When the Works Minister, Fadillah Yusof, was quoted as saying he would ask the Selangor government for alternative solutions due to the cancellation of the Kinrara-Damansara Expressway (Kidex), I initially wanted to propose setting up a residents’ committee to explore and propose that alternative solution.

Indeed, the reason is simple; we - the residents of Petaling Jaya - should be proactive in voicing out our demands rather than playing a reactionary role to any and all ill-conceived development projects our governments intend to implement to ‘solve’ traffic woes.

A few of us - architects and town planners included - sat down and explored various ideas and concepts that we could propose to the Federal and Selangor governments. We also went through the data from the Kidex Traffic Impact Assessment (TIA) reports. The purpose of this was to formulate tenable realistic solution(s) that were neither exorbitant to the taxpayer, nor cause hardship or health related issues to the residents of PJ.

It was through our discussions that we realised that the premise of ‘traffic problems within PJ’ was flawed to begin with.

The premise of Kidex was to resolve the traffic problems along Damansara-Puchong Highway (LDP). There is no data/evidence to suggest that the traffic is caused by Bandar Kinrara residents using the LDP to go to Petaling Jaya. The TIA report only provides the number of vehicles that are on the LDP, but all these vehicles could very well be internal Petaling Jaya traffic moving from one local neighbourhood to another.

Do not forget that the LDP - when it was constructed - literally tore neighbourhoods apart.

Areas like SS2 and Damansara Jaya that were once just a short walk away were entirely segregated from each other. The same can be said for Kelana Jaya SS7 and SS3 areas that used to share facilities like mosques and parks but residents can no longer access them without taking a drive if they lived on the ‘wrong side’ of the highway.

The entire justification to for Kidex as a solution was based off an assumption that there the traffic woes of the LDP are caused by inter-area OR end-to-end traffic woes.

The fact of the matter is that the LDP is congested. Building another highway to offload traffic from one highway is short term solution till the newer highway itself turns to gridlock. It is akin to putting a band-aid on someone who is critically injured with multiple fractures.

A much more radical approach and solution is required to turn PJ into a sustainable green world-class city which is liveable. An example would be the preservation of our green spaces like the PKNS football field in Kelana Jaya and stop all attempts to develop it.

We here at Say No To Kidex (SNTK) will continue to keep the people of PJ informed of further developments and our suggestions for a better, more livable Petaling Jaya.

MAK KHUIN WENG is press secretary of Say No to Kidex (SNTK).