KL drivers a ‘miserable’ lot, says Waze survey
BY RAYMUND WONG
Published: 3 October 2015 2:33 PM
According to an evaluation conducted by GPS mobile application Waze, most motorists in Kuala Lumpur have rated their daily commute as "miserable".
The Waze Driver Satisfaction Index was done based on the driving experience of 50 million Waze users in 167 cities and 32 countries.
Waze evaluated the average scores in six main categories – Commute, Traffic, Drivers Services, Road Quality, Socio Economic, and Wazeyness – with 10 being the most satisfying and 1 the most miserable.
In the Commute category, which studies the difficulty in commuting from home to work, Kuala Lumpur scored at the worst bracket of 1-2 despite having an average commute time of 33.5 minutes.
Both Manila and Jakarta were in the same bracket as Kuala Lumpur but with average commute times at 45.5 minutes and 42.1 minutes, respectively.
Washington DC had the least difficulty commuting from home to work within the bracket of 7-8 despite its average commute time of 35.6 minutes.
Waze calculated that its users drove at the average speed of 33.15km/h in half of the cities studied.
Terrence D. Phillips, 42, said Kuala Lumpur’s score was “spot on”.
“My work requires me to drive around a lot during the day, and I would rate these rides similarly. The daily commute depends on various factors, but yes, it can be very miserable at times,” he said.
In the Traffic category, which analyses the severity of traffic jams, Kuala Lumpur scored in the bracket of 3-4, above Manila and Jakarta..
Kuala Lumpur’s traffic score was similar to that of London, while Milan and Amsterdam scored in the highest bracket of 9-10.
In the Drivers Services category, which studies the number of available petrol stations, workshops, and parking lots, Kuala Lumpur was placed in the highest bracket of 9-10, above London and Amsterdam, which both scored in the bracket of 7-8.
Terrence also agreed with the score in the Drivers Services category as Kuala Lumpur was not short of petrol stations.
“We have petrol stations and car workshops everywhere, so its easily accessible,” he said.
Interestingly, in the Road Quality category, Kuala Lumpur scored in the bracket of 7-8, above cities like Manila and even London, which scored in the bracket of 5-6. Two Spanish cities, Barcelona and Madrid, scored the highest in the bracket of 9-10.
In the Socio Economic category, which studies the impact of petrol prices on living as well as the ratio of cars to population, Kuala Lumpur scored the same as London and Paris in 7-8 bracket. Washington DC and Milan were top in the 9-10 bracket.
In the category Wazeyness, which measures the happiness of Waze users, Kuala Lumpur scored 3-4, equal with London and Madrid. Both Jakarta and Manila fared better in the 5-6 bracket, with Bordeaux being the happiest in the bracket of 9-10.
Faeizee Faliq Kamal Farid, 26, agreed with most of the scores.
“Our roads are actually pretty good, 7-8 is a fair bracket. If you look at most of the roads and highways, the quality is good, but then again, they had better be because we have to pay toll for it. Sure, there are smaller roads that are not very good, but generally speaking, the highways are all right,” he said.
Waze also compared the best and worst cities and towns in seven categories – Most Satisfied, Traffic, Safety, Drivers Services, Road Quality, Socio Economic, and Wazeyness – with 10 being the best and 0, the worst.
Kota Baru, Batu Pahat, Kuala Terengganu, Kuching and Kota Kinabalu appeared in five of the seven categories; Most Satisfied, Safety, Drivers Services, Road Quality, and Wazeyness.
Kuching and Kota Kinabalu were the only two cities from Malaysia that scored a best, in the Road Quality category.
Kuching scored 9.4 and Kota Kinabalu, 8.7. At the bottom were Curitiba, Brazil at 0, Bucharest, Romania at 0.6, and Cali, Columbia at 3.8. Top on the list was Bologna, Italy with a perfect score of 10.
Alex Chang, 46, who lives and works in Kota Kinabalu said the city’s scores were far from true.
“There has to be a mistake. Most of the roads in KK (Kota Kinabalu) are bad. There are many potholes and patches, so it’s not smooth at all. That is one of the main reasons many people here choose to drive bigger cars or four-wheel drives, it’s just more comfortable,” he said.
Chang thought the data could be flawed because not many people used Waze in Kota Kinabalu.
Batu Pahat, Kota Baru, and Kuching were in the worst section for the Drivers Services Category at 0.2, 0.4 and 0.5, respectively. In the best section were Milan and Los Angeles, which scored 8.3 and 9.5 respectively. At the top was Washington DC with a perfect score of 10.
Kota Baru was in worst in the Most Satisfied category with a score of 3.5. However, it was above Medan (3.4) and Bandung, which landed bottom (3.0). The best city in this category was Phoenix, United States with a score of 8.0.
Kota Baru was also in the worst section of the Safety category at 3.8, far below Jakarta, which rated the perfect 0.
Kuching and Kuala Terengganu were in the worst section in the Wazeyness category at 0.3 and 0.4 respectively. The only city worse-off was Naples, Italy with a score of 0. Best in the category was Valparaíso, Chile with a score of 9.2.
Waze also compared the best and worst countries based on the same seven categories, in which Malaysia was on six of them.
Although Malaysia was in the Worst Section for four of them (Drivers Services Index, Most Satisfied Index, Safety Index and Wazeyness Index), Malaysia was able to break into the Best Section for the Socio Economic Index and the Road Quality Index.
Malaysia scored 6.6 for the Socio Economic Index, which brought it into the Best Section with countries like the United Kingdom at 8.2 and United States with a perfect score of 10.0.
As for the Road Quality Index, Malaysia was rated as one of the best countries at 7.4, which is tied with the United Kingdom, and above the United States at 7.2. Spain scored the highest at 9.4.– October 3, 2015
- See more at: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/citynews/greater-kl/article/kuala-lumpur-commuters-a-miserable-lot-says-waze-index#sthash.eoBus8uD.dpuf