Sustainable Development and Worldviews

Penang is a bustling state without a proper public transit infrastructure. Despite being second smallest and without natural resources, Penang has been punching above its weight by positioning itself as a robust industrial state, remarkably capturing 47 per cent of foreign direct investment in the first half of this year, amidst global lockdown due to Covid-19. The pattern of post-pandemic mass mobility, with promising vaccine to be delivered in 2021, will very likely return to pre-pandemic proportion. Soon, roads in Penang will once again be packed by numerous users – workers, students, anyone – during peak hours. The mobility modal split among the 225,000 person-trips taken during peak hours with a population of 1.56 million in a 2013 report was between 89% private vehicles and 11% shared transport services (including factory and school buses). The predominant public transport at that time was buses. When the population increases above 2 million from the current 1.8 million, the pro