Why can't you get a bus to Parliament?

I want to pick up on Dipen's point about public transport. No doubt the government will say that they have already announced more investments in public transportation. But we have yet to see the fruits of this. How long will it take?

If the government is truly committed to responding to the rising price of fuel, it should immediately consider conservation measures, both direct and indirect. I can think of 4:

1. All ministers, deputy ministers, senior civil servants and judges who currently drive government cars from Putrajaya to Kuala Lumpur or vice versa should henceforth use KL Transit. There is a decent enough bus system from any part of Putrajaya to the train terminal, and from there it is about 15 minutes to KL Sentral. Of course not enough people do it at the moment, which is why the U82 bus route, which is the only Rapid KL bus to pass anywhere near Parliament, doesn't even have a proper covered bus stop anywhere along Jalan Duta for people to alight. And when one gets down, there is no safe route to walk to Parliament. Until and unless ministers and deputy ministers, senior civil servants and other policy makers literally walk the talk and actually use public transport, our entire urban planning perspective will be skewed towards car ownership and use. Because the people who do the planning are not pedestrians. And because if we actually promote the use of public transport, what will happen to our national car policy?

2. We need more feeder buses on the roads. It is not enough to simply have the LRT system. People need to speedily and efficiently get to the stations. If you have to wait between 30 minutes to one hour for a feeder bus, you will give up and drive instead. And if the feeder bus takes you to your nearest station which is actually in the opposite direction of where you are headed, you are definitely not going to use it.

3. Have more covered walkways linking major buildings to public transport hubs. If people are going to get wet, they are going to stay in their cars. There is no way to walk from KL Sentral to the MIDA building and remain dry when it is raining. Or from the U82 bus stop to Parliament. Or from Ampang Park to any building along Jalan Tun Razak. You try and see.

4. Enforce traffic laws, especially at pedestrian crossings. If people don't feel safe walking our streets and crossing our roads, they won't risk getting out of their cars to use public transport. When was the last time you saw a motorist get ticketed for stopping on a pedestrian crossing? Or a motorcyclist ticketed for riding on the pedestrian pavement? Or a car ticketed for parking on the pedestrian pavement?

Andrew Khoo Chin Hock