Green Plus Issu 14

COLUMN
Hidden costs
Looking at a recent study conducted by the
World Bank, we explore the hidden personal
and societal costs of traffic congestion in
Kuala Lumpur and explore the advantages
of greener and healthier transport choices
like bicycling.
the tailpipe exhaust fumes from wasted fuel.
‘TIME IS MONEY’
Time spent stuck in traffic could have been
used more productively. This is what economists
call “opportunity cost”. For example,
instead of wasting time in traffic you could
have put another productive hour at work. The
World Bank has estimated that the annual cost
of delays due to congestion, taking into account
the monetary value of a person’s time in Kuala
Lumpur, is RM10-20 billion. This is the value
of the total time lost due to people sitting in
traffic doing nothing productive. Notably, this
also amounts to 1 million wasted hours per day!
Other direct costs include the amount of
fuel wasted in traffic. This is calculated with the
extra running-time, which can be translated to
extra petrol used in stop-go traffic. This figure
annually for KL translates to approximately
RM1-2 billion worth of extra petrol wasted
because of congestion.
This extra petrol burnt obviously means
greater environmental/social damage. From a
recent International Monetary Fund study, the
environmental cost to society, primarily due to
air pollution, from using one litre of petrol is
RM2.20. This adds another RM1.0-2.5 billion
to the cost of congestion in Kuala Lumpur per
year.
SLOW TRAFFIC, FASTER DEATH
Apart from direct hidden costs, what about
indirect hidden costs? These include degradation
of public health by inducing physically inactive
lifestyles and stress from traffic congestion.
The morning and afternoon
commute, the hours spent
driving those dreaded
kilometers to and from
work, have you ever wondered
how much sitting
in a traffic jam really costs you and Malaysia?
Many developing Asian cities are finding it
difficult to cope with the growth of urbanization
and increased car ownership. How is the
resulting traffic congestion adversely affecting
our development? Studies this year by economists
at the World Bank have shown that in
2014, economic losses due to traffic congestion
in Greater Kuala Lumpur was estimated at
around RM20 billion per year or RM54 million
every day! The majority of this cost is associated
with lost productivity, followed by wasted
fuel costs and environmental damage caused by
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Greenplus TM MARCH 2016