Trip to Penang and Road Improvements

Have just returned from a family reunion in Penang even though most of us come from Ipoh.
It was an interminable round of eating all the good food of the two towns and almost all of us suffered a bout of indigestion!
I won’t go into details but you can guess the usual fare we enjoyed – popiah, assam laksa and fried kuey teow – spelling is suspect but I guess close enough.

For my son-in-law and some Singaporean friends it was a first visit to Penang and they quite enjoyed the visit. We saw some beautiful houses around Tanjung Bunga area.

The drive up north was busy on the 21st with many sections of NSH being upgraded or resurfaced – I hope they complete all the work before Chinese New Year. Yesterday’s drive from Penang to KL was very busy but traffic was quite orderly except for perhaps 5% of drivers being too impatient and overtaking on the left.

The other sign of bad drivers are those who overtake too slowly and hold up traffic. Road warning signs of obstructions are much better these days with early warning.

Penang traffic is a bit of a disaster and the drivers there are quite undisciplined, crowding every bit of space and driving with no margin of error.

I remarked to my wife that these bad drivers probably graduated from riding the notorious rickshaws of old that used to squeeze into every space of road.

On the way back I noticed an important development near the Jelapang toll. The authorities have installed a emergency stopping gravel section just next to the toll after many deaths occurred here as a result of runaway lorries with failed brakes.

This is a common feature in other countries on the descent from hills and I first saw these in Australia 12 years ago. One observation is that one pit at the bottom of the hill is a bit of “Too little, too late.”

By the time the runaway lorry reaches the bottom, it would have gathered much momentum and speed and the driver would have probably freaked out and would tend to jump out of the vehicle rather than try to land in the designated zone.

It is suggested that a second pit is also needed about halfway down the slope so that the vehicle can be arrested much earlier and before it can do serious damage to other motorists.

Graphic: http://www.lapdonline.org/general_information/faqs/stopping_distance_chart.jpg