Oh yeah...about the petrol price...

With the rapid surge of crude oil price in the global market (current price: $123 per barrel), the government felt the pinch and the ultimatum which send shivers down every consumers spine as well as shock wave in our wallet is finally delivered...yes, its the price hike of petrol which was enforced from today onwards...the figures? Petrol: From Rm1.92 per liter, it rises to Rm2.7o per liter which is an increase of Rm0.78 (40.6% ). Diesel: From Rm1.58 per liter to Rm2.58 per liter, an increase of Rm1.00. (63.3%). As soon as the gov announced the price hike, car owners across the nation rush in to their local petrol station, filling up their tank until full, taking their chances before the end of cheaper oil price. One things for certain though, life as a car owner will be much harder now...

So how does price hike in petrol involve/influence me then? To tell you the truth, I wasn't even aware that there will be an announcement of price hike yesterday right until dinner time, when my parent discuss about this matter. (and yeah, they done what car owner will do yesterday as well *wink*) Only after I watch the 8.00pm news that I realized the magnitude of the situation...and I admit that I was surprised that the price hike will be THIS RAPID even though all of us already acknowledged that the price WILL GO UP. As soon as I get a hold of the whole situation, a couple of things flash through my mind:

1. MY HITCH-HIKING/CARPOOLING/TUMPANG-ING MY FRIENDS CAR DAY ARE SO OVER. With THIS kind of a price, I don't think anyone will wanna drive AT ALL not to say driving other people around!!! Considering the location of my home, (Kota Sentosa is considered as outer suburban area of Kuching, you see...) my chance of getting a free ride or getting them to come over to my house is definitely slim to none...day of opening a mushroom farm at home is LOOMING...

2. MY *just budding* MOTIVATION AS A DRIVER HAD WITHERED DRY. I do know that once you are in the driver's seat, you will feel all the pinch of owning and driving a car. Now all driver HAD to be much more aware in the mileage and fuel meter as every mile and every drop of petrol are extremely precious. Plus, with my short attention span and memory combined with stinginess in spending, driving now are definitely more troublesome than ever.

Come to think of it, with the increase of petrol price, locally or globally, those petroleum conglomerates must be earning a shit-load of dough as in now (as if it is not profitable before) AT THE EXPENSE OF THE CONSUMERS' POCKETS. Those capitalist scum...

*snap back for leftist tendency*

Anyway, with this seemingly inevitable extra pressure in our daily expenditures, the only thing that we can do right now is adapting ourselves to a different lifestyle and cut down expenditures. Obviously, all the methods to alleviate the situation already exist (walk/biking for short distance destination, carpooling to cut down petrol per capita, taking public transport, drive small cars which consumes less fuel or even consider a hybrid car blah blah blah) but the only thing that stop us from doing so back then is definitely our own habit added by daily life/reality + infrastructure that its not exactly encouraging us to stop driving. Our own habit: laziness (driving even for short distance), selfishness (not sharing car) and pride. (a Mercedes to a bike: which one do you want?) The fact that Malaysian public transport still sucks, with lack of organization, dismal connection to destination, inconsistent quality of service and seemingly random schedule (or lack there of...especially public bus.) force the consumer to buy the car to travel from one place for another. But now with this situation finally arrived, its time to take the solution seriously for once...

As for government, with all the money saved from cutting down the petroleum subsidies, now they really need to take improving the general state of public transport in Malaysia seriously. As far as I know, most of the public bus company in Malaysia are operating in losses if not, DYING. (For Kuching, its DEFINITELY DYING.) Luckily (for now anyway...), the public bus operator are still exempted from paying the current price and luckily (again), they did not raise the fares. What the government can do right now in my opinion, is bailing out the unprofitable bus companies, reorganize the management structure and service network and finally if needed to, upgrade and maintain the bus fleet. Next in line will be integration of the all types of public transport (rail and road) within the metropolitan area (mainly for KL, for now.), implementing single fare structure for all system, improving transfer from one system to another as well as expanding the coverage and frequencies of service. As for me though, I seriously wish that the government can consolidate all the bus companies in Kuching into a single company while implementing new system...actually, forum-ers over Catcity.net did discussed before about the idea of Bus Rapid Transit and personally, its a very neat idea since Kuching for me is not exactly ready for any rail transit yet and it fills in the niche between ordinary bus and lightrail/citytram. Successful implementation of BRT across the globe include RIT in Curitiba, Brazil (the most successful implementation and inspiration for other operators) and Transmilenio in Bogota, Columbia.

Rede Integrada de Transporte (RIT), Curitiba, Brazil. Notice their tubular looking station and orange fleet of Bi-articluted bus.

Transmilenio, Bogota, Columbia with their new Bi-articulated bus.

Metrobus, Mexico City, Mexico. Notice the elevated platform and entrance of bus.

Another neat idea that I bump onto while surfing around wikipedia is community bicycle program to encourage usage of environmentally friendly mode of transport. If we don't want to buy a new bicycle, then we can just rent it for a relatively minimal sum and we can get it the money back when we return the bike. Since bicycle can only cover a limited distance, it can only be effective when the bike station is placed strategically and can be easily available. The exact mechanism on how the system works are explained in the wikipedia article that I linked while examples of implementation are as follow:

Bicing, Barcelona, Spain.

Velov', Lyon, France.

Velib', Paris, France.

To sum up this post, the inevitable petrol price hike had definitely effected our life and we as consumer as well as government should take initiative and proactive approach in alleviating the situation and adapting to a whole new change. *sounds so generic LOL*

-fin-

Epilogue: The price hike of petrol definitely does not help in another price hike now, which is the rice due to global food crisis. This also means that we all need to eat less from now on. NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!