Highway Lane Markings in KL

(L.) OK, so I can't draw worth a damn, but I think you get the idea. These be lane markings.

Jeez, bringing this up actually makes me embarassed. For everyone, myself included. Sigh. *soldiering on*

So, as you can see, this is a typical road layout with lane markings for a left fork off a major road/highway in K.L. Examples of these? Well, a notorious example, is the branch left off the Federal Highway towards Cheras, in front of Mid Valley Megamall. Next picture.


(R.) So this is what happens every evening, when the traffic builds up along the Federal Highway. The arrows show typical car movement.


Notice the little starburst? That's cars in lane 3 cutting into lane 4 in order to make the turn off to Cheras. Which forces cars in lane 4 to cut left again into a newly created lane 5.

You might think nothing is wrong, but this irks me.

First of all, its become an unwritten rule of the road that this is tolerated. Lane cutting is tolerated; in fact, the lane markings practically encourage it.

While in a traffic jam, this is paradoxically safer, as most cars are travelling at a slow pace. However, when traffic lifts, cars proceeding along the way in lane 4, unaware of this rule, fall prey to the cars cutting in from lane 3 who are aware of this "unwritten rule", which often leads to sudden braking, swerves and accidents.

You know, I come from a school of thought that says: rules regulate behaviour, but good rules make regulated behaviour easier to achieve. These are the lane markings that should be used:




As you can see, with the lane markings so repainted, there is no more cutting. All you need additionally is a road divider, with a "fork" sign. Maybe a safety barrier for idiot speeders.

You know, people would learn to follow rules more, if the rules made sense and were there to save lives. We would have less stress. Less road rage. Less accidents and death. Not to mention that such lane markings are done very sensibly in other parts of the world, which was why I was embarassed to start with.

Poor roads make poor drivers. Its a small step, but I hope this can be fixed. Here's a list of forks with these offending lane markings.

1. Aforementioned Federal Highway towards KL, fork left towards Cheras.
2. Sprint Highway Kerinchi Link towards Federal Highway, fork left towards KL - one of the most deadly roads in the Klang Valley.
3. NPE towards Bangsar, fork left towards Subang.