Toward a developed and productive nation, we must have the provisions that allow for self governing civic mind.
I've written to SPAD to suggest for the matters in the first two paragraphs above.
Malaysia has gained independent 59 years ago, a relatively young for a country but certainly not an infant anymore.
well, everyone grow rate is different, depending on your pedigree and environmental factors. I would say in terms of social fabric and geographical landscape, Malaysia is the same as Singapore except that we have natural resources to suck on, they don't.
Refer to my email to SPAD;
Item 1:
I suggested to include multi-languages signage and announcement for all public transport especially LRT& KTM where announcement is pre-recorded.
Why need to include Chinese& Tamil if majority is Malay and all of us suppose to understand Malay Language?
I belief it is about respect for others ethnic group. Singapore for example, 74.2% is Chinese, 13.3% is Malay and Indian is 9.2% but all the MRT signage and announcement is of 4 language i.e. English, Chinese, Malay& Tamil. Except where some of the area name is like intersex (can be Malay or English). However, if you look at Kuala Lumpur, 45.9% is Bumiputra, Chinese is 43.2% and 10.3% Indian. If would to compare to Singapore, our Chinese and Indian population is more than their Malay& Indian so why Singapore (much fast-pace nation)can make effort to include Malay& Tamil into their public transport communication medium while a much laid back Malaysia can not?
Yet, we still shout 1 Malaysia! 1 Malaysia does not means we should only use 1 language.
Shouldn't we be more open minded and inclusive like our Prime Minister Najib said; we should embrace our diversity and be more inclusive.
It would be nice for our relatives from China, India or Singapore to notice that Malaysia is mature enough to care all its people, when they visit us.
On another hand, Chinese is becoming more important as China economy growing present worldwide. Chinese language is essential to access to China market and welcome Chinese tourist.
Likewise with India though Tamil is not the official language of India as a whole but pretty much an official language for south India that is their ICT hub& trading powerhouse.
Lastly, most of our aged parents that are not exposed to Malay or English education can hardly recognized a word of Malay or English, especially those visiting new area for the first time.
Items 2,3&4:
Here I bark about provision of schedule, universal communication mode& orientations. I feel embarrassing for uncountable reiteration to plight for such provisions.
To be a productive nation, the people need to be able to plan ahead, know exactly where, and have a common understand if language(pronunciation) is a barrier.
I've even sketch an example bus/train schedule to SPAD that include distance travel, duration, name of station, code for that station and if possible design according to scale so user can plan& estimate their journey.
After thousands of journey on the same route, it is a wonder why the public transport provider still can not estimate the journey duration for each station.
Of course, there is traffic jam on certain time which can be state in the schedule too. e.g. 7am-8am departure from A station expect 20mins additional time.
Then there is "Peak Hours" where bus is expected to be fully loaded or delay (due to boarding time of passengers). All this can be noted on the schedule which I given the example.
Items 3, mentioned about coding which satisfactorily happening in LRT. I would be delighted if bus station too provided such coding, and of course if there is physical bus station. I've on separate occasion talk about the invincible bus station.
In order to have a better orientation, I suggested to have either label exit with alphabet or North, East, South& West. This is particularly useful (for station with multiple exit)if you date a friend to meet up at particular station and tell him/her to meet at exit A. Additionally, it can be use as part of direction e.g. To go XXX Musuem you alight at Station YYY then proceed to Exit C for XXX Musuem.
Furthermore, I also find the public transport planner or town planner's qualification extremely doubtful. There's literally lack of coordination and logic in connectivity between stations as well as place of interest. If the purpose of public transport is to enable social mobility and provide an alternative to the use of private vehicle then it should be designed in such a way allow for continuity of transportation comfortably, for all (in a universal fashion).
Don't bother about the bus station which many outside city center is still a phantom. LRT,KTM& the coming MRT should be integrated and allow for continual accessibility, away from weather interruption.
So far, from what I know, Times Square,Putra Mall& KL Sentral is connected to LRT& Monorail. That also with some money spent to have it happen. The Architect for Nu Sentral told me they spend RMXX millions to build the bridge connect to Monorail and that also after numerous lobbying.
Sad to say that our public transport provider is still far from hitting the bull eyes of public transport original objectives. Needless to talk about profit-making(or rather loss making). I think the opposition political party have a lot to talk about it;
http://ongkianming.com/2016/08/09/press-statement-five-reasons-why-public-transportation-in-malaysia-is-more-expensive-compared-to-singapore/
I'm not inclined to any political party and hope readers decipher my article as facts and constructive views for further improvement.
I do, however, think our public transport infrastructure has been improved over the years, though not without the heavy cost.
I surely think government should find more innovative ideas to attract public transport ridership and ways to improve the transportation from a more holistic manners, such as create satellite city, increase plot ratio for development in vicinity of public transport (tier 1 within 300m radius& tier 2 within 500m radius)while change the minimum provision of car parking lots requirements.
Embed carbon emission information into cashless card and regular ticket with some form of promotion also a way to encourage public transport taking up rate while creating awareness about environment protection. By doing so, we can be more scientifically gauge the benefit of using public transport(I've suggested this to GreenTech-No news from them yet!).
Ideally, all buses& taxi (private vehicle if possible) should comply with minimum COe emission. The convenience way to do it is to comply with Euro standard.