehicles from 7am to 6pm on weekdays.

If the congestion charge is not a strong enough deterrent, parking is a wallet-buster in London, costing in the range of STG1.50 (RM7.28) for a very short while to STG32 (RM155.20) for a full day. Overnight parking costs STG12 (RM58.20).

And don't even think of parking illegally, for cameras are everywhere looking down like hawks for anything from crime to illegal parking and violation of the congestion zone rule. They say, too, that in London, parking rule enforcers can smell an illegally parked vehicle from a mile away.

London did not introduce its tough traffic laws overnight. It started by ensuring that commuters had other viable options.

Today, drivers who must pass the city centre to get to their destinations may use a ring road that circles central London just outside of the congestion zone. No charges apply when driving on the London ring road. Then there are the efficient London Underground and, for mass surface transportation, the London Bus.

London was not the first city to make driving expensive to free roads from traffic jams. Singapore did it first by introducing the Electronic Road Pricing system and, like London, it started by first putting in place a comprehensive public transportation system.

There is no road pricing system in Manhattan in New York, but, like London, parking is costly, that is, if one is lucky enough to find a spot.

Malaysia, in particular Kuala Lumpur, has been looking at introducing similar measures for many years. However, the authorities have not really got down to implementing them. As a result, even after billions were spent on building first-class roads and expressways around the city, central Kuala Lumpur remains largely clogged with vehicles.

The government has several times in the past toyed with the idea of introducing toll for vehicles entering downtown Kuala Lumpur. It has also looked at ways to penalise single-occupant vehicles (SOVs) entering the city during peak hours. None of these measures have been implemented, largely on account of strong objection from the public, which, in Malaysia, could also mean an additional political risk.

Instead, Kuala Lumpur built a light rail transit (LRT) system, created special lanes for buses and built a comprehensive ring road around the city.

But drivers largely ignore the rules and still drive in the bus lanes. Commuters continue to be reluctant to leave their cars at home unless the LRT station is in front of their doorstep.

There is talk now of a bigger mass rapid transit system being planned, and the just-established Land Public Transport Commission has said that its primary objectives include looking into the traffic situation in Kuala Lumpur.

Past experience, however, has shown that just building a new mass transit system, new roads and deploying more buses will not solve Kuala Lumpur's traffic problems.

Something must be done to make driving into the city centre during peak hours a very unattractive and last option. The government should seriously look at what London, Singapore and New York City have done.

by Mustapha Kamil

Business Times