PLUS: Drastic Improvements Needed

Every fun festive seasons, it is a consuetude for those residing far away from home to return to their hometowns. In a place like Malaysia where the public transportation system is far from comfort and efficient, almost everyone needs to own a private vehicle. And all this conjures up into an incubus for all travellers who are coerced to travel via the "sometimes 2 lanes, sometimes 3 lanes" North-South Expressways (NSE).

Two lanes ain't enuf lar, brader!

How can I convince PLUS Berhad that it's time to expand the NSE from the pathetic dual-lane into at least 4 lanes?

Source: Department of Statistics, Malaysia.

Currently, Malaysia's population is estimated at 28.31 million, where 80% are residing in West Malaysia and 63.6% of them age between 15 to 64 year-old (14.4 million). Assuming that every seven individuals from this set make up one family, so we have about 2.057 million families who are going to pack and buckle up and hit the highway every peak seasons, balik kampung to visit the old folks (4.6%). And assuming each family travels in our esteemed Proton Exora, which is 4.592m in length, it totals up to 9,449km if we line them up bumper-to-bumper. So how many lanes do we need on the 966km NSE to fit all these MPVs?

10 (5 in each direction).

Ok, I may be exaggerating too much.

Let's cut 1.5 million Malaysians off the road, say they stay close to their hometowns and do not need to use the expressway. Now, let's remove another 1.5 million from the initial sample size because they can't afford to own vehicles, instead they take public transports like express buses or flights or for some sad cases, unable to secure a ticket home.~boohoohoo Another 1.4 million citizens fled the country for no reason. Finally, we are left with 10 million loyal NSE users, 1.4 million Exoras on the NSE. So, how many lanes do we still need?

6.79. Nose to nose.

See! Three lanes also jam lar, brader!

So, with the rough model with the pictures supplemented above, isn't it evident enough that PLUS Berhad should commence the expressway expansion, like 10 years ago? As a mainboard listed company on the KLSE, PLUS Berhad definitely acts like a goofy which lacks in strategy and planning to promote growth, only to execute its shrewdness in splendour to increase the toll charges based on a "mysterious" undisclosable contract endorsed by the government.

Why should we pay first class fee, only to get third class facilities?

Why should we accept the toll hike y-o-y, when the travelling time increases likewise?

Why call it the expressway, when my speedometer can only clock less than 50kmph half the journey?

Shouldn't the Transport Ministry look into this for the sake of the rakyat?

And why are the people tolerating this injustice?

Sometimes, I just don't understand.