Wednesday, September 20, 2023

Public Bus Services - Towns and rural areas must be a PRIORITY?

PAHANG - well, yet another IMPORTANT bus service is going, and the government(Federal/State/Local) simply fail to ensure that this is available in all towns and districts in Malaysia. Poor public transport forces people to buy cars and motorbikes - all of which will just increase living cost and debt.

Bas henti-henti laluan (Stop stop bus) -  YES many people need bus services that will stop near kampungs and tamans along its route, and for that you used to pay rates depending on where the stop is. This is different from express busses that travel from one town to another, where every passenger will have to pay the SAME ticket price.

There were people that wanted to get licences/permit to operate town buses, bus henti-henti, but it is very difficult to get permits - and now, the permits are controlled by Federal/State and not Local Government. In the previous Pakatan Rakyat States of Penang and Selangor, the respective State Governments provided town bus services or in-town bus services.

But, then when Malaysia started with its own car - Public Transport especially busses declined. The Local Government even fails to maintain or build good bus-stops(that will protect people from rain/sun). The bus-stops in town dissapears and so too the bus services.

PRIORITY - Local or in-town or in-District public bus services must be speedily restored, and the public encouraged to use public transport. This will decrease living cost, and even protect the environment. There should be a BUS-STOP every where, not more than 400 meters walk from Taman/Kampungs.

Now, Tamans are now spread out over a large area of each Local Government - and bus services must be available to all.

As the 'forced' use of private vehicles increase, another major problem is parking spaces...cars go round and round several times before finding a parking space. This lack of parking spaces impacts small business (I cannot find a spot means I go elsewhere to buy my goods). So big impact to SMEs - not the big supermarkets who have their own large parking areas at times - pity the small shops.

During the BN reign, small towns and rural areas were not a priority - Is Anwar's Pakatan Harapan any different? 

 

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