Now Everyone Can Drive Their Own Cars

Now Everyone Can Drive Their Own Cars

This has been a topic very dear to me. You see, when I was studying in USA, I bought a Ford Tempo, changed to a Hyundai Hatchback, rebuilt and sold off Clint Eastwood’s favorite model car -- the Cadillac, bought the then latest model of a Honda Hatchback and leased the latest model Ford Mustang. All these when added up, costed me less than RM15,000. The best part was, I managed to sell all of them at a slight profit even after racking up over 50,000 kilometers within 30 months. Try doing that in Malaysia!

Many years later, after having to pay through my nose for cars in Malaysia, suddenly Allah (God) extended the wisdom to the Pakatan Rakyat to lower or even suggest no tax on brand new car purchases. “Wow! Great! Superb!” was my first reaction. Then within minutes, my mind was shooting with doubts, questions and curiosity over potential pitfalls over this “brilliant” proposal. While Pakatan Rakyat’s proposal was intended for the people to be able to afford cars, those behind it may be over-excited and may have overlooked certain aspect of the dangerous domino effect.

Are we really ready for this? Do we even have enough city roads? Will we end up like Bangkok and Jakarta with their known notorious traffic jams? Will parking in common public areas such as shopping complexes, condominiums and residential areas be sufficient? Will it add more pollution to the already polluted cities? Will we end up becoming an oil consumer nation and become dependent on imported oil? Will oil prices then be more expensive than today? Will Proton eventually die due to stiff competition? Will second hand car value drop drastically?

With so many questions, I wonder if Pakatan Rakyat really has the manpower, resources and brains to overcome these potential issues.

I’m not against this proposal. But I do believe that every proposal has to include accountability and responsibility. If Pakatan Rakyat does win, someone really needs to do some heavy calculation before implementing this policy. Allow me to state the issue, argue briefly and perhaps suggest a counter proposal.

These potential issues may have already been thought of by some, especially after looking at the “copy cat” counter proposal Barisan Nasional had made recently. I hope this entry would fill up some gaps.

Are we really ready for this? Actually, we are not.

Do we even have enough city roads? If everyone drives their own cars to work, we really have a problem. Even today we already have a problem on heavy traffic. Will Kuala Lumpur end up like Bangkok and Jakarta with their known notorious traffic jams?

Traffic... it is a never ending story... Just to state, the more cars there are on the road, the higher the likelihood for a traffic jam. It is plain simple. Apart from everyone has their own opinions; the proposed approach is in the study of water flowing through a series of tubes. Knowing we have so many technologies on the ground such as ITIS, CCTVs, Satellite Images and so much more, are we actually harnessing these data in front of us. Most likely, no one gives or pays. But, what if I can offer a solution to guarantee that you will reach home within a specified distance, speed and time 99% of the time. How much will you want to pay me to be able to see your kids before 6.30pm everyday? Haha. I’ll keep this part until asked officially. These technologies, if used effectively, can and should be able to optimize the use of available and existing roads to ease congestion.

Will parking in common public areas such as shopping complexes, condominiums and residential areas be sufficient? Ahhh! I like this part. Even with the current quantity of cars on the road, Malaysians already love to double park, triple park, behind park and berta-park (bertapak - those who parks in the middle of the road or park in the middle of two parking spots). Malaysia is a hot and very humid country. No one wants to walk even for a short distance. For someone like me, a 5-minute walk in the hours of between 10am to 4pm would produce a glass of sweat. If I have to walk between these hours of the day, consequences are I will not smell good for my evening meetings. To solve the double, triple parking problems, integrated townships with surrounded by parking spots on the outskirt will be a good option.  The development in these zones should be controlled in order to ensure that the zones are maximized.

In integrated townships, everything is connected via public transportation. They may also have designated parking zones – these designated parking zones are purposely intended to make commuters’ life difficult should they drive their own car into the townships. Buses operate regularly around the town within a 10 kilometre radius. Buses are not governed by the federal government, instead, they are governed by the towns folks. Those wanting to get around in the township will have to use these buses. I have seen this concept first hand in both a developing and developed country. Integrated township refers to a town that has everything that is required by the community making travelling to another town only when necessary. I suggest tax rebates for rental of housing areas when working within the same township. This in all is to minimize commuting citizens who are already using up subsidized petrol on a daily basis, which I must state the obvious, is costly.

Will having more cars add more pollution to the already polluted cities in Malaysia? Of course! With more commuters and people dropping their motorbikes for cars, pollution will definitely be on the rise. Fret not; there are long term and short term solutions to this issue. The Road Transport Department can enforce laws to limit the carbon footprint. These laws may in return encourage innovations in the auto industry to create better and efficient energy-saving, environmentally-friendly cars. Malaysia may even be the first to adopt a fully electric car or a fully hybrid car philosophy. Malaysia can also impose abusive tax for vehicles with excessive carbon emission. Also, three wheeler vehicle or an upgraded version of a motorbike will be allowed to use on non interstate roads. Abusive tax structure example is as follows:

No.	Vehicle's Engine Size	Sales Tax	Annual Road Tax
1	Less than 500cc	10%	RM 100
2	Less than 1,000cc	20%	RM 250
3	Less than 1,500cc	30%	RM 500
4	Less than 2,000cc	40%	RM 2,500
5	Less than 2,500cc	100%	RM 5,000
6	Less than 3,000cc	150%	RM 10,000
7	More than 3,000cc	200%	RM 10,000  + RM 10/cc

The reason behind higher cost of owning bigger vehicle is the domino effect of poisonous gases coming out beyond necessary needs. Pollution is proven to lead to higher medical and health related costs. Bigger vehicles have higher consumption of oil. Bigger vehicles do best to damage roads, thus, contributed to higher road maintenance costs. In Switzerland, for example, imposes toll only on vehicles of a certain weight upwards. Reason they do this is because the level of damage trucks, buses and heavy vehicles do to their roads.

Will Pakatan Rakyat intend to continue with the petrol subsidy forever? If they do, will we end up becoming an oil consumer nation and become dependent on imported oil? Will oil prices then be more expensive than what Malaysians normally pay today? Despite the damage oil consumption has done to the environment, the current prices of oil is still low. The current oil price does not discourage people to buy new cars. The possible solution to the oil consumption is to optimize the use of this type of energy. How? Perhaps by implementing the Smart Grid Technology. What is it? It is effectively optimizing the consumption of energy by all walks of life, make in residential, commercial or industrial. To learn more on Smart Grid Technology, please visit http://www.malaysia.smartgrid.com/ and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smart_grid

Will Proton eventually die due to stiff competition? Probably! We may not want to kill our icon right? I still don’t know why there are taxes imposed onto Proton cars making them more expensive than they should. In my opinion, Proton has always been playing it safe. It seldom goes with a radical design. To stay in the game, Proton may want to embark into researching on future cars and design vehicles that are attractive yet without a hefty price tag. Proton should get local designers to really go wild and explore. May be embarking into designing and building fully electric car and hybrid cars will help. Please watch the documentary on the death of electric cars – Who Killed the Electric Car? (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTHsTCBxDM8). It is a very interesting documentary. Proton may also want to focus on compact and small cars and move away from the above 1,500 cc market. By supporting this, Malaysia may not compete at the level of big and powerful cars. But, it makes the majority happy. Also, focusing on electric or hybrid cars, Proton may well be spurring new industries pertaining to sustainable energy supply such as large batteries, storing energy and using energy. There are a lot of sub topics on this topic as well.

Will the price of second hand cars drop drastically? Yes, unfortunately. Anything higher than 10% drop in the car value in the initial year will eventually kill the second hand car market. The drop in second hand car prices will eventually kill the struggling car dealers. Current car owners who are already paying hefty installments to the banks will also be affected as their cars are valued lower than the amount they owe the banks. This is definitely a sticky situation for almost everyone with a car loan. Prior to implementing this, the authority has to properly inform the public. A plan of gradual 10% decrease over the period of the first 5 years, should do the trick. After this period, certain cars will maintain their value at 50% while others will continue to drop, based on the criteria of engine size, carbon emission and purpose of the vehicle.

If Pakatan Rakyat do not win, it is alright for Barisan Nasional to copy. Huhu…

By the way, I have more to write such as blinking yellow light on traffic lights between midnight to 6 o'clock in the morning and stop those police road blocks that creates massive traffic. But, I better not write more for now. Please comment if you have more ideas.