01154440

Component

Malaysia is one of the few countries in the world that provide fuel price subsidy to consumers. Due to the recent economic crisis, the Malaysian government has decided to revise the fuel subsidization policy to one that was price-controlled to one that is now tied to the global market demand. Recognizing that the change in fuel subsidization policy can have an impact on personal travel demand, this paper investigates the short term of impact of the policy change on travel demand in the Klang Valley region. Spectral analysis was performed to investigate if the policy change has an impact on travel demand and short term travel demand elasticity with respect to fuel price was evaluated. It was found that in the short term, the policy change has little impact on travel demand in the Klang Valley region. Travel demand elasticities found in the paper is comparable to values found in the literature. It was hypothesized that in Malaysia's context, there are no viable alternative available to the drivers that encourages mode shift in the short term, resulting in the inelastic travel demand behavior. This highlights the importance of viable alternative transportation modes if the transportation authority decides to implement any form of demand management strategies in Malaysia cities.

01147878

10-3072

English

13p

2010

Transportation Research Board 89th Annual Meeting

DVD

Figures; References (19) ; Tables

Consumers; Policy making; Subsidies; Transportation policy; Travel demand; Travel demand management

Fuel prices

Malaysia

Highways; Planning and Forecasting; Policy; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2010 Paper #10-3072

TRIS, TRB

Jan 25 2010 11:30AM