Petaling Jaya is experiencing one of its most robust, challenging and demanding times. Urban development, modernisation and a steady rise in population growth into the city have left this once satellite city, with new and unprecedented challenges - keeping the city sustainable while meeting growing development and infrastructure needs.
As traffic congestion becomes a daily bane of PJ residents, the PJ City Council is glad to announce the setting up of a Technical Committee to intricately study and layout a Master Urban Transportation and Traffic Plan. It is an initiative which is timely and most relevant for urban planners.
The first meeting of this committee was convened on July 7, 2014. The committee comprises of six councillors, Ir Lee Suet Sen (chairperson of the committee), Tang Fuie Koh, Ghazali Shaari, Cynthia Gabriel, A Jeyaseelan and Halimey Abu Bakar.
Internal departments that involved are the Engineering and City Planning departments. External agencies which are on board are Suruhanjaya Pengangkutan Awam Darat (Spad), Lembaga Lebuhraya Malaysia (LLM), Syarikat Prasarana Negara Berhad, Transportation Ministry Malaysia, Jabatan Kerja Raya Negeri Selangor (JKR), Dewan Bandaraya Kuala Lumpur (DBKL), Majlis Bandaraya Shah Alam (MBSA), Majlis Perbandaran Subang Jaya (MPSJ), Institute of Engineers Malaysia (IEM), Malaysian Institute of Planners (MIP) and Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research (Miros).
The consultant appointed by MBPJ is Professor Ir Dr Mohamed Rehan Karim of Universiti Malaya (UM).
With such a vast and wide ranging composition, this committee is entrusted to study and work out a Master Traffic/ Urban Transportation Blue Print for the next 10 years in view of the rapid urbanisation that is happening in PJ.
The objective of the plan is to solve the current traffic congestion in PJ through integration of efficient public transportation with existing highways.
The scope of study is summarised below:
1) System, hierarchy and capacity of roads,
2) Public transport system,
3) Traffic management system,
4) Parking system,
5) Non-motorised transportation system (bicycle, pedestrian, etc).
All the above studies will be based on land usage according to the local plans of Rancangan Tempatan Petaling Jaya (RTPJ1 and 2) and Rancangan Kawasan Khas (RKK 13). It will determine the traffic needs for current developments and future developments. It also will include the detailed study of traffic integration for Transit Oriented Development (TOD) in PJ.
Currently, PJ has five main highways criss crossing it, ie the Federal Highway, Damansara-Puchong Expressway (LDP), New Klang Valley Expressway (NKVE), New Pantai Expressway (NPE) and Sprint Highway. All highways and local main roads at area of PJS1, Kelana Jaya, SS2, SS3, Damansara Utama, Kota Damansara, Mutiara Damansara and Sri Damansara have reached Level of Service (LOS) of F during peak hour time.
There are enhancements taking place to improve the conditions but they are still insufficient for the next 10 years when we want to make PJ a more sustainable and livable city. Thus, this exercise have been embarked to improve the quality of traffic condition in PJ.
We write this statement with the intention to also welcome opinions and suggestions from PJ residents as this is a Master Plan for everybody. Ultimately, we will aim to work along the concept of ‘Moving People and not Moving Vehicles’ and improve the usage of public transportaton (buses, taxi, MRT, LRT, BRT, etc) to a minimum of 35 percent in the next 10 years (while currently, the usage is less than 20 percent nationwide).
