MALAYSIA has 40.77 million registered vehicles as of Sept 30, but only 26.6 million, or 65.3%, are active, the Transport Ministry said.
Of the active vehicles, almost 16 million are cars and 9.57 million are motorcycles.
The number of registered vehicles stood at 38.7 million at the end of 2024, while 1.62 million new vehicles were registered last year, including about 847,000 cars and 703,000 motorcycles.
“The high number of registrations shows that the public’s dependence on private vehicles is still high,” the ministry said in a written reply.
It was replying to Zahari Kechik (PN-Jeli), who asked about the long-term impact of such dependence and plans to ease congestion in Kuala Lumpur, the Klang Valley, Johor Baru, Penang and other major cities.
The ministry said the increase in private vehicles on the road would result in worsening congestion, a higher risk of accidents and longer travel times.
This, in turn, would affect productivity and wellbeing while increasing travel costs and air pollution, it added.
To address this, the ministry listed three strategies, namely strengthening public transport, targeted traffic management and shifting more cargo to rail.
In the Klang Valley, the ministry said the LRT Shah Alam Line, which opened on June 29 and links Bandar Utama to Johan Setia via Shah Alam and Klang, is projected to record 67,000 passenger trips a day in its first year of operations.
In Johor, the Electric Train Service to JB Sentral will be linked to the Johor Baru-Singapore Rapid Transit System (RTS) Link between Bukit Chagar and Woodlands North.
In Penang, the Mutiara LRT Line, which is under construction, is expected to begin operations in December 2031, linking Bayan Lepas, Penang International Airport, George Town and Penang Sentral in Seberang Perai.
The ministry said this would benefit more than 1.8 million island residents and communities in Seberang Perai, southern Kedah and northern Perak, as well as an estimated 3.5 million visitors a year.
On traffic management, it said artificial intelligence was being used to adjust traffic light timings based on real-time traffic density.
Automatic number plate recognition cameras linked to the Road Transport Department’s MySIKAP system can also detect moving vehicles with expired road tax or insurance, reducing the need for physical roadblocks, it added.
The ministry said the Cabinet Committee on Road Safety and Congestion, chaired by the Deputy Prime Minister, was coordinating these efforts.
