Congestion - is it really bad?

I had another happyo last tuesday. It is not as good as in Nagoya. But sensei said that from what I have done, I am supposed to have 2 papers on that. Majide? I myself don't really satisfied with the result but well, I should try to write a journal before Dec.

I am trying to understand the transportation condition in Japan. Not much can be discuss with sensei and other nihonjin friends. I tend to observed by my own and compare as much as I can to Malaysia's condition.

I read a lot of comments in internet about congestion in Malaysia. I believe that people want to get to their destination as fast as they could. But a lot of vehicles caused the traffic jam. In Malaysia, this is the most important research focus in 90's era. Then, the authorities such as DBKL, PLUS etc started to install the foundation of ITS system to reduce the congestion.

In this era, another big issue has been raised up. It is about road accident. It just being realized that speeding is a big issue. First, we want to make the traffic flow goes smooth ...then it's turned to disaster due to road accidents.

It is not just problem occurs in Malaysia. It is same with Japan and all other countries in the world. Plus, the traffic congestion in Japan is worse than Malaysia. The number of cars on the road increasing year by years. It takes one hour to get from a place like KLIA to Bangi where we can to make it in 20-30 minutes . The traffic calming they use is traffic lights. There are a lot of traffic lights in Japan which Malaysian hate the most!

However, because of this slow speeding, the number of fatality in Japan is really low. The car accident is rarely happen but, the accidents involving the bicyclist and pedestrian are getting rise in numbers.

I can't say that what I see in Japan is good where people rely on public transport, bicycle and walking. But, this is what happen in developed countries. They try to switch the mode of transport from motors to people energy. However in Japan, it is more complicated where when all people walking, the congestion among pedestrian occurs. The pedestrians need to share the narrow lane with bicycles, motorcycles and cars. Then, they become very vulnerable in roads.

I believe, relying on car means a lots. It makes our life easier to move. But sometimes we take advantage and drive without realizing it is beyond our limit of conscious controls. And the traffic congestion - it is good in certain ways such as controlling the accident rate that caused by over speeding as long as it not make you stuck at the same point more than 5 minutes. That's the aim of traffic calming in Japan.