A comment by our Dato’ Log. Dr. Chang Kah Loon, FCILT, FLogM
01 Apr 2025A comment by our Dato’ Log. Dr. Chang Kah Loon, FCILT, FLogM, via Guang Ming Daily, 31 March 2025 (Mon):
Traffic congestion has been an issue in almost every busy city, including Penang, to address. A busy city reflects a high rate of positive development, and business opportunities are always there. Of course the credits go to the state government and its administrators.
Although traffic congestion, to some extent, cannot be resolved completely, there are ways and means to ease the percentage if everyone, including the enforcement agencies and road users, work together. Undoubtedly, limiting the hours of car parking is one strategy, but its impact on alleviating traffic congestion is not particularly significant.
Our professional logistician and transport planner, Dato' Dr. Logistician Chang Kah Loon, believes that integrating various strategies can enhance their effectiveness. The job of law enforcement is to make sure that everyone obeys the rules and to improve our public transportation systems so that people don't have to rely on themselves driving their cars. In this context, we're glad that the LRT project is becoming a reality.
Furthermore, we should not have permitted individuals to obstruct some parking lots for their own private use unless they were rented on a monthly basis. It should be a first-come, first-served basis.
From the perspective of local retail businesses, it could be advantageous to designate some streets exclusively for pedestrian use, as this could enhance local tourism and boost local retail business transactions.
We encourage enhancing our enforcement, but we must also employ an educational approach. For some reason, especially when our LRT project is in the pipeline, it may be the right time to reactivate the Penang Transport Council (PTC) to enable some related professional organisations, i.e., MIP, IEM, RISM, PAM, CILT, and LogM, to participate and express the necessary viewpoints from time to time. This initiative is a joint effort and an integrated resource to make our beautiful city more enhanced.
By the way, we have confidence in our present state and local governments, and they know what to do next for the betterment of Penang.