Public Transport in the city.

Here, I will discuss about Quality of life and only focusing on public transport. In Malaysia, there are lots of public transport such as bus, taxi, LRT, monorail and many more. The reasons why the government makes the public transport are to make the movement of the citizen easier and to reduce traffic congestion in the big city such as Kuala Lumpur.

Government had done many efforts to improve the level of public transport in Kuala Lumpur. For example, The Integrated Transport System in Kuala Lumpur.
The progresses that we can see from the integrated transport system are:

• The amalgamation of the eight Kuala Lumpur-based bus companies into two consortia in 1994 to improve the efficiency, reliability and the quality of bus services. This entailed increasing the number of buses and improving its design for ease and comfort. In addition, route rationalization was also undertaken;
• LRT System I (LRT STAR) began operation in December 1996 between Sri Petaling and Ampang to Sentul;
• LRT System II (LRT PUTRA) that came into operation in September 1998 between Kelana Jaya and Gombak;
• Express Rail Link (ERL) from KL Sentral to KL International Airport, which came into operation in April2002;
• KL Monorail;
• a study on Integrated Urban Transportation Strategies for Environmental Improvement was completed in February 1999. The immediate measures that have been undertaken to alleviate urban congestion and enhance air quality include restriction on on-street parking, differential parking charges, one-way streets, pedestrianization, road system improvements, special bus lanes, contra-flow and the restriction on heavy vehicles entering the city center during peak hours; and
• the integrated transport interchanges and transits, such as the interchange between LRT STAR and LRT PUTRA at Masjid Jamek Station, the interchange between LRT STAR, ERL and Keretapi Tanah Melayu Berhad at Bandar Tasik Selatan Station as well as the integrated facilities for rail, bus and taxi systems at the KL Sentral. When fully operational, KL Sentral will be equipped with ERL, LRT PUTRA, KL Monorail, buses,
• Taxis as well as pedestrian facilities, and will provide seamless link to all urban and suburban residential, commercial and industrial areas. It will also link directly to KL International Airport, Putrajaya and key areas within the Multimedia Super Corridor. In addition, it will integrate the inter-city train and commuter services as well as function as a city air terminal, thus becoming a state-of-the-art transportation hub for Kuala Lumpur.

A research had been done in four big cities in Malaysia such as Ipoh, Johor Bahru, Kuala Lumpur and Kuching. In 1990, the average of public transport per 1000 citizen is 9.6 and in 2000, the average is up to 14.7.


Public transport per 1000 population
City 1990 2000
Ipoh 4.8 6.3
Johor Bahru 13.9 15.8
Kuala Lumpur 10.5 21.6
Kuching 15.5 12.9
Average 9.6 14.7



Although the numbers of public transport are increase from 1990 to 2000, only 20 % of Malaysian used the public transport, but in the prosperous country like Japan, there are 60 % of their citizen uses the public transport. From Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak’s speech, he says this is the Malaysian characteristic. They prefer to use own vehicles compared to public transport. This is because the public transport are bad and don’t fill the supply. The public transport will be use if its cover all destinations and the trip are not disturbed.