​CALL TO ACTION BY ALL STAKEHOLDERS, RESIDENTS & BUSINESSES OWNERS.
By Scrap Highway Team

The PJDL Highway, a 34.3 km elevated, tolled highway cutting across Petaling Jaya city, has been approved by Federal Government. If Selangor State Government approves it, we will suffer consequences beyond generations.
 
We urge all concerned residents of Petaling Jaya to stand up and join this peaceful assembly. Come and help raise awareness, and protest against the PJD Link Highway.
 
** Please invite your friends, fellow residents to jointly participate with us!
 
Date : Saturday, 2 July 2022
Time : 9:00 am to 10:00 am
Location : Jalan Prof Khoo Kay Kim near Masjid Bulat (On the same side as the mosque and Quill building, going towards Rothmans traffic lights junction)
Google Maps location here

1. PDRM approval
a. IPD have been informed formally ahead of the event.
b. This is a peaceful, silent protest - no chanting, no marching.
 
2. Observe SOPs
a. Wear masks and observe social distancing.
b. Do not use poles or pipes to hold up the banners as these may be construed as weapons. Hold the banners up by hand.
c. Ensure that participants have a place to gather safely.
d. Crossing roads only when traffic is clear, do not go too near to the road edge, use proper footwear. Wear high-vis safety vests (if you have).
e. Safety of participants is paramount.
 
3. Press Interviews
a. If any members of the Press interview participants, say :
PJDL highway will have an adverse impact on the traffic, environmental and social aspects of PJ Stakeholders, Residents and Businesses Owners.
 
4. Press Briefing
a. Press briefing with YBs and leaders will be held at a selected beverage outlet near Right Angle (opposite Masjid Bulat), at Sec14, PJ.
 
5. Final Advice
a. Disperse when asked by PDRM, or after 10am, or when it is announced that the event is over, whichever is earlier.
 
6. Who should attend: Any affected Stakeholders, Residents and Businesses Owners along the highway alignment may join in the silent protest.
 
Organised by SCRAP Highway Team in conjunction with other PJD Link protest groups. We look forward to see you at the above location on Saturday, 2 July, 2022 at 9 am.

Source: The Vibes
​
6/24/2022
SHAH ALAM – A group of long-time Petaling Jaya residents staged a peaceful protest in front of the Selangor state secretariat complex this morning against the construction of the Petaling Jaya Traffic Dispersal Elevated Highway (PJD Link).

Speaking on behalf of the group, Tracy Toh, said the 34.3km expressway, which cuts through established neighbourhoods, is ultimately destructive for local residents and unlikely to alleviate traffic woes.

“We are making this stand in front of the state secretariat building today because our online protest and opposition by MPs and resident groups against the PJD Link have been ignored.

“It shouldn’t fall on us to exhaust our resources to fight a developer. The state and federal governments should be acting in the interest of existing residents, business owners, and stakeholders, but they aren’t doing so,” said Toh.

Toh also lamented the lack of information on the PJD Link despite repeated requests by residents to elected representatives and state agencies.

As such, Toh added that they have filed a request under the state’s Freedom of Information Enactment (FOI) to gain more information on the expressway.

“The FOI request is being done because our elected representatives for Petaling Jaya, save for one, have failed to ask these questions at the state assembly or Parliament, or used their offices to obtain this information,'' she said. 

Resident representative Tracy Toh says that the 43.3km expressway, which cuts through established neighbourhoods, is ultimately destructive for local residents and unlikely to alleviate traffic woes. – SAIRIEN NAFIS/The Vibes pic, June 24, 2022
Resident representative Tracy Toh says that the 43.3km expressway, which cuts through established neighbourhoods, is ultimately destructive for local residents and unlikely to alleviate traffic woes. – SAIRIEN NAFIS/The Vibes pic, June 24, 2022
Toh also said that residents and the public at large were not consulted on the expressway as there hasn’t been a single town hall on the matter.

“Some elected representatives are refusing to even take a stand on the PJD Link issue,” she said.

Also present at the protest was Damansara MCA chairman Tan Gim Tuan who called on the state government and the respective elected representatives to be transparent on the project.

He further explained that the residents have a right to scrutinise the project’s traffic impact assessment report as well as the environmental assessment report before it can even proceed with construction.

“There is also a statutory requirement for such projects to go through public consultation, so they must come clean,” he said.

‘Say No to Kidex’

PJD Link is a 34.3km expressway set to begin from the NKVE toll plaza in Damansara and end at the Bukit Jalil highway interchange.

Toh said that PJD Link is the new name of the Kinrara-Damansara Expressway (Kidex) that had been scrapped previously back in 2015. 

“We notice that the proposed PJD Link alignment is nearly 90% similar to Kidex and is supposedly being built by the same developer,'” she said.

Toh also stressed that Petaling Jaya residents are “tired and fatigued” of fighting off the same issue as they had vehemently opposed the construction of Kidex in the past.

“It is unfair that we have to keep fending off this issue over and over again. We do not have massive resources to fight off state governments or developers who have deep pockets.

“We have no choice but to resurrect the Say No to Kidex group and keep up the pressure,” she said. – The Vibes, June 24, 2022

Thanks to our volunteer Miss B, we have summarised the podcast so that you can have a quick read:

Q: Are highways a solution to our congestions issues and what are the concerns that should be raised on the sudden announcement of highway approvals in the city?

1. No one in the world builds highways to alleviate congestions. They build highways for the purpose of a bypass or as a ring road. 

2. Highways by its very nature, attracts traffic.

Q: The lack of details in approving these highway approvals have triggered many questions. What are your main concerns?

1. There is no master plan for the Klang Valley city. One is needed to determine the number of car, taxis, trains and bus trips are expected to be made before deciding what is to be built in the city.

2. We don't have a master plan, hence decisions are made on an adhoc basis

3. Another major issue is the constant floods in KL. Why is this issue not solved first instead of focusing on building more highways?

Q: In your opinion are there any justification for building more highways in the Klang Valley?

1. The minister has said that he hopes the highways will solve traffic congestions. We cannot plan on the basis of hope.

2. The minister seems to be accepting private sector proposals for the planning of the entire Klang Valley city. Why do we leave the planning aspect of a massive Klang Valley area to the private sector who have companies that have an interest in collecting toll?

3. These companies will only be interested on building highways in high demand corridors where they forecast to have huge volume of traffic that will be channeled to their highways. This is in order to collect toll and justify the cost of building the highways in the first place.

4. On the contrary, the government should first have a master building plan, and if found that they don't have the budget to build on a particular alignment, they then can invite the private sector companies to build the highways, and not the other way around.

5. It has to be on the basis of an open tender, and not to accept the proposals from the private sector.

*Q: Does the traffic congestions have anything to do with the poor design of the planning of our roads in the city? *

1. They build at specific zones to attract traffic/direct volume onto the highways, with the believe that traffic speed will increase. However, that is a false assumption, and because of tolled highways, other adjacent areas will become more congested as people will take the residential roads to bypass the tolls.

Q: One seemingly obvious solution to congestion is public transportation, but this has problems of its own, ranging from last mile connectivity to the facilities themselves. So how do you think the government should approach this?

1. The government need to know what is the "first-mile" and the "last-mile" that users go through when using MRT/LRT

2. At the moment, the government is only providing carparks. In other words, they expect the public to drive to the stations, park their car, and take the LRT/MRT. There are no facilities to connect to these stations.

3. We should emulate other cities where Congestion Charges are implemented for driving into the cities.

Summary

1. The frustration is why are there private sector proposals circumventing the planning process? 

2. Where is the thought process to connect PJD Link highway connect to the MRT/LRT?

Note: The above summary is for brevity. Please listen to the entire podcast for the details.