KUALA LUMPUR: It is not practical to ban the kap chai (small underbone motorcycles) despite calls for such action, says Transport Minister Anthony Loke.
"There are non-governmental groups related to road safety that wants a ban on the kap chai.
“But we have to look at it practically as a vast majority of the estimated 16 million registered motorcycles are kap chais.
"Many would be affected if we ban the motorcycles today and my view is that it would be difficult to impose such a ban," he said when answering a supplementary question raised by Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof (GPS-Petrajaya) in the Dewan Rakyat today.
As an alternative, he noted that there have been suggestions to switch to the use of electric motorcycles which were less powerful and slower.
However, while encouraging the use of electric motorcycles, Loke said that there is no decision to ban the kap chai.
He added that there are also no plans to ban the kap chai on the highways.
Instead, he said plans will be included under the 12th Malaysia Plan for the construction of dedicated motorcycle lanes in hot spot areas.
Fadillah raised the issue of kap chai after Loke told lawmakers that 72% out of 2,693 road accident fatalities in 2017 involved motorcyclists and pillion riders aged between 16 and 30.
He said there were 2,818 fatalities in 2016 and 2,449 fatalities in 2018 involving victims of the same age group.
Earlier to a question by Fahmi Fadzil (PH-Lembah Pantai), Loke said that proposed guidelines to regulate motorcycle e-hailing and food delivery activities will be tabled in the Cabinet later this week.
In 2017, a suggestion by former Federal Territories Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Mansor to ban the kap chai in the heart of Kuala Lumpur City drew outrage from those using such machines.
