How car-centric planning punishes 70% of Malaysians

From Boo Jia Cher

A recent report revealed a sobering statistic: 70.2% of formal workers in Malaysia earn RM5,000 or less per month. At the same time, economists estimate that a family in Kuala Lumpur requires at least RM6,183 monthly to achieve a decent standard of living.

Put those two numbers side by side and the problem becomes clear. For most Malaysians, the gap between income and living costs is growing. And if you want to know where much of that missing money goes, look no further than the family car.

For decades, Malaysian cities (especially the Klang Valley) have been designed around the automobile. We built highways, encouraged endless suburban sprawl, and treated walking, cycling, and public transport as afterthoughts. In doing so, we did not merely build roads. We created a system that makes car ownership a necessity for millions of people who can least afford it.

The cost of this system is not limited to traffic congestion or environmental damage. It reaches deep into household finances, shapes daily life, and determines how much public space remains for everyone else.

The mirage of cheap fuel

The current global fuel crisis has put the government under pressure. Time and time again, our prime minister must reassure us that fuel will continue to be subsidised. But fuel subsidies mask a harsher reality: petrol is only a fraction of the true cost of car dependency.

When walking to a local grocery store is a safety hazard, when daily errands demand driving, and when the nearest MRT station requires a 10-minute drive, mobility becomes a luxury.

Consider the math: a seven-to-nine-year hire-purchase loan on a rapidly depreciating asset; daily tolls, parking fees, and hours lost to gridlock; plus insurance, road tax, and maintenance. For a worker earning RM5,000, take-home pay is roughly RM4,300.

Maintaining even an entry-level national car can easily exceed RM1,200 monthly — nearly 30% of their disposable income just to commute. For two-car households, this structural burden can skyrocket to RM3,000. What’s saved at the pump cannot offset this systemic drain.

Mobility shouldn’t cost a third of your salary

Vehicle loans remain one of the leading contributors to personal bankruptcy in Malaysia. This is often framed as a financial literacy issue, but it is also an urban planning issue.

When we approve housing developments 40km from employment centres without reliable public transport, we effectively guarantee car dependence.

When we separate homes from workplaces, schools, shops, and healthcare facilities, every aspect of daily life becomes a driving trip.

When we prioritise highways over buses, rail, and walkable neighbourhoods, transportation stops being a convenience and becomes a financial obligation.

Car-centric planning disproportionately punishes the 70% of workers earning below RM5,000 a month. It forces them to spend money they do not have on vehicles they should not need, leaving little room for savings, emergencies, or long-term wealth building.

Yet car ownership has become so deeply embedded in Malaysian life that many people struggle to imagine living without at least a car or motorcycle. This is not necessarily because they prefer driving. It is because our cities leave them with few practical alternatives.

The quiet loss of public space

The damage isn’t only in ringgit. Every road lane, flyover, and parking lot could have been a park, affordable housing, or a gathering space. What could be a place for children to play becomes vehicle storage. What could be a shaded community corner becomes asphalt.

For lower- and middle-income households, public space is often the only free recreation: parks, playgrounds, and gathering spots. Instead, we dedicate vast land to wide roads and storing cars, and then wonder why so many youths from low-income communities end up in mat rempit activities.

A shift in priorities

If we’re serious about tackling the cost‑of‑living crisis, we can’t only tinker with wages and fuel subsidies. The real fight is in infrastructure.

Cheap petrol and endless highways don’t liberate people, they lock them into car dependency. Real relief comes when people don’t need to own a car at all.

That means bold investment in public transport, repairing broken pedestrian networks, building safe cycling routes, creating affordable housing near jobs and amenities, and redesigning neighbourhoods to serve people instead of traffic.

For decades, success has been measured by how fast cars move through a city. It’s time to flip that metric: success should mean how affordable life is, how easily people can get around without a vehicle, and how many places they can enjoy without spending a sen.

The next general and state elections are just around the corner. If we truly care about making life easier for the 70% of Malaysians who are struggling, we cannot afford to be distracted by race‑baiting or empty rhetoric. Politicians must be pushed to campaign on what actually matters: infrastructure that lowers costs, housing that’s affordable, and cities designed for people, not cars.

Until we stop designing cities for cars and start designing them for people, our infrastructure will remain a barrier to financial security.

And let’s be clear: most Malaysians aren’t winning under this system. The winners are few: the ones selling us cars, petrol, highways, construction contracts, luxury condominiums and sprawling suburbs. Everyone else is paying the price.

Boo Jia Cher is an FMT reader.

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of FMT.