More vehicles than Penangites is an issue

Drive culture: The recent traffic situation at Penang Bridge heading to the island. — CHAN BOON KAI/The Star

GEORGE TOWN: How many vehicles do Penangites own? The short answer is: So many that there are more vehicles than Penangites.

As life returns to normalcy, streets that were nearly empty for over a year are filling up with gridlock traffic in Penang again, reminding locals of jams that were part of the daily drudgery, especially during rush hour and festive seasons.

Looking at the returning issue, experts feel that the first problem lies in the number of vehicles Penangites own, while the second is the absence of a mass public transport system, in particular, between the island and mainland.

State Road Transport Department (JPJ) director Adenan Md Isa said as at June 2021, there were 2,778,681 private vehicles registered in Penang, slightly more than double the state population of 1.3 million.

“There are at least two vehicles for every one person in the state,” he said.

This is a huge difference from the national statistics, because according to Asean Secretariat’s data compilation, Malaysia has 896.7 vehicles per 1,000 people in 2017.

Penang JPJ records show that of the 2.7 million vehicles here, about 1.1 million are cars, 1.5 million motorcycles, 4,823 buses, 4,111 taxis, 90,207 lorries and 3,280 rental cars. As for the number of those vehicles with active road taxes, there are about 1.7 million.

Adenan said from JPJ’s observations, the high number of vehicles here is not the only reason for traffic congestion in Penang but the size of roads, which cannot be altered due to land scarcity, may be another reason.

He feels Penang could benefit from a mass public transport system.

He said parking bays could be built at such public transport stations for commuters to get there on their own transport and then use the public transport system to reach commercial and industrial centres.

Transport expert Dr Rosli Azad Khan agreed that the main problem with Penang’s transport system is the absence of a mass transit system, especially for the heavy movement of people between the island and mainland.

Seberang Perai, he pointed out, has a larger population than the island and many commute by bridge to the Bayan Lepas free trade zone where most of the jobs are located.

Rosli, who is the managing director of a transport consultancy in Selangor, said roads and bridges have finite capacities and the daily convergence of traffic will consume that capacity quickly, leading to reduced traffic speed, congestion, accidents and delays.

He said the immediate and cheap solution is a high capacity road-based tram system along existing high movement corridors in place of vehicular traffic.

This would entail turning one lane along Penang Bridge, for example, into a tram line, he said, adding that a rapid tram could carry 200 to 300 people in one go.

“A rapid system means a high-frequency service. A tram can be made available every five minutes, so within an hour, you get 12 trams multiplied by 200 to 300 passengers each. That is a reduction of some 2,000 to 3,000 cars within that hour,” he said.

Rosli opined that minibuses could be used in Penang to provide last-mile connectivity.

Malaysian Land Public Transport Fan Club Cheong Sze Hoong Zac said although Penang has seen improvements in public transport using buses, it is not enough.

He said the various bus routes are helping but are not enough to solve both traffic congestion and encourage motorists to use them.

“Penang does not have bus lane infrastructure nor enough buses to make the trips so frequent that everyone can rely on them,” he pointed out.