Government urged to implement traffic solutions
KUCHING: The state government has been told to step up efforts and put their plans into concrete actions to address worsening traffic problems in the city.
Democratic Action Party ( DAP) Pending assemblywoman Violet Yong pointed out that bad traffic jams along the Jalan Tun Razak-Pending stretch especially during peaks hours has been an outstanding issue.
“The government has to come up with good solutions to reduce the stress of road users getting stuck in jams. The traffic problem is obviously compounded by the lack of a public transportation system,” she told a press conference at the DAP headquarters here yesterday.
Yong revealed that she had persistently raised the issue, even in the past two State Legislative Assembly (DUN) sessions, but has not seen any action taken by the government although proposals have been laid out and tabled.
“I have on numerous occasions raised up this issue in past DUN sittings. We have heard their thoughts and ideas but not (seen) actual implementation on the ground,” she said.
“In last May’s sitting, the Minister for Infrastructure Development and Transportation (Tan Sri Datuk Amar Dr James Jemut Masing) had in his winding up speech promised to assign traffic police to control traffic flow at all traffic light intersections including Jalan Tun Razak during peak hours,” she elaborated.
However, Yong expressed disappointment that she has not seen any traffic police being directed to control traffic along Jalan Tun Razak even though seven months have passed.
“However, there are traffic police controlling traffic flow at Simpang Tiga and they are doing a good job in fact,” she said.
“In the last DUN sitting, I have in fact put forward my questions asking the government their long term and short term solutions in tackling the traffic jam problem at Jalan Tun Razak and I just received their reply two weeks ago,” she added.
The Ministry of Infrastructure Development and Transportation replied that the government was taking various measures to reduce traffic congestion and improve traffic flow in Kuching city including along Jalan Tun Razak.
One of the measures include formation of a Traffic Management Unit ( TMU) to carry out studies to examine the causes of traffic congestion and possible solutions in Sarawak. Secondly, the government will also be upgrading the traffic light system along Jalan Tun Razak to Sydney Coordinated Adaptive Traffic System (SCATS) of which the tender for the project is currently under evaluation.
As for the public transportation system, the government has plans to implement the Stage Bus Service Transformation (SBST) Programme for which all groundworks have been done and is now awaiting the signing of the contract agreement and federal funding. However, Yong insisted that the government translate these good solutions that have been proposed into concrete actions immediately without further delay.
“Also, as a responsible government, they must put in place an effective urban public transportation system to ease worsening traffic problems by reducing the number of cars on the streets daily.