Public Transportation: How To Improve According To Malaysians

We all know public transportation in Malaysia is a bit of a mixed bag - to put it delicately - but exactly what is holding us back? We ask real Malaysians, the so-called netizens, for some answers….

Driving vs public transport

We get it, moving around the densest parts of Malaysia (ahem…Klang Valley) can be pretty stressful even for seasoned drivers, especially during morning and even rush hour. If you’re driving, only a handful of options to surmount this problem are presented to you:

• Get behind the wheel and endure the traffic jams as they come.
• Plan ahead and preferably leave early enough to circumvent the congestion.
• Take public transportation.

Should you attempt that 3rd option, outside factors will definitely play into whether your commute situation is made easier or more difficult: distance, public transport coverage, expected journey time. It’ll most definitely be the cheaper option compared to using a personal vehicle or even an e-hailing service, but will that trade-off be worth it?

While we have our own ideas about what might improve our public transportation network, we got a sample of interesting suggestions/answers after we posed the question to the readership of Carlist.my.

Mind you, these responses were gathered over a period of just over 24 hours after the post was made on Facebook, in which time it amassed over 100 comments.

Disclaimer: We cannot guarantee or vouch for the coherence or rationale of these responses. Here we go.

What do Malaysians say? 

Rizza Abas:

Seperti biasa, saya mencadangkan Pegawai² tertinggi PBT yang kritikal dengan kesesakkan dalam bandar untuk buat lawatan ke negara² yang maju seperti Singapura, Australia, Germany, Switzerland dan Hong Kong. Lihat bagaimana usaha mereka atas semua itu.

Cukup masa, pegawai² yang dah pergi 'lawatan sambil belajar' tu akan berpindah jabatan lain.....mana yang PTD tu akan ke kementerian lain pulak. Lagi 3-4 tahun, group lain pula akan ke sana lagi.

Adrian Chin:

I think the main thing is accessibility, its a broken system when, to get to the public transportation, you need to drive.

Harith Merican:

The politician have screwed up our whole public transport system . There are 7 rail system in KL. Cost goes up for public use. Overhead cost multiply by 7 group of people. System not integrated fir users.

Richard Quek:

Public transport route should be planned according to requirement of area (traffic conditions, demographic) rather than political driven.

WanzLatiffr Rachman:

Remove fuel subsidy and use that money to improve public transport.

There's certainly plenty of variety when it comes to the proposed solutions offered by everyday Malaysians. We can all agree that political interests has no place in the planning or execution of civil projects, but most would disagree that improving public transportation should come at the expense of our cherished fuel subsidies as that last commenter suggested.

If you'd like to chime in yourself, the Facebook thread can be found here.