Posted by Super Admin
Sunday, 08 June 2008
Now that oil prices have gone up by 41 per cent and diesel by even more, our planners should scrap the proposed second cross-channel road link for Penang.
If the RM4.8 billion second Penang bridge (all 24km of it, 17km over water) sounded like a bad idea before the oil price hike, today it sounds like a terrible idea in the light of higher fuel prices.
Let’s try this out for size to see how much it will cost the average commuter every month to use the bridge.
Assumptions:
* The bridge and approach roads will take up about 24km (17km over sea)
* The average car consumes 10 litres for every kilometre 100 kilometres at cruising speed
* The average commuter has a five-day working week, which means roughly 22 working days/month
* Petrol price is now RM2.70/L
* The distance from home to the bridge and from bridge to work-place is an additional 10km each way
* The toll is assumed (conservatively) to be RM10 for a return journey (toll for present bridge, half the length, is RM7)
Let’s measure the distance travelled per month:
24 km x 2 (both ways for return journey) x 22 days = 1,056km
Now we work out how many litres of fuel is needed for this:
1,056km x 10L/100km = 105.6L
And how much will this cost?
105.6L x RM2.70/L = RM285.12
Now let’s work out the toll for the month:
RM10 x 22 days = RM220
So total cost is
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