IT was a Merdeka celebration that ended well in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday, except for the thousands of people stranded at light rail transit stations when service was stopped for a while to ease congestion.
Naturally, commuters vented their frustrations, and accused the authorities of not being prepared to deal with the surge of passengers.
On social media, they complained about faulty escalators, ticket machines and gates at the stations, in particular at Masjid Jamek, where at least half of the ticket machines were defective.
Additionally, only one of eight exit gates at the station accepted tokens, while the rest were reserved for Touch 'n Go commuters.
To be fair, the crowds were overwhelming — reportedly some 100,000 people had converged on Dataran Merdeka to witness the National Day parade. But again, this should be expected because after almost two years of lockdown people were just itching to get out and celebrate.
A contingency plan should have been in place. The bigger picture here, however, is not about congestion that can be anticipated during public holidays and festivals.
Rather, it is about the traffic jams that have returned, in almost every nook and cranny of the Klang Valley.
A portal reported in May that traffic congestion had worsened up to 74 per cent in the city.
Drivers in the capital could lose as much as 48 hours a year due to traffic jams, according to the TomTom Traffic Index.
There must be a way to manage the massive number of vehicles on our roads, other than the billions of ringgit spent to improve our public transport system over the years.
A 2020 study by thefullfrontal.my portal says only 20 per cent of Klang Valley residents used public transport, well below the government's target of 40 per cent.
The swell of traffic jams mean more noise and other types of pollution. How have other countries dealt with such a situation? Oslo administrators, for instance, want to be the first European city to be car-free.
Since announcing its intent in 2015, the Norwegian capital has installed hundreds of parking spaces, bicycle lanes and pocket parks.
They have a pedestrian-only zone downtown and they allow walkers and cyclists to explore the city freely.
There is no more on-street parking, and car-pooling is encouraged. Hong Kong is another. Its mass transit railway (MTR) system serves some 1.6 billion people a year.
What's impressive is that there's free WiFi and over 1,300 shops at the stations, and trains are punctual 99 per cent of the time. Such technology and comfort — what more could commuters ask for?
These innovations have proven effective in reducing the number of vehicles on roads way before the pandemic.
Granted, new investments will be needed, but surely, they are worth it? Especially when more people opt for public transport. "There's a long-term commitment to creating a well-functioning pedestrian city where all forms of movement — pedestrian, bicycles, cars, and public transportation — are accommodated with equal priority," said Danish architect Bjarke Ingels, who was The Wall Street Journal's 2011 Innovator of the Year for architecture.