Traffic congestion is real, needs to have comprehensive solution to combat problem

SHAH ALAM – Worsening traffic congestion is not an illusion faced as we enter the transition to endemic after two years of working from home, but it is a real situation.

It was reported that there are over 30 million registered vehicles in the country, which have passed the total population in Malaysia last year alone.

Transportation System Expert Assoc Prof Dr Masria Mustafa said congestion is real and not a myth especially with the increasing number of vehicles on the road.

This, coupled with the ethics and attitudes of different drivers might seriously impact the situation even more.

“We found out at that we cannot simply control the drivers behaviour because everybody would behave differently when they are behind the wheels and of course they might come up with all kinds of behaviour that might distract themselves from focusing on the traffic,”

Discussing the issue concerning traffic ban on heavy vehicles to enter the city during peak hour, she said it was not a new regulation but it was ignored by some people.

"Recently, there was suddenly a congestion scenario that cannot be controlled and Kuala Lumpur City Hall suddenly mentioned that they banned 7.5 tons of vehicles from entering the city,” she said.

Dr Masria however said people tend to forget about the number of heavy vehicles that enter the city centre between the time, which could also contribute to congestion.

“You have the restrictions in KL, but you do not have it for the whole area, so all those opportunists might try to find a way to get to their location very quickly through other red-runs, which will somehow make other places congested.

“(So) some people in Shah Alam, still stuck in Petaling Jaya because the vehicle is there, not in KL,” she said.

Therefore, she urged the relevant authority to take a look into the matter and look into bigger scenarios before imposing any regulations that focus not only on a specific city council, but nationwide.

Dr Masria was a panellist at Sinar Daily's live talk show Wacana English Edition titled "Rethinking Malaysia's Transport Systems”, where she shared the stage with former Transport Minister Anthony Loke and Transport Studies Professor Prof Datuk Ahmad Farhan Mohd Sadullah.