No LRT in Subang Jaya Please

Wednesday, 5 November 2008

No LRT in Subang Jaya Please

No LRT in Subang Jaya Please

By Ginger Tan

I have been living in SJ for the past 10 years and have just recently moved to the UK to further my studies.

I am writing this due to concerns that the effects of the LRT running through residential areas where both my parents and younger sibling are still living.

From my past experiences of using the LRT I found that bringing the LRT into residential areas actually creates more problems than benefits.

For one noise pollution will definitely increase. Has anyone tried living near a LRT station?

For youngsters such as me it is not a big problem despite having a 'natural and free' wake up call every morning by the LRT running above your head as well as keeping you awake if you decide to sleep in late for once.

I am concerned however for the elderly and the very young. The noise that the LRT makes are enough to wake infants and keep the elderly from their early nightly rest, the screeching sound as metal wheels scratched against the metal rail sometimes have you covering your ears.

If there really is no choice and the LRT has to be build over a residential area, I would like to call for an independent committee to investigate the effects of the noise pollution and other environmental effects such as the production of air-borne particles.

It is known that metal particles and free radicals are sometimes produced when one metal rub against another and breathing this in for long periods of time is dangerous to our health especially to the elderly, infants and those suffering from respiratory illnesses.
Now, I would like to ask the readers to imagine going to SS15/Taipan to do their banking or shopping alone. Oh no! I can't do that. There will not be enough parking and I would need someone to accompany me so that I can double park and my friend/family 'jaga' the car while I pop into the bank/store to do my stuff.

The volume of cars in SJ have increased tremendously for the past 5 years. Try standing at the corner where the KESAS highway comes up and join Jalan Kewajipan.

Count the number of cars entering SJ/USJ that is coming from Shah Alam and Puchong. Now imagine 10%, not more than that remember, decide to come and use the LRT in SJ. Where would this volume of cars park? Ooo there's a parking space in front of that pretty little house. It's near to the LRT so I would not need to walk so far. Let's park there.

Don't care what the owner will think so long I can park my car and it's free too! That will happen when you put the LRT in the residential area. So house owners who are now living near the proposed LRT routes, please be prepared for unknown cars parking in any available space in your road or neighbourhood. It will be much worst to the houses closest to the LRT.
I would like to respond to the reader who wrote in saying that he would not be afraid of being mugged in the early morning now that the LRT is close. With the increase in the number of people entering the residential areas, do you think opportunists will not follow? They know what time you go to work. They know what time you come home from work.

And with the increase in the number of people it means an increase in opportunities for them to rob or mug you. There are so many choices for them to pick from and it doesn't matter to them if you are someone from Shah Alam or someone who lives just 50 metres away from the station.

In fact stations that are located near residential areas pose more threats compared to stations in commercial areas. Just imagine, going to work or coming home, unlike commercial areas residential areas tend to be quieter, less people around compared to commercial areas, providing more opportunity for one to attack another without any witnesses. More people + quiet area = more opportunities.
Woohoo! Now we have attracted more criminals and cars into the neighbourhood. What will happen to the kids that are playing outside and gets kidnapped? What if they get involved in a car accident because there was just too much traffic? Better to lock them inside. I am curious too for those who have written in support of the LRT, will you mind if we get your house address? Maybe we can negotiate with the authorities to get the LRT to run in front of your house instead.
I am not against the LRT project coming into SJ. In fact I think it is a great idea seeing that I always use LRT/ KTM to go down to KL but it should not run through residential areas.

It brings more disadvantages than benefits to the whole neighbourhood and community. LRT should extend their line into SJ near the KTM station but no further.

RapidKL then should provide more feeder buses to the station, making sure that the buses always run on time. There used to be a feeder bus that one can take from the Sri KL school bus stop to get to the Kelana Jaya LRT station.

What happened to it? If one really, REALLY wants to use the LRT, might I suggest getting on the U67 or U63 RapidKL buses that actually circulate around USJ and SJ before going down to KL.

You can disembark at the Asia Jaya shopping complex/Armada hotel then take a short 10 minutes walk to the Asia Jaya LRT station. If the station can't come to you, you have to go the station.

The bus U67 also makes a stop in front of Carrefour so you can also take that to get to the KTM station to take the KTM to Sentral before changing over to LRT. For 4 months before I moved to UK to continue my studies, I have had no problem using both buses to get to the LRT station to go down to KL, it makes you wonder why another cannot do so?