PETALING JAYA: Want to avoid getting caught in traffic snarls along the highways during the upcoming festive season rush home? Then you need to drive smart, say road safety experts.
The advice comes despite PLUS Malaysia Bhd (PLUS) issuing a travel advisory and activating 25 smart lanes along its highways.
Despite these efforts, many motorists are still expected to face slow crawls on their journeys home. Horror stories of travellers taking 11 hours to reach Johor Baru from Kuala Lumpur or over seven hours to get to Penang are all too common.
Road Safety Marshal Club founder and president K. Balasupramaniam said that drivers should use available real time technology and make adjustments while on the road.
He suggests using Google Maps or Waze to check real-time traffic conditions before drivers start their journeys, and to identify alternative routes. “Technology helps – make use of it,” he said.
Balasupramaniam, known to many as Captain Bala, also called on travellers to get off the highway just before reaching their destination and use trunk roads instead.
“For example, if they want to travel to Ipoh, they could get off the highway at Tapah, Simpang Pulai or Gopeng.
“This in turn will also ease traffic along the highway for other road users,” he said.
Regarding PLUS’ Smart Lanes, Bala acknowledges the initiative but stresses the need for quick responses to vehicle breakdowns and clear signage to inform drivers about lane usage.
“There is usually a lack of awareness among road users concerning smart lanes, which allow drivers to use the emergency lane in certain stretches to ease traffic congestion.
“This may result in video clips being posted on social media by irate road users complaining about such drivers,” he said.
Assoc Prof Dr Law Teik Hua notes that smart lanes may not effectively reduce congestion along the entire highway.
“They typically resolve traffic jams only for short distances between exits, and if vehicles clog the emergency lane, it could lead to further delays,” he said.
Law, who is head of the Road Safety Research Centre at Universiti Putra Malaysia’s Engineering Faculty, also said that while some mobile apps rely on GPS to track traffic, they may not be very accurate or in real time.
He recommended the use of the community-driven platform Automatic Road Incident Detection System (ARIDS) which provides real-time notifications about traffic conditions and incidents via WhatsApp.
“This system can help drivers stay informed and make better decisions on the road,” he added.
The system uses artificial intelligence and was introduced in February 2024. Still in its pilot phase, it currently covers some 1,000km of road systems.
Meanwhile, Malaysian EV Owners Club president Datuk Shahrol Halmi advised electric vehicle (EV) car owners to ensure that their vehicles are fully charged before starting their journey.
“Make sure to set out with 100% charge, ideally charge the night before the trip.
“However, EV users need not have to worry about range anxiety as slow moving traffic is actually better for such vehicles since they are more efficient in such situations,” he told.
As for charging stations along the highways, Shahrol acknowledged that those found the lay-bys may be crowded.
He advised EV drivers to use apps such as Gentari Go, JomCharge and ChargEV to get real-time status of charging stations along the way should they want to take a break and charge their EVs at the same time.
Shahrol said that there were over 100 charging bays at specific locations along the PLUS highways such as the lay-bys, petrol stations and toll plazas.
