Public Transport Recommendations for Malaysia

I went to an IRSE conference today and it made me think that there’s a few improvements that is in dire needs in Malaysia. Funny how talking about such a technical subject as ETCS makes you think about the basic things. I guess technology is always about a purpose or serving needs at the end of the day, so it got me thinking:

To improve the public transportation in Malaysia, we need this things to be considered, and the list of their importance is roughly in sequence.

1. Safety – users need to be safe and *feel* safe, either when riding the public transports or along the way to get to or from the public transport.
   
2. Comfort – users want to be comfortable, at least not worse for wear from using public transport. Of course a certain level of discomfort is expected in comparison to being chauffeured in an Uber or Grab, but they must be protected from the elements, which is the rain and scorching sun in Malaysia. This covers not while waiting but also in between interchanges because users do not want to stay in a place until the rain stops; users want to get to their destination! A lower level of comfort might be air conditioning but the aforementioned needed to be sorted first.
   
3. Effort – people don’t want to have to spend energy either physically or mentally. Between the two, reducing the mental effort has the greater impact I think. People want the system to be reliable so that they don’t need to check whether they are going to get home early today or not. New users don’t want to have to consult some obscure website or forum to know how to get the quickest route or bus.
   
4. Cost – As normal people don’t want to spend any money if they can get them for free but I put this factor as the last because if the first three factors are not solved, people would still be hard-pressed to take the bus or train to work. If people don’t feel safe for example, they won’t want to risk their life riding that bus.
   

So there goes the list that I think need to be addressed to make the public transport system more efficient in Malaysia. Most can be solved without requiring expensive, new advanced system, but rather just careful planning (easier said than done, I know). Please note too that these are based on my limited anecdotal observations from my experience and the complaints I often see or heard. Glad to know if there are more. Or even your thoughts on this.

Thank you for reading.