A STRETCH of road in Penang’s Pulau Tikus suburb has become a microcosm of the painful relationship between change and loss.
This flashpoint centred on a 140m section of Jalan Burma, a narrow thoroughfare just over 9m across.
Both sides of the road are painted with double yellow lines, reinforced with no-stopping road signs.
This means no stopping at all; not to wait, not to drop off a passenger, not to hop into the coffeeshop for a pack of kopi peng.
During peak hours, police and traffic wardens are stationed there, ready to issue summonses.
When authorities installed high railings to stop the illegal parking, the result was an outcry from the shopkeepers whose businesses instantly suffered.
They tied white banners with Chinese and Malay text that expressed their distress.
“All fenced up, business now tough. Begged desperately to YB. Got nowhere. Who will save us?”
Pulau Tikus assemblyman Joshua Woo did go to the shops and explained at length why the authorities needed to deter motorists from stopping along the road, which previously caused traffic snarls often stretching beyond 1km.
I used to regularly see motorists parking on the double yellow line, even right below the no-stopping signs, to run into the shops.
It is hard to do now unless they are agile enough to vault over the barricade.
Change always carries a cost. While eventual benefits may follow, the accompanying loss –exactly what the shops are experiencing – almost always appears first.
When the Kuala Lumpur-Ipoh stretch of the North-South Expressway (NSE) opened in the late 80s, towns along the old trunk road like Behrang, Tapah, Temoh, Kampar and Gopeng became quiet almost overnight.
High railings have been installed here along Jalan Burma in Pulau Tikus, Penang to prevent illegal parking. — LIM BENG TATT/The Star
No longer would motorists stop for a bite, buy fruits and local delights or get fuel.
But that does not mean the NSE should not have been built.
The shops along this narrow stretch of Jalan Burma face a similar conundrum.
Built in the 1800s, Jalan Burma started out as little more than a trail.
It became a two-way street at the end of that century when the country’s first reservoir was built in 1892 in Penang Botanic Gardens.
There was no such thing as piped water then, so this road was for a constant flow of creaking bullock carts bearing wooden barrels of water to sell in George Town, which was booming at the time.
So many bullock carts plied this road that it was called Jalan Kreta Ayer and Gu Chia Chui (Penang Hokkien for bullock cart water).
How times have changed, and how times are changing still.
What used to be a road once meant for bullock carts evolved into a major thoroughfare connecting Batu Ferringhi and Tanjung Bungah with George Town.
Every stretch of the 3.7km Jalan Burma that could be widened has been widened over the decades, except for this 140m- long, 9m-wide stretch with its old shops right by the roadside.
A private carpark has been built along this stretch with 190 bays.
Motorists who would like to patronise the shops nearby now have to pay to park instead of stopping illegally on the double yellow lines.
