It was fortunate that I decided to make a detour off the highway to filled up the tank when I realised how bad the jam was going to be. The first RnR area of the highway where I had wanted to stop for fuel were packed. Later on I saw quite a number of cars stopping on the emergency lane, probably because they ran out of fuel.
What however made me so dissapointed was the total lack of pro-active action by the highway authorities to ease the suffering of the motorists. They should had anticipated the whole thing and did something to mitigate it.
For instance, a stretch of the highway was hold up due to a bottle neck at a toll plaza. When I reached there, there were only one Smart Tag lane, two Touch N Go lanes and three cash lanes. Can't they do something to increase the number of Toll counters? Honestly, I don't think they should even be collecting toll at a time like that.
And there were apparently total lack of enforcement of the law. With all due respect for our policemen, I may be wrong, but throughout my ordeal yesterday, I didn't see a single traffic policemen managing the situation. I stand to be corrected but what I meant, the jam could be not so bad if there were policemen to stop motorists from jumping the queue by going on the emergency lane, which I think made things worse.
This problem has been around for years. Everytime there is a festive season the same thing would happened. Can't the authorities do something to mitigate the problem? Surely there must be a strategy which could be implemented. Please don't tell me there is nothing to be done and that we have to accept this problem as part of life.
There must be something that can be done to solve this problem. I hope the PM will instruct his people to look into this matter. All those not so useful people at Pemandu for instance could be made to think of a solution to this problem instead of cooking up some figures from thin air into ear candies for the BN leaders.
People want to see results on the ground lah...and this is one area they should be working on.
Dulu bila kerajaan nak buat jalan along the coast and bukit to bukit the majority tak setuju, konon membazir , environmental issues lah, crony lah, now why complain accept it lah. I am an old man so I don't care anymore. During my time the critics have no mercy on us when we say we need the highways and superhighways. You guys curse us with all the brutal languanges. Tun was curse day and night and today what happen. Good luck to the younger generations.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous 16:10
DeleteI presume you are right in some way's ,as I remember in those days Mahathir was basted day's and night for doing thing's that people cant think of at that time but now it's does prove otherwise .
Hai....ya BigCat those people need's holiday too.
All I want to say is STOP wasting money on high tech AES solution. Every year during short aidil adha traffic is miles long. Not a single traffic officer is around.
DeleteIf all the billions used for AES is used to pay for overtime, our driving would be easier.
Hundreds of thousand of families spent 5 hours in the jam. Do the basic first.
Instead of billion on spying cameras, pay for the Rela man is much cheaper and improve the livelihood of the poor.
But no. UMNO want to enrich the camera suppliers, the police officers handling the tenders, the DBKL etc.
With 40,000 unemployed graduates, they can be deployed with the appropriate salaries.
Iam just wondering if there are 40 000 unemployed graduates how many unemployed non graduates are there?
You are going at a tangent, please keep to the topic! IF you really, really want to campaign and demonize UMNO or whoever your big head fancy, why not wait until the EC announce the date for EC13. Fair enough?
DeleteTDM had vision. The opposition has vision too, obstructive vision.
DeleteRemember Penang Bridge, KLIA, Putrajaya. Twin Towers etc? And now they say we should do this lah, do that lah bla bla stuff.
The opposition is anti-progress, anti-development, anti-everything including themselves.
To hell with these anti-evertyhing idiots.
A GOOD MAN DOES NOTHING.
A GOOD MAN STANDS BY THE ROADSIDE SELLING GORENG PISANG.
DeleteTun M had vision alright. He had s vision of an Indian descendant becoming king of the Malays. He knew how to treat the Malays - keep them like mushrooms, never let them see the light and feed them with BS.
DeleteToday Tun is still cursed day and night for enriching his cronies Chinese and Tamil families.
DeleteDeveloping infrastructure is one thing. It is not Tun vision it is common sense. It is crony projects that people dont want.
It is the monopoly of Astro by Tamil that people dont want.
It is the exploitation of rainforest people dont want.
It is monopoly of gambling licenses that people dont want.
It is stealing from TNb by IPP owned by his Chinese YTL crony and his sons that people dont want.
While the Malays remain poor and beggars in their own country.
While Tamils like Syed Mohktar claim bumiputera shares monopolies when bumiputeras are only found in Sabah and Sarawak.
When tamils like Mydin claim bumiputeras justification as monopolising govenrment retail project.
That is why Tun Mahahtir and family is still cursed today day and night by the Malays.
The wealth monopolised by Tamils like Syed Mohkatar or his sons Mohkzani, Mukhriz or Mydin are counted as bumiputeras wealth, when they are Tamils and Malays in the kampung scrambled for RM500 ringgit!
SHOULD APPLY TO ALL RM500 INCOME BELOW 5K PER MONTH
DeleteThis is a good post my dear. Hopefully the relevant authorities will do something about this problem. Thanks for highlighting this ya.
ReplyDeleteI was stuck in the jam as well. Took me extra 3 hours to get to my brother's school. It was really horrible in N9, so I think more should be done there. Contrary to you BC, I did saw one police car stopped two cars in the emergency lane, and gave them saman. But that was only one time.
ReplyDeleteWhenever I saw people jumping the que, I somehow reminded of this ads of children asking their dad not to jump que.
I think the children said " ANDA BOLEH MENGUBAHNYA". sadly, those adults didn't heed to that yesterday huhuu
pihak pengendali lebuhraya ni bukan peduli semua tu. janji tol dibayar. mereka langsung tiada inisiatif untuk cari jalan penyelesaian atau setidak-tidaknya mengurangkan masalah kesesakan ini. agak-agaknya ada tak pengurusan tertinggi PLUS memantau atau meninjau keadaan lebuhraya semalam. pengurusan paling senang ialah kutip tol lepas tu sedikit kerja penyelengaraan sana sini. MD Plus mengikut maklumat kat laman web ialah Dato' Noorizah Abd Hamid. Kalau tanya dia mesti ada jawapan punya. Kalau mengikut maklumat korporat 51% dimiliki oleh UEM dan 49% oleh KWSP. Group MD UEM ialah Dato' Izzaddin Idris, Group COO ialah Azmir Merican. Agak-agaknya mereka ini peduli ke dengan masalah kesesakan di lebuhraya PLUS ni. Mesti ada jawapan punya. Paling tidak salah pengguna juga akhirnya.
ReplyDeleteUsabukata
Plus punya boss buat apa? Kenapa sikit sangat toll di buka pada waktu sesak macam ni. The CEO of Plus need to be changed because dia sudah lama sana. Dato IZZZZZZ of UEM, do something la, jangan tidor je syok keliling semua pegawai wanita je. Get off your seat and get things done. Be like Dato Ahmad Pardas la, very operational man.
ReplyDeleteIt all boils down to planning. We have atrocious planning because we have other "priorities". Bangkok has had a subway system since 2005. All the major cities in China have subway systems. Even Johannesburg has a good subway system. But no, the government wants to support more cars on the road. The government gives out toll-road concessions because these have become feasible with more and more cars on the road.
ReplyDeleteHighways are not supposed to be making money. At best, it is a subsidised social obligation. Instead, we have people clamouring for highway concessions with the intention of selling later to make a fast buck. Ask the owners of Maju Expressway.
"All those not so useful people at Pemandu for instance could be made to think of a solution to this problem"
ReplyDeleteSpot on!!
Those highly paid people should be able to come up with something beneficial to the rakyat once in awhile.. The jam is a serious waste of resources.
RCZ
I tend to be smarter these days. I balik kampong many times in a year on non festive season, so my parents dont complain much on my absence during festive seasons. On the actual days of people cursing the traffic jams on the highways, I sit back and enjoy the holidays. For those who got caught in the traffic jams, maybe its time to start thinking outside the box. Its better than non stop complaining.
ReplyDeleteNext time around, get your parents and relatives to celebrate the festivities in KL.
DeleteNow, that's good thinking outside the box. Well done.
DeleteI was caught in the same situation yesterday having left Kulim at 1.30pm and arriving in Putrajaya at 10.00pm.Your observations are valid. On top of that PLUS has decided to close the Simpang Pulai R&R for renovation and will only be ready in March 2013. My question is why can't PLUS provide portable toilets for the highway users who in their hundreds had to rush to the Petronas station nearby to ease themselves.The whole things were choatic and we were lucky that there were no serious accidents yesterday.The same problem will repeat itself next month during the Deepavali-Awal Muharam Week,Christmas and Chinese New Year.So do something PLUS. Dont just collect money from us without giving us good decent service.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous28 October 2012 18:52 wrote " ...Hopefully the relevant authorities will do something about this problem. "
ReplyDelete=====
This is NOT the first time and had happened many times.
Had the relevant authorities ever learned ?
May be the relevant authorities NEVER encountered this problem because live in the BIG CITY and NEVER had to encountered this problem.
Or may be because there was no report was made to the relevant authorities. Remember IGP said the other day we act upon reports.
Bukankah masalah ini menepati slogan "Janji Ditepati"? Maksudnya janji ditepati dengan adanya lebuhraya 3-lorong, adanya kereta-kereta kebanggaan nasional, ramainya rakyat yang mampu bergerak jauh dengan menaiki kenderaan sendiri dan keprihatinan kerajaan untuk memberi subsidi agar harga minyak terus rendah.
ReplyDeletePadan lah muka semua orang. Janji ditepati yang akhirnya menyusahkan rakyat jugak.
Plus is laughing all the way. Satu kali satu tahun dan rakyat boleh tahan traffic Jam. Rakyat makan roti dengan jam. Plus miss the point - just go and grap all the toll money and not willing to invest in the traffic management and standby staff. what to do when all the collectors are of the same race also wanted to raya. So why worry if Dumno and its companies have the same mental attitude. On that day, how much Petronas has given rakyat to burn its cheap fuel?
ReplyDeletekata orang puteh "MARK MY WORDS"
ReplyDeletePLUS dan UEM tidak akan buat apa-apa yang drastik untuk mengatasi masalah ini. mereka peduli apa. gaji mereka, bonos mereka berbulan-bulan dari kutipan tol. kerja paling mudah ialah menguruskan lebuhraya tol tak payah nak fikir pelan pemasaran.
usabukata
We traveled to Kelantan with no problems. What we did was to constantly update ourselves with traffic situations from friends who were traveling on these routes.
ReplyDeleteInstead of crawling the extra 5-6 hours n be stuck in jams, we prefer to start our journey only when we know the roads are clear.
Hope in future for these 'balik kampung' traffic chaos, the relevant authorities/media can assist by giving online 24hr updates/coverage (what's all the modern technology there for?.
Hoi Din, yr Kem Penerangan shld also come up wth something, sampai kepala dak botak pun takan tak boleh come up wth a solution??
I was fuming mad at PLUS yesterday when I was stuck in the jam for hours. Not only have to endure the bad jam but also have to "tahan" from going to the toilet. Not even a mobile toilet be placed at strategic places for people to relieve themselves. Come on PLUS you have all the brilliant and smart people working in your organisation. Do whatever it takes to resolve this yearly nightmare otherwise i'm of the opinion that you all are only good in collecting toll money.
ReplyDeletePLUS is run by menopausal women Noorizah and Khalilah.
DeleteHow la a highway that is full of cars and lorries run by 2 old ladies.
They were probably at home entertaining their cucus while earning fat salaries.
I am not anti women but jobs must be on merit. If you are not monitoring the traffic which is what plus is all about then you have no business running a highway.
I saw their pictures in the papers today smiling as if nothing happened to the millions of motorists on PLUS.
Fat, tudung wearing malay women dont inspire much confidence do they. Yet why does Finance Minister appoint them? Because they can get them to do what they want?
You're right. NKVE, Penang Bridge, KLIA were once cursed as "white elephants"... now apa sudah jadi? They are the life line of the country..
ReplyDeleteIt's a pity Tun did not manage to complete the double-track rail... If not, I think that can help alleviate part of the jam problem. Apa nak buat.. not all leaders are as visionary as Tun... Most especially those dinosours that resides in PR.
Apa Sudah jadi ? They''ve become the spawning ground for thieves like Daim, halim saad, Abu sahid, all cronies of Mamakthir.
DeleteAnon 06:23
DeleteI hope you realise that the very person you worship as a hero is the worst culprit in causing hundreds of billions of capital flight from this country which could build a few more north south hiways without tolls.
It's a pity Mamakthir did not build that aluminium bridge between melaka and Riau. Bolehland would have become latest Indonesia province. With another toll.
DeleteKroni2 mahathir curi berbillion drp negara ini dan masih ade orang buta yang anggap mahathir sebagai hero melayu. Kroni2 mahathir ambil 9 ringgit dan tinggalkan 1 ringgit utk rakyat. Buka lah mata, wahai orang melayu. Kamu jual goreng pisang ditepi jalan, Kroni2 mahathir makan caviar dan berjudi di casino.
ReplyDeletePLUS should open all the gates to ease the jam during festive seasons rush to balik kampong. After a few days upon our return to KL, we will all readily declare our dues and make payment at any PLUS toll plaza lah. PLUS should trust us, the rakyat. We are now more responsible citizen(have you read all our comments in the blogs...we want honest government,against plundering of country's wealth etc etc, it reflects our honesty) and will surely not cheat you.
ReplyDelete-Mat Gee
Please don't kick mahathir. He's old and senile. This thread is about highway jams, not highway robbery. Big cat can start a new thread on the latter.
ReplyDeletePLUS and UEM cronies become richer at the expense of poor Malaysians. We Pay high excise and sales duties for cars, pay high tolls and pay road tax and insurance.......make BN richer so their cronies can benefit nmore from squeezing the blood of poor Malaysians. Ans yet BIG CAT dare not write on this, because UMNO cybertroopers are paid to spin positive stories only. So you eserve it when you suffered in the highway BN built through Mamakthir?
ReplyDeleteTrue, the bottlenecks are always at the toll plaza.
ReplyDeleteQuestion is, why do we even need a toll plaza any more?
Singapore can make do without toll plaza. That does not mean Singaporean don't pay toll
Seriously RM 120 per smart tag is ridiculous. Previously it is only 100. Somebody is making lots of money out of this. Every new car in malaysia should be supplied with smart tag as standard. And this should be subsidized. RM 50 is about the right price for this stuff, it is old tech anyway.
AES is capable to snap high quality photos of speeding driver. It can also be configure to snap photos of those who didn't have smart tag.
This horrible you mentioned is seasonal. Most of use face this on daily basis.
If we can't find solutions, just copy the solutions. Easy peasy.
I was also caught up in the traffic jam on Sunday. Too many lorries on the highways. The relevant authorities (JPJ and Police) should ban them every festive season and long holidays. Lorries are the culprit.
ReplyDelete