Demand responsive transport is a form of shared transport, where vehicles alter their routes on each journey based on demand, without using a fixed timetable.

Zahid, who also chairs the Cabinet committee on road safety and traffic congestion, said studies showed that special bus lanes on Jalan Ampang and Genting Klang since July 3 had saved passengers time, Bernama reported.

“The data showed that there was a point-to-point time saving of up to 18 minutes for bus journeys.

“Thus, there was an increase in bus frequency and the number of daily passengers, so the committee decided to keep the bus lane,” he said in a statement today.

Zahid said the committee also agreed to extend the bus lane to Jalan Klang Lama starting in June.

He said the committee was studying the feasibility of bus lanes at Jalan Cheras (Taman Connaught-Jalan Pudu) and the Federal Highway (Kuala Lumpur City Centre-Shah Alam Interchange).

Zahid said the committee had decided to implement a new dispersal system in stages for critical congested locations, after receiving information from the police, Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) and the public works department.

He said the government had also introduced contraflow routes to help traffic congestion at peak hours, adding that a Malaysian Road Safety Research Institute study showed that 88% of highway users agreed that contraflows were effective.

In addition, he said PlanMalaysia would examine proposals using the transit oriented development concept as a long-term measure to reduce road congestion, particularly in areas served by the east coast rail line, MRT, LRT and Keretapi Tanah Melayu Bhd.

Meanwhile, Zahid said there were 6,443 traffic-related deaths last year, with an average of 18 deaths a day. Of these, 4,480 were motorcyclists or their passengers.