KUALA LUMPUR: Build segregated motorcycle lanes like those along the Federal Highway and lower the speed limit for motorcyclists.
These were among the suggestions social activist and Alliance for Safe Community chairmanTan Sri Lee Lam Thye proposed to the government to check road fatalities nationwide.
Such safety measures could be introduced in the 12th Malaysia Plan, which will take effect next year.
“The best example of such live-saving lanes is certainly along both flanks of the Federal Highway stretching from Petaling Jaya to Shah Alam and up to Klang. The Federal Highway is, without doubt, one of the busiest with traffic virtually round-the-clock but according to statistics, an average of only two fatal crashes involving motorcycles has been recorded annually.
Enacting a law to reduce the speed limit of motorcycles would also minimise injuries and deaths among riders and pillion riders.
Acknowledging that building such dedicated lanes around the country would be expensive, Lee said that for a start, the police and Transport Ministry could confine motorcyclists to riding only on the left-most lanes of highways and roads, with double-lines on the roads to separate them from other vehicles.
“In this way, the two-wheelers are barred from riding on the fast lanes competing for space with the bigger vehicles, which is obviously the main cause for the horrific high death tolls among motorcyclists and pillion riders,” he said.
This approach would be an interim step before rolling out segregated lanes, he added.
