LETTER | Resolve our public transportation woes

LETTER | All political parties contesting in the upcoming general elections must address systemic public transportation problems affecting Malaysians.

Hence, the Association for Improvement of Mass Transit Malaysia (Transit Malaysia) has outlined nine key points that political parties and their candidates should focus on, if they were to campaign for public transit improvements.

On public transport services, Transit Malaysia proposes intercity and intracity bus services using existing highways in the Klang Valley, the development of Bus Rapid Transit systems throughout Malaysian cities and frequent bus lines crossing smaller town centres.

KTM Komuter Utara and KTM East Coast Line, for example, should increase their frequencies to benefit communities in rural and small towns.

In our view, highway networks built over the decades were not aimed at alleviating urban congestion. Therefore, political parties must propose alternative transportation systems to it.

In addition, we also urge our leaders to set up a fund to maintain sidewalks and street infrastructure, with priority given to improving facilities for those from the vulnerable and disabled in order to create more walkable cities.

Local councils should also be given more leeway to plan infrastructure at their localities and we need to create regional-level transport planning authorities.

This would allow transportation master plans to be planned and executed efficiently.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.