KUALA LUMPUR, May 17 ― Most Malaysians complained road congestion was making them spend more time and money on their daily commutes than a year ago, according to a survey.
In the regional survey of 12 countries in Asia Pacific, Malaysian respondents were the second most likely to say that their transport costs had gone up, just behind Hong Kong respondents at 76 per cent.
“Respondents overwhelmingly attributed the rise to fuel prices (59 per cent) and price increases for public transportation and toll roads (50 per cent).
“Some said that increased use of taxis (4 per cent), taxi-hailing mobile apps (5 per cent) and car sharing services (6 per cent) instead of less-expensive options also played a role,” the Ford Motor Company said in a statement today on the survey it had commissioned.
Out of the 1,050 Malaysians polled, 55 per cent said they spend more time in traffic jams compared to a year ago, while 17 per cent said time spent in gridlocks had dropped and 27 per cent said that it was about the same.
Twenty two per cent of Malaysian respondents said their daily commute was the worst part of the day, while 33 per cent said it was inconvenient.
But 36 per cent of those polled said they found their daily travels “not bad” and 10 per cent said they enjoy the trips, the survey results showed.
From the survey, Malaysians were divided about the state of their commute, with 30 per cent saying it was improving, while 37 per cent and 30 per cent respectively said it was getting worse or noticed no change.
Based on the January survey, the top three countries where respondents were more likely to both say they liked their commute and felt that their daily trips had improved over the last year are Vietnam, India and Indonesia.
The online survey conducted by GlobalWebIndex involved 12,619 people, including 1,053 respondents in Australia, 1,058 in China, 1,047 in Hong Kong, 1,050 in India, 1,052 in Indonesia, 1,050 in New Zealand, 1,052 in the Philippines, 1,057 in South Korea, 1,050 in Taiwan, 1,049 in Thailand and 1,051 in Vietnam.
