The importance of transport, and how it may affect property prices and human productivity.
We all know about the importance of public transport. For one, it
takes us into the busiest place in the shortest period of time (yes, I
am talking about Kuala Lumpur), provided that it has its own personal
road/rail/tunnel etc. It is also cost saving at the individual level
(excluding car pooling for some cases) and most important of all,
environmental friendly. Now would not this be a better Malaysia, if
people were to use public transport more often?
My transport experience in Melbourne
I just recently got back from my three years of study in Melbourne,
and I do not own a car there because it was not necessary to own one. In
Malaysia however, a car can be categorised under essential goods. We
relied too heavily on our personal vehicles to get to work, university,
travel and/or even going out to the market which is a five to ten
minutes walk away from home!
Unlike my three year stay in Melbourne, I can do all these through
public transport alone with hardly any worries of ever being late!
Public transport in Melbourne, I dare say, has fulfilled all my general
transporting requirements from grocery shopping to work, university and
even out for a holiday!
Unlike Australia, most of my Malaysian friends who recently entered
college or just started working have already gotten a car on their own
or from their parents. Their reason, “it’s hard to get around in KL
without a car”. After getting a car, fresh graduates will then complain
about having to commit 25% of their monthly income to petrol and car
installments and parking spaces everyday while those in Melbourne only
complain about trains being three to five minutes late.
Actually, these complaints are the least of their worries. Having no
choice but to take roughly an hour to reach home because of the traffic
on a journey that is usually 10 minutes or less is another pain in the
butt. We are already forced to spend lesser time with our families by
working on occasional weekends. Yet, we still have to waste our lives on
the road. A simple Subang or Petalling Jaya resident working in KL
wastes about 80 minutes (40 minutes for one way) a day for 5 days a
week. That is equivalent to a loss of about 6 hours a week! Imagine if
Malaysia relies heavily on public transport (such as Melbourne), I dare
say that I can reach home in half the time than my current situation.
The difference between Melbourne train system, Metro and KL’s train system.
Metro, Melbourne’s lifeline train company is more efficient than our
average KTM, Monorail, LRT etc all combined. Actually, it cannot be
compared to the Malaysian train system at all! The difference between
these two is one, efficiency, two, price relative to purchasing power
and the ticket’s traveling frequency and three, the train’s capacity. I
will leave out the first as it is obvious and need not be explained
further.
Price Relative to Purchasing Power and the Ticket’s Travelling Frequency
I pay about $10 (RM32) per day for UNLIMITED transport usage. In
Malaysia, if I were to take the LRT and the monorail, I will be paying
about RM8 for just 2 ways. I have not included the bus fare home or
other fares should my boss suddenly ask me to go meet up a client.
Train Size/Capacity
For trains that only operate very close to or within Kuala Lumpur,
the frequency is fairly often, which is a good thing. But the amount of
passengers it can carry at one time is VERY VERY small. In Melbourne,
their city heart-line, Metro, operate their trains at the size of KTM
trains (with many more fleets of trains, unlike KTM of course). Metro
transports passengers from as far as Cranbourne to Melbourne CBD in one
hour. That is as far as Kuala Lumpur to Seremban. Furthermore, the train
frequency during busy hours can range from 5 to 10 minutes or even
lesser!
What causes this difference? Why are people not driving to the city?
1. Expensive Parking Fees. Why not utilize the efficient public transport instead?
How
did the Melbourne government made their people take the public
transport instead of driving their own car? For starters, parking in
Melbourne is ridiculously expensive. A typical parking lot in Melbourne
CBD can cost up to $3 (RM10) to $10 (RM32) per hour! Even though cars
are more affordable there, this move have successfully changed the
mindset of Melbournians because having to pay (for example) $30 (RM96) a
day, five days a week is psychologically more painful (and more
expensive in the long run) than paying $6000 (RM19,200) for the car.
2. Efficiency
Probably the
most important reason for this difference would be the accessibility of
public transport in Australia. This will be surprising for Malaysians
because we have not experience the life of efficient public transport
and hence may find it hard to believe. In Melbourne, public transport is
highly accessible. When I say highly, I mean HIGHLY. Those living close
to the CBD area can hop onto the tram anytime (and pretty much anywhere
too). Trams have their somewhat private road where cars cannot simply
just enter; giving easier access for trams to move and reach their
destination on time.
3. Fuel Prices and Environmental Reasons
Fuel
is also another determining factor. Malaysian fuel is highly
subsidised, unlike Australia. Furthermore, the average Australian is
much “greener” than the average Malaysian and hence, chooses to walk or
rely on public transport instead of private ones.
The Effect caused by this difference
Those that have never been overseas will fail to see this. Kuala
Lumpur is very dense when compared to Melbourne. As mentioned earlier,
Metro can ferry passengers during busy hours at the FULL CAPACITY of KTM
trains in every 5 to 10 minutes or less. What this creates is people
living further away but can still come to the heart of the city on time
without having the need to wake up before dawn just to catch the early
train or risk lining up for a later train during peak hours.
Furthermore, there are plenty of condos in PJ and KL. Assume a large
plot of land having the capacity to fit 40 average houses, with each
house owning two cars per family (80 cars for 40 families). Instead of
building 40 houses, condos with the capacity to fit 240 families plus
two parking lots per condo were built. This averages out to roughly
about 480 cars but let’s be conservative and assume 400 cars instead.
Now, use this logic/formula for the amount of condos, apartments and
flats in Kuala Lumpur, and tell me, HOW ON EARTH are we suppose to cope
for the future as more and more condos are being built EVERYDAY?
One more thing to note, there are not that many condos in Melbourne
compared to KL and PJ. It is mostly houses. The same for Seoul, Korea
and many other developed nations with the exception of a few places such
as Hong Kong, Singapore and Japan.
Imagine the possibility of having people from Seremban coming to KL
for work everyday. Would that not allow the majority of KL and Petaling
Jaya people to move further outskirt where houses are cheaper but yet,
convenient? Their transport to KL will also take about the same time as
in their current situation even though they are living closer to the
heart of the city
Currently, people in Melbourne are willing to live even further than
Cranbourne (the equivalent distance of Seremban to KL) because property
prices are increasing every year. Similarly, if KL follows this system,
people, too will start to move further and further away. When the
population density of a place increases, development will happen even
without the forceful development intervention like Putrajaya because
Putrajaya is just in between Seremban and KL.
