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View of a congested Tun Dr Lim Chong Eu Expressway - does Penang need more roads? (19 January 2011)
© Timothy Tye using this photo
Does Penang need more roads? I am writing this in response to plans by the state government to build two new highways on Penang Island, and particularly to concerns raised by non-governmental organisations over the plan. The two highways proposed comprise a 4.2 km inner ring road connecting Gurney Drive with the Tun Dr Lim Chong Eu Expressway, and a 4.6 km tunnel-road linking Paya Terubong and Farlim to the inner ring road. I find myself swimming against the current for throwing my support over the plan to build highways.
While I fully agree that the state government should improve public transport, I do believe the state government is working hard to improve public transport, and as members of the public, we should through our support behind the government's work.
I do not agree with the generalisation made by someone from an NGO, that "studies have shown that building more roads only encourages people to buy more cars and this in turn lead to an increase in traffic volume." This is once again a dangerous assumption made from so-called "studies" that are plucked from the air. Show us the study, where was it made, when, in which city, is the city's transport issues compatible with ours>. We cannot claim that building any road will lead to more cars.
First of all, we need to understand what sort of roads we have, and how we can improve towards having the type of roads in "developed cities" such as Singapore and Hong Kong. For this, I refer to a document from the Penang State Government.
In this document, it acknowledges that Penang lacks a clear road hierachy. Unlike Hong Kong and Singapore, it does not have highways and bypasses that take the traffic in and out of the city during peak hours. That is why there is so much congestion. I believe that document was written many years ago, as we now do have the Tun Dr Lim Chong Eu Expressway, which helps somewhat.
The state government document also points out that roads meant as district distributors including Green Lane, Scotland Road, Ayer Itam Road and Gottlieb Road, are also required to function as highways and bypasses.
What Penang needs are highways that function as highways. Such roads do not also play the role of district distributors already played by the existing main roads. The highways should be limited access roads, where traffic enters only at specific interchanges, not out of people's driveway. Without building such proper highways to quickly move traffic in and out of George Town, the traffic congestion woes will persist, with or without more cars.
I fully disagree that building more roads will encourage people from buying more cars. Building roads - especially highways - doesn't encourage people from buying cars, making cars affordable does. If we want fewer cars on the road, we can raise the tax on cars so that a Proton Saga costs a million ringgit, or a liter of petrol costs ten thousand ringgit. That will discourage people from buying cars. Alternatively we can chop off the heads of all new car buyers. That will discourage people from even contemplating buying cars, and perhaps reduce the population density of Penang.
Of course I am speaking tongue in cheek. To be exact, what I am saying is that, there are other barriers that can be erected to discourage people from unnecessarily adding to the congestion. For this, we can look to emulate Singapore.
Penang has 2,000 km of roads while Singapore has 3,000 km. At the same time, its car/person ratio is 1:6 compared to 1:3 in Penang. (From the same State Government document). Singapore is crisscrossed with numerous highways. It knows that highways are vital for its economic lifeblood. Highways allow goods to be moved rapidly from place to place. At the same time, it makes driving impractically expensive for most commuters, while ensuring that commuters are provided rapid transit.
This is what the State and Federal Governments are doing with the introduction of the Rapid Penang buses. Through this website, I am one of the biggest supporters of the Rapid Penang bus, encouraging people to try it and use it, and giving them some of the clearest route maps.
The solution to Penang's traffic dispersal likes not in building more roads, but rather building the right ones. There should be a three-step approach. Step one should be the construction of highways and bypasses that connect the different townships on the island. These should take over the role being presently played by local main roads, which is a contributing factor to congestions. Commuters moving from township to township should be able to do that without having to wade through local traffic.
Once the proper roads are in place - and presently it is not - Step Two would be to further improve on the local public transport. This includes having bus routes connecting all the townships in the state. All bus stops should be numbered and should display precise details of bus routes.
Once the public transportation has been improved, then Step Three is to discourage commuters from driving their own vehicles. This may take various forms including the implementation of the Electronic Road Pricing, increase in the price of cars, road tax and petrol. All these will make driving prohibitively expensive in the face of readily available and cheap public transport.
Unless Steps One and Two are properly implemented, it is difficult to prevent people from buying cars. Forcing the issue will only impact of the local economy, as people relocate to cities with better infrastructure.
In conclusion, while I agree that public transport such as buses should continously be improved including the building of dedicated bus lanes, I don't agree that highways should not be built. Also, I am quite concerned that NGO's without a good picture of the situation will stay public opinion negatively to the public's own detriment.
  
   
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