Road congestion especially during the festive season is due to the insufficient length of the existing roads to accommodate the large number of vehicles, said Traffic and Road Safety Psychologist, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), Prof. Dr Rozmi Ismail. He also said that many other roads (not highways) only have one lane.
“If something like an accident happens, road users have nowhere to ‘run’ and they will be stuck with the congestion. They have to deal with it.
“Then, in most cities or towns, the roads are being repaired. For example in Gua Musang. It adds to the large number of vehicles causing further congestion,” he added.
He commented on the complaints of road users who had to travel for more than 10 hours when returning to the capital after celebrating Aidilfitri last year.
Apart from that, he also touched on the toll payment method and suggested that there are more effective payment systems. “For example, the user has already paid before going to a certain place. Say I want to go to Penang, I have already paid. This is to avoid these vehicles lining up at the toll plaza. That queue causes congestion too.”
Our comments:
Prof.’s summary Dr. Romzi is very good but there is another reason why the roads in Malaysia are getting more congested: The huge increase of new vehicles every day, month, and year. For example, almost 800,000 new vehicles were registered last year alone. The total length of roads in our country, including highways and paved and unpaved roads is 290,099 kilometers. But at the same time, there are 36.3 million active vehicles. That means there are 125 vehicles per kilometer.
The addition of roads and highways will not be able to accommodate the number of vehicles at any time, not to mention the construction of each highway takes a long time to complete. The construction project also adds to traffic congestion.
