SYNOPSIS

Malaysia is one of the few countries in the world that provide fuel subsidy to consumers.  Due to the economic crisis, the Malaysian government has decided to revise its fuel subsidization policy from one that was fixed price to one that is of a floating nature dependent on global oil demand. Recognizing that the change in fuel subsidization policy can have an impact on travel behavior, this paper investigates the short term impact of the policy change on private and public transportation in the Klang Valley region. Spectral analyses are performed to investigate if the policy change has an impact on private vehicles travel demand, measured in terms of road traffic, and short term travel demand elasticity with respect to fuel price was estimated.  To measure the impact on the public transportation system, the demand cross-elasticity values of rail transit and buses are also estimated. It was found that traffic flow reduces with an increase in fuel price, although elasticity and cross-elasticity values obtained are low. The paper found that there is a potential mode shift from private vehicles to rail transit in the Klang Valley region with increasing fuel price. It was demonstrated that reducing fuel price subsidy can be an effective travel demand management strategy to alleviate congestion in the region.


BIODATA OF SPEAKER

Dr. Khoo Hooi Ling obtained her PhD from the National University of Singapore in 2008. She has the Master of Engineering Science and Bachelor of Civil Engineering from University Malaya in 2005 and 2002 respectively. She is currently an Assistant Professor in the Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman. Her research interest is in traffic modeling and simulation, transportation network design, traffic safety and sustainable transportation. To date, she has published about 18 journal papers and 20 conference papers. She is also the Head of Department of Civil Engineering in UTAR since 2009.