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In the 'Valley of Driving Hell'
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Stanley Koh
Wednesday, 03 February 2010 13:15
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COMMENT What's wrong with the roads in the Klang Valley? "The whole problem with the Klang Valley is the hole" so goes a caustic dig at the road conditions and bad driving attitude of motorists in this "Valley of Driving Hell."
In fact, the appalling road conditions within the Klang Valley, the city of Kuala Lumpur and residential outskirts have blurred other gripping problems relating to public transport in the heartland of Malaysia's industry and commerce - a cosmopolitan hub boasting a population estimated at 6 million.
Obviously, reigniting the epitome of our “first class infrastructure but third class mentality” can come in many guises like badly designed roads, highway ramps, errant motorists, poor road maintenance, shoddy workmanship, potholes, uneven manholes, traffic congestion, and double or triple parking habits.
In fact the list can be quite inexhaustible.
We do not need American author of contemporary horror and suspense fiction Stephen King to tell us to keep our pulse of suspense throbbing and be mentally alert as we "ride it out" along badly-patched, uneven surfaces and finally ending up in a deep pothole.
Deteriorating road conditions
“Take potholes for example. Either the devil is playing tricks on my mind or I am suffering from a severe vision problem; but I have the feeling that there are more  potholes on our roads today than there were months ago,” wrote columnist and contributor Kadir Jasin recently in the Agenda Daily.com.
“Everywhere you go these days, you either fall into one or have to swerve violently to avoid falling into one. And if you travel regularly on a particular road or alley, you will discover that the potholes remain unfilled for days or weeks on end,” Kadir pointed out.
Are we getting some measure of justice for paying driving licenses and road tax? Should we be getting a better deal and deserving better road conditions?
Where are the highway engineers and technicians? Where are the state assemblymen and MPs who should be showing concern about road conditions within their constituencies?
Are the local authorities in charge of state roads suffering from inertia when local newspapers have more than once reported concern about the deteriorating road conditions in housing estates?
Maybe when someone loses an arm or leg, or a life is cut short, only then do the authorities take remedial action.
Shortage of funds?
Poor coordination and planning between and among utility companies (i.e. TNB, Water Works and Telekom) in digging roads to lay cables, pipes and doing other repairs have resulted in a repetition of these tasks. Roads are dug up again, poor standard of re-paving creates uneven patches and the list of shoddy workmanship can stretch as long as the badly-patched roads.
Could this be due to a lack of supervision and proper enforcement? A shortage of funds at the local authority level?
Construction sites and other on-going road projects also contributed to the irritation and nightmare faced by motorists and other road users.
The poor quality of roads and expressways begs the question whether we deserve to self-proclaim Kuala Lumpur as a first class city?
“Kuala Lumpur has all the trimmings of any other world city; notorious traffic jams, the highest amount of rubbish generated in the country, deteriorating quality of drinking water; rising crime rate and during dry periods, haze for which the Twin Towers effectively act as a haze-metre,” wrote Siew Lyn Wong, a media consultant and freelance writer.
Has anything changed since then? The answer is obviously in the negative.
Bumper-to-bumper crawl
In fact, we have earned more than a “feather-in-the-cap” for all the wrong reasons. Our daily city driving conditions involving more than one million vehicles entering the Kuala Lumpur boundary have deteriorated. It's more than just the problems of “potholes and manholes”.
 Nobody in the Klang Valley is immune, of course, unless you are a non-commuter or already lying in the grave.
Can you imagine yourself driving a non-automatic vehicle during pathetic, peak traffic hours in the city?
Driving during a traffic snarl means a bumper-to-bumper crawl, an experience that could raise your blood pressure. Just imagine switching your foot between the accelerator and the brake about a hundred times every few seconds.
It will be a "driving hell" if you are in an old jalopy that is moaning and groaning under extreme stress.
Bumpy as it is with our roads in the Klang Valley, what about speed humps?
Oh yes, we hold a distinguished record for having the most numbers of speed humps within housing estates and near school locations.
But the fascinating aspect of it all is that these humps do mysteriously appear “overnight” (without warning signboards), making driving extremely exciting and dangerous when you have to suddenly use the emergency brake while another vehicle is tailgating you.
Tempestuous motorists
The final diagnosis of our Third World mentality and mindset involves the human factor. We are well-known for having a breed of tempestous motorists who have their own rules on the road.
In his book "Road Pricing - Theory and Practice", author Lewis N C wrote: “Each vehicle’s progress therefore is necessarily dependent (except on an empty road) on how its driver adapts his or her behaviour to that of other drivers.”
We do not need a table-thumping consensus agreement that the Klang Valley has it all and then some:
- The “hell-raisers” racing along like a Formula 1 driver
- The “bullock-cart” driver slowly trotting his vehicle along the fast lane, slowing down those behind.
- The “Martian-type” heavy vehicle drivers forcing you off your path, performing a bullying conquer-all driving tactic: See I am bigger than you (especially if you are driving a Kancil-like car).
In the face of all this, Malaysian motorists have to cope with the psychological fallout of traffic stress. It's no wonder that many drivers become "combative" resulting in an increase in the number of emotionally imbalance drivers and ending in road rage and accidents.
Before we are driven up the wall, let us hope the relevant authorities will truly wake up to improve the reputation of our road conditions and change the attitude of the "demons" behind the wheels.
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Last Updated on Wednesday, 03 February 2010 12:56 |
