22/02/2026

theSunday Special XV ON SUNDAY FEB 22, 2026

Odd and even numbers

rial roads around Beijing showed that when 50% of vehicles were forbidden to travel into Beijing, traffic volume reduced by 20% to 40% while travel speed increased by 10% to 20%. The journal suggests that such traffic restriction policies may be an “effective short-term management measure in dealing with increased transportation demand and congestion during major events”. You might be thinking, “of course lah traffic will improve when 50% of cars are off the road”. Keep in mind that we are a data driven society, so every decision needs to be backed up by numbers and case studies. The numbers are there, the case studies are published. The idea works! We don’t need to adopt the odd and even number policy for the long term. Only while we work on improving our public transport infrastructure. But it is a viable alternative to wasting time in traf fic and having our capital city stuck in a gridlock. Of course it needs to be fine tuned as Malaysia lacks the public transport net work of Beijing and not everything that works there might work here. It is not a copy and paste solution for us but it can be done fast. So while there are many plans for improvement in the future, this is some thing we can work on immediately. And I don’t see why not.

FOLLOWING all the teasing, the face lifted 2026 Proton S70 has been offi cially launched with four variants and a starting price of just RM73,800. The Proton S70 is offered in four variants, starting with the Executive priced at RM73,800, followed by the Premium at RM79,800. The Flagship variant is priced at RM89,800, while the range-topping Flagship X comes in at RM94,800. Each S70 comes with a five-year unlimited mileage warranty, a five year data package at 2GB a month and eight free labour services. Together with the launch, Proton has included a RM5,000 rebate for cars registered by March 31 2026. On top of that, buyers within the window will receive a special nine-year financing option with financing up to 90% and interest rates from just 2.25%. The recently announced Ministry of Transport’s matching grant pro gramme includes the S70, so buyers are able to trade in cars older than 20 years old for a RM2,000 overtrade rebate that will be matched by the gov ernment for a total of RM4,000 off. The biggest change is under the TALK to anyone living in the Klang Valley and the topic about traffic is bound to come up. The congestion in the weeks leading up to the Chinese New Year holidays was horrid to say the least. Hundreds of news reports high lighted the terrible delays that motorists faced, with some reporting that a simple journey from Petaling Jaya to Ampang, one that usually takes no more than 30 minutes, took as long as two and a half hours. Imagine if a person had to endure that every day, in just a month he would have lost three days of his life just sitting in traffic. He would have lost more than a month of his life after a year. The fact that something has to be done about Klang Valley’s legendary traffic situation is nothing new. Yet, we can’t seem to solve this. Malaysia sold over 800,000 cars last year, the highest in South East Asia. A staggering figure considering the size of our market as compared to Indonesia, Thailand and others. We have much to be proud of but that is a disaster for traf fic management. It would have been something to celebrate, should the Klang Valley not be the only place in Malaysia where one can have access to jobs and opportuni ties. Let’s face it. As Malaysians, the only place we can go to get a decent job and Extra grunt Facelifted 2026 Proton S70 officially launched, priced from RM74,000

be a bonus. There are benefits to this too, such as more time at home with the kids. And more time with the kids means more time to raise them right and not raise glue sniffers.

other opportunities is the Klang Valley. Everything is centralised here. No other major city has what Kuala Lumpur has to offer in terms of opportunities. Not Penang, not Ipoh, not Johor Bahru and definitely not the east coast and East Malaysia. We have failed as a nation

The other thing that we can do is to implement “odd and even number days”. This will be tougher and there will be a backlash. In fact it might take some time for people to accept this but it can work. Since Monday is the start of the week, let that be the all-cars day. Tuesday and Thursday can be even number days and Wednesday and Friday can be odd number days. Grab drivers, motorcycles, taxis, buses and commercial vehicles can be the exception. I know what you are thinking, imple menting it will be difficult and it may ruin political careers. But it has shown to be an effective short term measure. The Journal of Traffic and Transport Engineering published in 2016 proves this. It reports on the effectiveness of the “odd and even” traffic restriction policy during the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. Data from 529 traffic detectors located on expressways and main arte

WRITTEN BY KESHY DHILLON

in that sense as too much is centralised in the Klang Valley. So, deal with traffic we must. But what can we do about it? Everything that those in charge have thought about revolves around long term plans like satellite cities, trains, pedestrian walk ways, flood mitigation, etc. We want solutions today! Not in five to 10 years. There are two things that we can probably implement fast, should those in power be brave enough. The first is to mandate working from home on certain days. Make it a must for certain companies to have days like Tuesday and Thursday as work from home days, for example. Of course, not all companies will be able to implement this, but those that can, should do it. Even if we can have 5,000 cars off the road in a day, that will

hood but is hardly a surprise as it was made known before. That is the direct-injected 1.5-litre turbocharged inline-four in place of the discontinued three-banger, and first debuted in the X50 and X70. It makes 181PS and 290Nm off torque, or 31PS and 64Nm more. All the extra grunt is still sent to the front wheels via the same seven-speed dual-clutch transmission (DCT). The extra power translates into a quicker century sprint time of 7.5 seconds, an

You will also find a silent-toothed timing chain, lowering engine noise by 4%. Given that most of the significant upgrades are beneath its skin, the cos metic revisions are quite minor. You can have your S70 in six col ours, the new Ruby Red, Snow White, Quartz Black, Armour Silver, Space Grey and Marine Blue.

improvement of 1.5 seconds. Together with the quicker sprint, fuel consump tion also got better with claimed fig ures of 5.7 litre/100km. Multiple minor upgrades combine to boost efficiency, such as the low inertia and electronically controlled turbocharger that contributes 8% bet ter throttle response with a reduction in turbo lag.