Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Isn't there a motorbike lane somewhere?

If you drive along Federal Highway often, you may find these pictures a familiar sight.


Yes, by the way, isn't there an existing motorbike lane parallel to the main road? Maybe these guys find office work boring.


Monday, May 12, 2008

What does JPJ and dirt-black fumes have in common?

The usual dirt-black fumes from century-old commercial vehicles that ply our city roads. The buses below services the popular route along Setapak-Jalan Genting Kelang. Unless the enforcement officers from JPJ Puspakom HQ in Setapak are blind, there is no way one will miss these fumes. Honestly, I really feel like kidnapping the DG of JPJ and tie him/her up on the bonnet of my car before driving the car behind these dirt-black fumes. Anyone wanna join me in this selfless crusade ;)

There is an another article from my previous posting here.


Wednesday, May 07, 2008

Narrow road, narrow land and the bird brains


As you can see with these pictures, it is a one-way very very narrow road with cars parked by the both sideways. This 700m road is the gateway for at least 5 public DBKL flats. Each of these flats has approximately 204 household. Therefore 5 flats would have 1020 households. With minimum 3 members in the family, that would make 3060 people. That explains why there are cars parked at both sides of the road. Supposed one in every three households has a vehicle , that would make 304 vehicles that would have passed this single gateway to 5 public DBKL flats. Already, this place is a parking nightmare for these tenants.


To further add to this math-complexity, there are three existing schools within this 5 public DBKL flats. There are two primary and one secondary schools. You'll need to pass this single gateway very narrow one-way road to these schools and flats. Yes, it is hell of a traffic nightmare!!

And what did you know, as you drive along this very very very narrow road....

The authorities planned to build a new school in addition to existing three others, all within the proximity of 200meters away!!

The red patch is the space which the authorities are going to build this new school. Just look how narrow is the road is. Once you passed this bend, you'll be seeing one of the existing primary school ahead (see below). The secondary school is on the left, next to the primary school. The view of this school hidden by the block of the flat. There is also a primary school on the left, situated on the ground floor of the flat.


After the second bend, there are two schools (primary & secondary) which mentioned earlier (see below).

Sometimes I do find that these planning authorities comes with pea-brain size that beyond my comprehension. Don't you?


Monday, May 05, 2008

DBKL is not doing anything about public buses that are obstructing the traffic.



The commercial public buses, especially Metro & Permata Kiara, that plies along Setapak-Jalan Genting Kelang are such a nuisance for other motorists. Not only these buses produces intolerable fumes that the authorities doesn't seem to care about, these buses are obstructing the traffic flow by stopping by the roadside to their whims and fancies. Sometimes these traffic goes standstill as far as 1 km. To make the matter worst, the authorities (DBKL, traffic police and JPJ) seems to turn an eye blind on this. In fact, I have made an official complaint via htp://www.dbkl.gov.my e-aduan. It has been more than a month since I made an official complain to DBKL and, to-date I have not receive any official reply nor I see any visible or drastic action taken. All the e-aduan website says that the complaint have been forwarded to another anonymous 'Jabatan' (see below). Do i really care where is the complaint forward to? I just wanted to know what are the resolutions are. Yeah, this is the usual passing-the-buck in-your-face and there-is-nothing-more-that-you-can-do-about-it when you deals with DBKL.


Every morning, I have to bear the brunt of these bad traffic. It doesn't matter if I get stuck for 10 or 20minutes, the point is that these buses are obstructing the traffic. Apparently this problem isn't new. Read more here.



A MalaysiaKini reader has this to say:

"To be brutally honest, I have nothing but contempt for the urban bus services offered by Metrobus and I know that many people would agree. Their buses clog the streets of Kuala Lumpur and suburban areas, especially in the city centre around Central Market and the Kota Raya complex. Their drivers are reckless, driving at excessive speeds and taking risks with passenger safety. Many of their buses are old and poorly maintained, and belch putrid black smoke. Overall, Metrobus operations are unreliable and they give public transportation a bad name.

On the other hand, the operations of Metrobus are just a symptom of the rot that has been created in public transportation. I have made my feelings clear about the CVLB. If you want to know why more Malaysians do not use public transportation, you need to look no further than the CVLB. It is the CVLB that grants huge numbers of permits to these bus companies and does not enforce the rules that it sets out. It is the CVLB that continues to allow these bus companies to use unsafe buses. It is the CVLB that allows the companies to hire reckless and dangerous bus drivers to operate their buses and pay them unbelievably low wages. It is the CVLB that continues to grant operations permits to drivers with multiple summonses."

Useless agencies.

There are more of these pictures from my previous posting.


Friday, April 18, 2008

Emergency lanes

This is quite common scene when you drive around Federal Highway. There are cars especially taxis taking advantage of the the emergency lane when other lanes are clogged up with heavy traffic. Just take a look below.

Someone even blogs about it with TheStar. Road Safety Department director-general Suret Singh told reporters in his press conference recently that emergency lanes were meant for the use of authorities such as the fire and rescue department, police and ambulance, which provide services during emergencies.

What he didn't say is that it is not illegal to use these lanes. Only that these lanes are reserved for emergency purposes. Anyone knows?


Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Time Tower

You can find this Time Tower along Jalan Mahameru, somewhere in between PWTC and Parliament building.

Honestly, who doesn't have a watch with him/her. Moreover, most cars are equipped with a digital clock either on the dashboard or on the radio display. Additionally, many folks have mobile phone that comes with a digital clock as well. This country doesn't even have a day-light savings adjustments to begin with. Time is constant in this country.

And then, in a tropical country where we enjoy constant temperature all year, does it matter to common folks how accurate the temperature is? 'Weather' it is 24C or 28C, it just doesn't matter. Just turn on CNN, Kuala Lumpur's temperature is always between 24C to 33C depending the time of day. To add insult, I think the temperature shown above
on the Time Tower is highly inaccurate. On a hot sunny midday, it's showing 25C. Even a 3 year old kid will tell you that it is obviously above 30C.

I think it is a total waste of taxpayer's money to built such thing as there are no real value-add/cost-benefits or justification to the cost of building and maintaining such structure. I'll be glad to hear from DBKL officers to tell me otherwise!