IMAGINE this scenario. You are stuck during peak hour along Mahameru Highway heading to Jalan Tun Razak and Jalan Pahang and you need an alternative route to avoid the jam. But the Variable Message signboard (VMS) that you have come to depend upon is not working and you have no choice but to take a chance and hope that it is the right decision. Sounds familiar? You are not the only one, in fact KLites have come to depend heavily on the VMS - an electronic traffic sign used on city roads to provide information to motorists.
Motorists use the VMS all over the city to enable them to make decisions on the choice of routes and schedules.
However, there have been numerous complaints from the public that the VMS which are installed by Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) under the Integrated Transport Information System (ITIS) are not functioning.
The DBKL had invested RM365mil in 2006 on the ITIS project to help ease the city’s traffic woes. ITIS is a transport information system designed to improve the planning and flow of the city’s traffic system to ensure better management.
Of no help: The peak hour gridlock at Jalan Bukit Bintang is at its worst but the electronic signboard is out of order. Yet, there have been constant complaints from the public that the electronic signboards in the city are always out of order.
A reader of The Star who did not wish to be identified had called the paper to complain that in one month, the VMS along the Mahameru Highway is out of order at least five times.
A. Wong, another reader, had called to complain of an incident which had caused a gridlock along Jalan Sungei Besi near the Federal Bakery on Sunday morning and which resulted in a four-lane road being reduced to two lanes.
Motorists were caught unawares and were stuck in a bumper-to-bumper jam.
“I decided to use the toll-free road because it was a Sunday and so you can imagine my frustration at getting stuck in an hour-long jam,” Wong said.
He was also unhappy that the city’s ITIS system failed to alert the public on the congestion and instead was flashing irrelevant messages.
“I called the number to find out what was happening and an operator told me that the electronic road sign was not working properly. He informed me about the broken pump and advised me to use an alternative route.
“However, it was too late. I was already stuck there and ITIS should have informed us earlier,’’ Wong said, adding that if he had known about the problem, he would have used the SMART tunnel.
Earlier in the year, Segambut MP Lim Lip Eng had brought the matter up in parliament.
Faulty: The electronic signboard on the Federal Highway heading towards Petaling Jaya. Lim said that more than half of the 140 VMS signs were faulty and that the DBKL was wasting taxpayers money.
The DBKL in response said that the figure was exaggerated and that only 30% of the VMS were not functioning.
The local authority attributed the cause to thefts and vandalism.
Kuala Lumpur mayor Fuad Ismail conceded that something had to be done to solve the problem.
The StarMetro team took a drive during the weekend recently and discovered that many of the electronic signboards were indeed out of order. In fact, at least 10 VMSs were found to be out of order yesterday.
The situation had caused gridlock at peak hour in areas like Jalan Bangsar, Jalan Sungei Besi, Jalan Parlimen, Jalan Tun Razak and several other areas in the city.
A total of 140 VMS have been installed on various city roads in the Klang Valley. Out of this, 115 are located in Kuala Lumper. The ITIS system used by the DBKL is similar to the system used by other major cities worldwide. It provides DBKL with data on the flow of one million vehicles that enter the city daily.
The data will be analysed and then relayed to motorists via VMS eletronic signboards.
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