Closer to Reality

It seems that the winds are blowing again. While I do foresee that this congestion charge plan would eventually become a reality, I doubt it would take any form in the near future; primarily because of the upcoming general elections. Then they'd have to take months to conduct a feasibility study, then run it through the cabinet and then Parliament blah blah, it'll probably take a year or two; that is if the protests haven't stopped it dead in its tracks by then...

What I am more concerned about is the fact that there has been minimal, if any, improvement in our Klang Valley public transport system; it has to be improved before congestion charges are implemented. Otherwise there would not be any benefit to road users in Kuala Lumpur, apart from the connected few which stand to reap the impending monetary harvest. Obviously the promise early in this year when petrol subsidies were cut to use the savings to improve public transport has come to nought.

This plan is still a long way from seeing daylight. We shall see whether it eventually will come to fruition.

The Bad and The Good

After writing the piece on public transport a few days back, I thought I'd give RapidKL and Transport Ministry benefit of the doubt and take public transport for my shopping session this morning. The choice was easy: Midvalley Megamall - mainly because there is a bus that goes from my place directly there. Getting there was the easy part. Getting back was the problem. There were no buses back to my place even after waiting for 45 minutes. Not to mention the heat and exhaust fumes I had to endure waiting all that time at the bus stop. So I was forced to hop on a bus to KL Sentral and wait for the bus there - it came after a grand total of 1 hour! I even had time to slowly finish my chocolate milkshake. Now this would be the last time I take a bus to Megamall; I'll pay for the parking because the time wasted waiting for the bus is not worth the extra ringgits.

View from the linkway to the KTM Komuter station

A view from the bus on my way back; it's gonna rain!

But let's talk about the positives today. I bought a DVD disc cake-pack and found out that my DVD-writer actually still works! So that means I've freed up some 15GB of space on my hard disk - enough for this year's TV season. And I got myself this cute little MP3 player - Creative Zen Stone - the 1GB storage may seem tiny, but then again I don't have that many songs to fit in. Thought initially of getting iPod, but the price put me off a bit. And yes, I am still that frugal, thrifty person I was all this while.

My blur, tiny but working Zen Stone

So I'm off to Ipoh and Butterworth tomorrow for yet another three days; after that I hope to have an enjoyable Hari Raya before ending up in Johor Baru next week. Wish me luck!

Flabbergasted!

Coming in the wake of the inevitable toll-charge increases next year, we find yet another increase on the horizon. Or the planned congestion charge for drivers entering Kuala Lumpur. Although this comes as a shock to many, I am not the least surprised, as the pass-through effect of petrol and toll increases would ultimately have to be borne by the consumers. But what flabbergasts me is that the proposed increase comes in the wake of inadequate and poorly-planned public transport system (at least here in KL, and far worse elsewhere).

A few years back, it was promised that the reduction in petrol subsidies were meant to be channeled into improving the public transport system - two years down the road, I still wonder where the improvement lies, and more importantly where all the money went. Maybe to the civil service pay-hike. The question still remains: will we ever experience the promised improvement in public transport? The LRT is still jam-packed during rush hour; taxis are still charging at their whims; public buses are still late and infrequent. And these people wonder why so many still drive their single-occupancy vehicles to work?

Some quarters in the ruling coalition do not like Malaysia to be compared to its southern neighbour (maybe because it's not a country, but I think it's more out of shame) - look at its public transport system and take a leaf out of its book. Their public transport companies actually make money! And how many bus companies alone in KL have gone bust over the years? Will so-called RapidKL go down the same path? It's about time our government humble ourselves and learn the proper way to plan and manage public transport, not for their sake (because the cronies can't make money here), but for the sake of Malaysians! Please...

Accident waiting to happen

What is there left to say? Motorcyclists waiting out the rain under an overhead bridge is all a too common sight. I guess this is an an accident waiting to happen... It is about time the government build proper waiting areas for these motorcyclists to wait it out! They are available on the North-South Highway you know...just find a suitable location to build them!

How many deaths does it take for the government to take action? Judging from their previous actions - a great deal more. Meanwhile every rainy day is Russian roulette for motorcyclists...