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1 CONTRA FLOW LANES FOR HIGH-OCCUPANCY VEHICLES 1.0 Background Today, many cities in the world are facing serious land transport challenges. Increasing traffic congestion causing the transportation system lack of efficiency and it has brought with it environmental, social and economic implications. With the proportion of the world‟s population residing in urban areas projected to increase to more than two-thirds over the next 20 years or so, and with rising car ownership, more cities will find themselves facing the transportation system lack of efficiency. Many major cities in Malaysia such as Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Johor Bahru and others are currently facing serious transport problems as other big cities of the world. Thus, the demands for public transport services will definitely increase and some solution must be identified to improve the transportation system effi ciency. As development is expanding, Malaysia‟s population will too, increase in year 2020. In 1991 the population is 17.6 million, projected to be 25.1 million by year 2000 and expected to increase to 40.6 million in year 2020, as shown in Table 1. Table 1: Population of Malaysia, 1970 – 2020 Year Urban Rural Total (Million) Million % Million % 1970 2.8 27 7.6 73 10.4 1980 4.5 34 8.6 66 13.1 1991 8.9 51 8.7 49 17.6 2000 14.6 58 10.5 42 25.1 2020 26.0 64 14.6 36 40.6 Source: Statistic Department of Malaysia, 1995. The increasing number of projected population will directly affect the factor and process of development, especially the nation‟s spatial order, economic growth and demand in social needs, especially demand in transportation. By observing the trend of growth in early towns, it can be concluded that there is a lot of small housing area in the city and along the outskirt of the city. Most of these new areas are not properly planned, where traffic and transportation system is not given priority during planning. Most of these needs are prepared „ad-hoc‟, when problems occur. This lacking of awareness creates future
