Carpooling In Malaysia: Save money, ease jams, join a carpool

CARPOOLING seems to be a hot topic these days in Kuala Lumpur for various reasons.

It is also one of the strategic directions in the Draft Kuala Lumpur 2020 City Plan on building a more sustainable, integrated and environmentally friendly transport infrastructure in the city.

It is a measure to reduce Single Occupancy Vehicles (SOV) that travel with low efficiency and thus a contributor to congestion and green house gas emission.

The strategic measure suggests that to reduce SOV, the Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) could provide incentives to those who carpool, especially to employees of government agencies and major corporations in the city centre.

The incentives can also include subsidised parking for registered pool vehicles.

The suggestion also include awareness programme on the impact caused by commuting alone as compared to carpooling or taking public transportation into the city.

During a draft plan briefing session at the DBKL recently, consultant Norliza Hashim said by carpooling, the number of vehicles on the road could be successfully reduced up to 96%.

“Say 125,000 SOV vehicles switch to high occupancy vehicles like a bus where more than 25 persons travel in it, the number of vehicles on the road will be reduced to 5,000.

“If it's a low occupancy vehicle where more than three persons travel in the same vehicle, the number is reduced to 42,000 vehicles which is a reduction of 66%,” she said.

While it is still a strategy in the draft plan, some people have already resorted to carpooling due to the recent increase in the price of petrol.

One is Sohominium Sdn Bhd director Eric Lim who met up with some friends to form a carpooling group called Kuala Lumpur Rideshare.

The group which currently consists of seven members aims to encourage the carpooling culture among the citizens of Kuala Lumpur as a means to save money and ease traffic congestion in the city.

Lim said it was high time that people seriously considered carpooling since the public transportation in the city still needed upgrading to be more comprehensive.

Together to work: Office workers getting into a van at a parking lot in KL Sentral to be taken to their office in another part of the city.

Lim, who has been researching on carpooling systems in various countries for the last three years, said carpooling was environmentally friendly and with a proper web-based central monitoring system, it could be done effectively.

“People have been doing traditional carpooling among friends and colleagues in the past years in Kuala Lumpur and other parts of the country but not on a big scale like we are planning now,” he said.

He said the system would work best when there were incentives and premiums for those who carpool.

He said corporate companies could do their share of corporate social responsibility (CSR) to their employees by subscribing to the carpooling services.

“Some companies are already doing this on their own but they can also outsource the programmes to carpooling companies,” said Lim.

To ensure proper decorum is maintained in carpooling, Lim said certain etiquettes needed to be considered. These include insurance coverage, vehicle maintenance, back-up plans and the monetary aspect of it.

To kick-start, Lim said the group needs more members and volunteers to organise and coordinate the carpooling activities.