Lee: Ministry working to resolve traffic congestion at schools
MIRI: The Ministry of Transport Sarawak (MOTS) is planning to work with local authorities to look into ways to resolve traffic congestion at schools, said Minister of Transport Dato Sri Lee Kim Shin.
Traffic congestion at schools, he pointed out, is among some of the issues burdening road users and plans have to be worked out to ease the problem.
“Traffic congestion often occurs during peak hours of parents dropping and fetching children. The situation is often caused by disorderly conduct like double or triple parking by parents, causing traffic obstruction. One of the ways is to deploy traffic wardens to mitigate the situation.
“I believe with the presence of traffic wardens to direct the traffic flow, it should help reduce traffic congestion,” he said in his opening remark at the launching of Transport - Behavioural Change (ABC) Programme held at a hotel here yesterday.
He added that MOTS, together with other agencies, will come up with proper standard operating procedures (SOPs) on how to resolve this issue.
He further said that among the challenges faced by MOTS is that though its responsibility is looking into traffic order, it is, however, not the direct agency or implementing body.
“MOTS has to coordinate with other agencies in order to resolve this traffic congestion issue,” said Lee.
He explained that MOTS that was established in 2019 is the youngest ministry among the ministries in Sarawak and one of the gazetted functions of MOTS is to manage urban land transport and urban traffic.
“My ministry is approaching transport related issues through a more strategic way and proposes solutions in a more holistic way. It is more of a ‘bottom-up’ approach, whereby we listen to views of all the stakeholders including the public before we craft our strategies to solve the problem.”
In view of the fact that no matter how much the infrastructure are built towards catering to the public’s need, Lee said the issues remained unsolved.
Hence, MOTS organised the T-ABC programme to drive road safety awareness, to promote road users’ behavioural change in a comprehensive way, and at the same time encouraging the usage of public transport.
“According to the Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research (Miros), motorcyclists and youth make up the highest proportion of fatalities in road accidents in Malaysia. This situation necessitates urgent move for specific programmes to increase awareness and provide road education programme, especially targeting these groups.
“This programme aims to persuade behavioural change among the road users, looking at three perspectives - road safety for drivers and pedestrians, alertness on traffic regulations and promoting usage of public transport,” said Lee.
He added that he hopes the programme can change the way people behave on the road, change the unwanted behaviours that contribute to traffic congestion, inappropriate parking, dangerous acts, risky driving, and road bullying.
Among those present at the opening ceremony were Miri mayor Adam Yii and permanent secretary to MOTS Dato Alice Jawan Empaling.