Malaysian roads

I recently went home to Malaysia (Petaling Jaya to be more precise) to escape from Singapore for the National Day holidays. So this posting is about the state of the roads in Petaling Jaya.

I managed to drive AKK's car around PJ for the 4 days that I was home. Good car I had in my hands, but the roads were horrendous.

I encountered pot holes - the pot hole that I knew about 20 years ago was still there. I don't know if the hole had been repaired or filled, but it was there when I drove past it this time.

Bad road repairs were also everywhere. These would be uneven repairs where the holes were patched over but the whole length of the road was not re-done. So I would be driving along the road and see some black patch and then drive along and see another black patch some 50 metres down the road. Sigh! Could the authorities just re-pave the whole road nicely so that it would be smooth to drive on?

Road humps were everywhere - on all the little roads. Some humps had markings of yellow stripes. Others had road signs that showed HUMP. Other humps were just lumps on the road. Near where we live, there was a hump across only half the road!! So all the motorists will drive on the other side of the road where there's no hump - duh!! how very intelligent right?

I told V to do a good deed - splash paint on all the unmarked humps. She asked me what defence she should give in the event that she was arrested for vandalising road humps. I told her: good citizen doing good deed to mark out bad parts of the road!!

It is very sad that there is Sepang for the Grand Prix races and the North-South Highway is of some standard but the other roads are just BAD, BAD, BAD!!

There are no pavements for people to walk along. Most people will have to walk on the grass verge and dodge the cars that come at them. There are no trees to provide shade either. Sigh! No wonder people are just driving to add to the traffic congestion around Malaysia.

I think that the municipal council or whichever department is responsible for the roads should be held accountable for the monies that they put aside presumable for road maintenance. There should be a public investigation into the funds gone missing.

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