The future of Brunei’s public transport system
EFFICIENT and environmentally-friendly modes of public transport are among priorities under the BSB Masterplan which seeks to provide alternatives to the public’s mobility in particular around town areas.
“Most probably, in the future, we are going to moot transit (buses),” Mohammad Ramli Hj Zulkifli, deputy chairman of the Bandar Seri Begawan Municipal Board, said in a talk with the media at the Municipal building yesterday.
He was responsible for leading the Brunei group on the benchmarking study tour to eight cities in October last year. Findings of the study tour are now being used as a guide in developing the BSB Masterplan.
“The transit probably for the time being will provide trunks, as the backbone first for the centre. Example, if the person arrives at SOAS, he can choose to walk or use a taxi, tram or LRT, etc. This would of course incur high investment, however in the long run it can contribute to the enhancement of our economic development and on this development we have to think which goes first,” he said. He mentioned how Abu Dhabi, which was once isolated, began increasing its number of incoming visitors once they connected both cities using a transit system allowing the people more options to commute.
The electric buses and trams such as the ones in San Francisco, one of the eight benchmark cities for the BSB Masterplan, is also something that the committee is considering as this is in line with Brunei’s move towards cutting carbon emission and saving energy.
“In the long run we will save our resources. Our energy resource is oil and gas. If we go on with the same pace we go now, we will deplete our resources quickly it is not renewable,” he said. “So with the transportation system that uses electric energy, there is less pollution, that’s one. And then it will reduce the car population and then maybe when we use the electric energy like the buses in San Francisco uses cable so that would reduce (usage of energy), add colour and save the environment,” said Mohammad Ramli.
“Amsterdam and Copenhagen are in rich countries Their taxis are Mercedezes but the majority of the people use bicycles. We also used bicycles.”
He also mentioned on the best practices of Amsterdam and Copenhagen in terms of providing alternative modes of transportation such as pedestrian walks, bicycle paths along the roads used for vehicles.
“We have to think for now in the context of a green agenda (for BSB),” he said adding that people will eventually start leaving their cars behind if there were other cheaper and environmentally-friendly options available. Another much debated topic, which was mentioned during the visioning session by a student, is that of a transportation rail system connecting Belait to Bandar which is also being considered.
The prospect of having a waterbus in addition to water taxis is also going to be included in the masterplan.
“HOK consultants are going to moot ideas to have connectivity from the airport to Bandar (using) a waterway,” he informed adding that the existing features need only be improved upon to make it better and usable for an enhanced water transportation system to become a reality.
Brunei is blessed with natural features such as rivers when in other countries they have man-made rivers, said Mohammad Ramli adding that these should be capitalised on. The benchmark cities for this are Venice and Amsterdam.
Brunei may not be looking into building skyscrapers such as those in Dubai but the country will focus on preserving its arts such as Kampong Ayer, one of the country’s tourist attractions.
According to Mohammad Ramli, not all tourists will be interested in arts therefore much work has to be done on providing infrastructure to accommodate their interests without compromising Brunei’s identity and this “takes creativity”.
The buildings in Venice are a masterpiece, he said. The government subsidised billions to renovate and preserve them “because they know that people will (visit) and generate income”.
“Although we have a water village like Venice, it is not the same. The people are not the same,” said Mohammad Ramli. Members of the committee who were involved in the tour observed and collected information that is value-added to be adapted to the Bruneian context such as the reasons why the residents are still living along the canals and not moving elsewhere such as the case with a section of Kampong Ayer residents who have moved inland.
“There are like us, there are silversmiths, goldsmiths and glassblowers as well as people doing business through corner stores. They can run businesses but (today) we can’t,” said Ramli adding that the few who do are mostly for show.
The group was also impressed with the cleanliness of the water. “We discovered that each building is equipped with a filter system. Before anything goes into the water, it is filtered first.”
The architecture of Kampong Ayer will be preserved but not everything, perhaps the style of the roof, for example. “What we have at Kampong Ayer is really good. There is colour, it is just in a dilapidated condition,” he said and most of the work will go into uplifting the houses as the main attraction is the appearance.
Where business is concerned, the plan is also committed to making Bandar more sustainable.
Mohammad Ramli gave Jakarta and New Jersey as examples of cities considered developed with fantastic infrastructure but with a deteriorating life —beggars can be seen occupying the streets. This is not a sight that people want to see in Brunei and is the reason why, Vancouver in Canada, which has been labelled as the most liveable city is one of the benchmarks for Brunei.
Other cities which were included in the tour were London, Abu Dhabi and Copenhagen. The benchmark countries were chosen based on areas such as the administration and social economics which were deemed suitable for Brunei.
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