Traffic Woes

It's the rainy season and in KL that means one thing: SuperDuper Traffic Jams on the way home in the evening. Aside from KL being "organically" grown without any holistic planning, I reckon that drivers could be better equipped with traffic information. Relying on the ITIS will probably lead you nowhere, unfortunately.

I was interested to find that Google Maps has a "traffic" feature which is supposed to show you traffic conditions at key intersections, coded to red, yellow and green. Unfortunately KL is not covered yet. This would really be helpful for long suffering KL drivers.

An interesting source of traffic data may be the mobile phone operators - they have data on how fast mobile phones move from cell to cell, so it's a simple matter of matching it with a map of existing towers (which Google Maps already has) to get a halfway decent map of traffic.

Google Maps wins by having more traffic through its service, and the telcos win by having Google pay them for data.

And of course KL drivers win by knowing which shortcut to take to avoid losing 2 hours of their precious lives every day to traffic!

Now the only thing after that would be to prevent accidents by people gazing at their mobile phones while driving!! :)

Illegal Parking in the City

Seems that this is an intractable problem, made worse by inconsistent enforcement and unruly motorists. I wonder if this can be alleviated by having very focused "operasi saman parking" done over a period of a few weeks, area-by-area in KL.

Another thing to do may be to include in the parking ticket, a map of public car parks nearby, including their hourly rates.  Sort of a message that says "look, this is illegal parking, but legal and less costly (if you get a ticket) options are nearby and not that inconvenient"

You can even get the parking operators to print out the fliers - it's to their benefit to get more motorists to park there, anyway!

Lights in tunnels

I wonder what the rationale is for having fewer lights lit (therefore making the tunnel dimmer) during the day. This is very apparent in the KLCC tunnels and also the tunnel on Jalan Tun Razak near the RSGC.

This is counter-intuitive as it's probably better to have all the lights on during the day, so as to minimize the contrast between bright daylight and dark tunnel during the day.

It can actually get quite dangerous as the contrast can be so great that drivers' eyes can't really adjust and real trouble can happen if there's something in the way (pedestrian, broken down bikes, cars, etc)

It's the small things...

Teaching English in Rural Areas

I was just wondering if it makes any sense to have post-graduate (those who graduated with a Bachelor's degree) students become Teaching Assistants in rural areas to help with teaching of Maths/Science/English. They can be given academic credits, and a minimal salary.

These TA's should come from not only public universities but also private ones. And we should not limit to only local students - the international folks can also participate (in fact they'd probably pay for the privilege! Imagine that!)

I'm sure there's a lot more details in the implementation, but hey, I'm a vision type person :)

Cushioning the Impact

Most people pretty much has accepted that the world economy will not be getting any better, and that the cost of necessities (and no, an HTC Touch Diamond does not count as a necessity!) is going to continue its rise.

The concern is that there is no comprehensive social net in Malaysia, to help with the most needy families with their basic needs, especially in the light of potential loss of employment due to the slowing economy. Big, urban families are the ones most at risk.

Crime rates, petty or otherwise will probably also rise if people are desperate enough. Longer term, the effects of bad nutrition (a family was featured in one of the news dailies eating rice and rassam only! Not that I have anything against rassam, but ...) on children, especially, would impact the effectiveness of our workforce 10-15 years down the line.

So this is definitely something that we need to collectively figure out how to solve. How to get help to those that need it the most, while minimizing leakages and ensuring that fraud is kept to a minimum, so that we get the best "bang for the buck".

Perhaps it is time to explore some sort of targeted aid - where a set amount (depending on a formula based on number of people in a household, household income, household expenditures etc) is distributed to people who apply for it. Eligibility is determined via interviews and the aid "expires" after a period of time.

The aid can be distributed via MyKad (biometric features help in combating fraud) to be withdrawn via ATM, or be done via old-fashioned "food coupons" that can only be used for food items (not soft drinks or gula gula!)

Trees vs Bushes

I wonder why the folks in charge of the decorative plants at the sides of the roads choose to plant and re-plant small, bushy plants rather than big tall angsana trees. Higher maintenance? They sure would be a nice addition to our local scenery, providing shade and helping negate some of the global warming effect.

And what's with the non-native palm trees everywhere, anyway?

Accountability

Of course-lah all the productivity improvements and modernizations have been attempted before with varying degrees of success. I believe that it's our model of accountability in the public sector that needs a critical look, to help maximize the probability of success of such improvement initiatives.

In the end, who is held accountable for the success of a systems implementation or productivity improvement of an agency? How is this person held accountable? Is he going to be rewarded for performance gains? Who owns the outcomes?

I would suggest that Government agencies take the step of making available to the public their top-line KPIs (again, make sure it makes sense-lah, really be focused on outcomes that either affect the citizens or the country directly) ala  the Khazanah-led GLC KPIs.

The various Ministers would be held accountable to meet these KPIs, and to have regular updates to the citizens on their progress. Eventually with the help of technology the updates would be continuously available for all citizen-activists to look at and either cheer or jeer at the facts.

The definition of these KPIs would also help to clarify overlaps and areas of responsibilities between government agencies, helping drive efficiency gains (see previous post).

The good leaders will have an opportunity to make their accomplishments well known and this will lead the public to make better informed decisions as to who they want to hold high office.

This will also help justify any salary increases or even bonuses that may come their way - after all, Ministers do play an important role in Government, and we do want to tempt enough high-caliber CEO types from the private sector to provide leadership and energy in the public sector. Well, at least I think so.

Raising Living Standards

Looks like we're all headed for harder times ahead. Cost of living is going up, and the global economy looks like it's putting its brakes on.

In our country we've been relatively insulated from the ups and downs of the global market. I fear those days are coming to an end.

The common refrain we hear from the man-on-the-street is "harga minyak naik, barang makan naik, tapi gaji tak naik!" - which is true, since the inflation spiral will simply get worse if salaries are raised to keep up with cost of living.

I'd like to suggest though that salaries are raised via increase in productivity. It can be kick-started by the biggest employer in the country - the Government. Take a hard look at the existing productivity of its employees, sector by sector, agency by agency.

Focus on the high-value processes and functions and figure out what are the outcomes that can be measured (which can be terribly hard to do, but not impossible) and set targets for improvement (e.g. how long does it take to approve a building plan, end-to-end?) on an annual or even half-yearly basis. Monitor constantly to avoid "gaming" the numbers.

These high-value processes should be examined critically to reduce mistakes, "idle-time" when it's sitting, waiting for someone to continue the processing, and most importantly, be automated by technology wherever possible. By automating processes, mistakes are reduced and leaves the staff available to do higher-value activities, improving morale and enabling them to deliver more value and hence earn that higher salary.

Because the Government is also involved in a lot of activities in the private sector (through regulatory or facilitative activities) these efficiency gains would inevitably spill over to the private sector and overall economy, enabling us to do more with less, generating more value with the same or even less amount of effort. Then only gaji can naik, lah!

Public Transport

Much has been said about the baffling condition of our public transportation system in Malaysia. Issues such as

• Integrated links between the various different providers (e.g. PUTRA, STAR-LRT, KTM) that's not so integrated
• Inexplicable lack of parking spaces at key stations
• No increase in capacity in PUTRA lines even though people are packed like sardines at rush hour (yes, planned, but how come it takes 4 years to add car to the trains - can't we just buy the darn carriages from the manufacturers and install them? Kena ada local company partner ka?)

And much has also been said about why it's this way

• 13 Government Agencies regulating, managing and monitoring the public transport in this country (the more, the merrier?)
• Lack of planning (generic excuse for everything that's not right)

 

There's actually some relatively simple things that can be done to sort out this mess. Make someone (not an agency, nor a ministry, nor a committee!!) accountable for the outcomes of an effective public transport system for the whole country. It's crucial that this person's rewards (think CEO of an organization) such as bonuses and salaries are directly linked to the success of the public transport system:

1. Accessibility (e.g. stations need efficient and easily used feeder systems)
2. Quality (clean, on schedule, etc)
3. Utilization (people actually use it because it's convenient, and more effective than other alternatives)

These outcomes must be measured independently - perhaps by a regulatory commission that also helps the Government decide on fares, bus routes, etc.

The CEO should also be given the capability and mandate to affect change - have all the 13 agencies report to her (maybe in a PEMUDAH-like construct, with our intrepid CEO as Chairman?) on a regular basis and wide ranging powers of carrots & sticks to persuade, chide and cajole the various little Napoleons into doing what's right for the people.

Fundamentally - everyone up and down an organization needs to be rewarded fairly for their contribution. If the leader lacks the wherewithal to reward the high-performers, everyone will give a mediocre performance since that's the safe thing to do ("why risk it lah, I still get paid my bonus what..."). On top of this, the high-performers are being unfairly treated - and they will leave for organizations that are able to reward them to their abilities.

And that's a topic for another post...

Variable teacher quality?

According to The Star today, the Education Ministry is going to "tighten up selection rules for teacher training" in view of the "large number of applications from school leavers".

Aiya.. does this mean that all this time the MoE has put quantity above quality? If there are fewer applicants then the standards would be relaxed?

Energy Austerity Drive

Apparently our Astro decoders don't really turn off when they go on "standby" as advised by Astro. That just shuts down the video output but the rest of the circuits are "live" and ready to receive software updates. Wonder how much power it consumes in this mode.

Seeing as consumers don't have a choice in the matter - maybe the MCMC can consider getting Astro to label each decoder with how much power they consume when "on" and on "standby" so that consumers can make the decision to unplug the decoders or not - to save on their rising electricity bills. Probably SIRIM can help certify that the energy consumption numbers are correct!

Financial Austerity Drive

Everyone's being told to tighten their financial belts, from the Ministers (10% cut in entertainment allowances! How cruel!) to the average man in the street. It's actually quite interesting to note some of the comments from people interviewed in The Star recently.

One key missing ingredient, I think, in our education system is basic financial planning. How to budget and adhere to the monthly spending budget, calculate credit card interest rates, loan rates, etc. A lot of young adults (yours truly, included, to be honest) go crazy with their first credit cards and find themselves in a financial hole very early in their working lives and spend way beyond their means.

Would it make sense to have a curriculum designed jointly by AKPK and the MoE to be taught in secondary schools in this area? Then at least we can help inculcate good spending habits early.

PS - this download is pretty good - you can use it on Excel or anything that can open .xls files (like OpenOffice)

Those (un)helpful ITIS LED signboards..

I've always wondered who controls what gets put up on those signs, you know, the ones that are put up on all the major arteries/highways in the Klang Valley. I am a frequent user of the KL-Putrajaya highway - very interesting that the signs continue to advertise such important traffic information as "Gerai Makanan sudah dibuka" and my all time favorite "Sila pandu dengan cermat" on the LDP.

I suppose these signs are supposed to help with KL's traffic congestion but I seriously doubt its effectiveness - most drivers don't bother looking at the signs since they're either out of date ("trafik perlahan" when the road is clear as far as the eye can see) or contain non-relevant information (see above).

Maybe what's missing is the link between ITIS rewards and actual traffic congestion. What happens to ITIS if traffic in KL gets better? Worse? It would be interesting to see the consequences if the person in charge of ITIS gets a 6-month bonus for improving the average travel times in KL by, let's say, 30% over a period of time. Maybe we'll start to see:

1. More useful, timely information on the Variable Message Signs (the technical term for those LED signs)
2. VMSes that are located some ways before a strategic turnoff so that drivers don't get stuck with no other turn off when traffic is slow ahead

The trick is to be able to quantify the travel time improvements - should be possible given all the cameras available to ITIS. I am sure someone, somewhere would have implemented this successfully before. Maybe a "lawatan sambil belajar" is in order?