PAKATAN Harapan leaders defend Putrajaya’s plan to replace tolls with congestion charges on four highways in the Klang Valley, calling it a sound policy that would help reduce traffic congestion with its tiered pricing mechanism.

Sim Tze Tzin, the deputy minister of agriculture and agro-based industry, took to Facebook to explain the congestion pricing, describing it as a “policy strategy to control or reduce highway congestion during peak hours”.

“Traffic planners believe that by using (a) price mechanism at different hours of the day, it will (be) possible to manage traffic congestion without building new highways. By imposing congestion pricing, people will change their travelling behaviour.

“For example, some housewives who usually go to (the) morning market at 8am (peak), will change (their) time to 9.30am (less peak), to save some money and avoid jams.

“For workers, some of them will wake up earlier to go to work, say at 5am, to avoid paying tolls.

The policy objective is to reduce 5% to 20% of the peak hour highway traffic, then congestion will be greatly reduced,” he said on his Facebook page.

Sim, who is also PKR strategy director, said congestion charges have been used in many modern cities with good results.

“It is a no-brainer to be implemented in a highly congested city (like) KL. When I studied Transportation Engineering in my Master’s degree, it was an important part of the curriculum,” he said.

Sim added that he found it “weird” that Barisan Nasional politicians Najib Razak and Wee Ka Siong were attacking the policy.

“Najib studied economics, Wee Ka Siong studied civil engineering. Congestion pricing is a policy that applies economics into transportation planning. They should know the benefits of such creative policies.”

Youth and Sports Minister Syed Saddiq Abdul Rahman denied that the move was related to the ongoing Semenyih by-election campaign, noting that the highways involved were not even under the state constituency.

The congestion charge is a model adopted from developed countries, he was reported as saying after an event at the Bukit Jalil Golf and Country Resort today.

“A 30% discount is offered during off-peak hours and a congestion charge (is imposed) during peak house, while travel between 11pm and 5am is free.

“This also encourages the use of public transportation or carpooling,” said Syed Saddiq, who is also Bersatu Youth chief. 

The Prime Minister’s Office yesterday said the government plans to take over four tolled highways – Lebuhraya Damansara-Puchong, Sistem Penyuraian Trafik KL Barat, Lebuhraya Shah Alam and the SMART Tunnel – and replace tolls with a congestion charge, which will vary between peak and non-peak hours.

Motorists will pay a congestion charge equivalent to the existing toll rates for six peak-period hours a day, a discounted charge during “normal” hours, and zero charge between the off-peak period from 11pm to 5am.

The announcement was immediately panned by Barisan Nasional leaders as election baiting, ahead of the Semenyih polls next Saturday.

Najib had made comparisons with the toll highways Barisan Nasional had abolished while it was in government and said the Pakatan Harapan government’s move was merely limiting the toll-free period.

Wee, the MCA president, also accused Pakatan Harapan of “rebranding” tolls, saying on his Facebook page that people still had to pay toll fees. – February 24, 2019.