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We have decided to put together these 8 main reasons for traffic congestions in Malaysia, following the worst traffic congestion ever during last week’s Hari Raya Aidilfitri exodus.

There were news that some motorists were trapped on the road for up to 20 hours. Think of it… that is almost an entire day.

As usual, one person faulted this, another faulted that, so that why we thought of putting the main reasons down in one list. Yes, we know we kind of look like Captain Obvious here, but we wish to highlight these in case the authorities pick it up. It is a pipe dream, but who knows? Do let us know if we missed a point, or two.

1. Too many darn vehicles

One netizen said correctly that there are just too many vehicles for our roads to sustain, especially when everyone is travelling everywhere during festive seasons.

We only have to look at the number of new vehicle registrations (called Total Industry Volume/TIV) per year. A whopping 799,731 new vehicles went onto the roads in 2023, alone. That was a massive increase over the 720,658 in 2022.

Let us crunch some numbers. There are some 24 million active vehicles in Malaysia, while the total distance of paved roads in Malaysia is 160,392 km. (These numbers are approximate, of course, since the authorities did not publish the exact numbers.) So, 24,000,000 ÷ 160,392 = 149 vehicles per km. Let us add in the total sales from 2023: 24,799,731 ÷ 160,392 = 154 vehicles per km.

Of course, not every vehicle will be on the road at the same time in the same place, but let us average it out and assume 30% of all vehicles do hit the roads at once:

(24,799,731 x 30%) ÷ 160,392 = 7,439,919 ÷ 160,392 = 46 vehicles per km.

It is alarming to say the least.

2. Driver attitude

Okay, coming back to the road: Road hoggers, selfish individuals, unskilled drivers, or drivers with just no common sense are still plaguing our roads. Some drive with completely zero concept of assisting smoother traffic flow. Some drive like they own the roads. Some drive with no tolerance. Then there are the queue hoppers. There are just too many to list here.

3. Toll plazas

Toll plazas are relics in this days and age. Traffic has to slow down and fan out to multiple lanes, then converging back to fewer lanes thereafter. How many times have been caught waiting for hours to beep through only to get stuck again on the other side? Why the authorities are still dragging their feet to create a smooth flowing toll system like Singapore’s ERP is beyond us.

4. Not enough roads

We will come right out and say that adding more roads or highways is not an end to and end. Roads and certainly highways take time to build, usually over years. As more and more new vehicles are added to the system each year, the new roads will still be inadequate by the time they are completed.

Certain areas around Kuala Lumpur are so crowded with on- and off-ramps for multiple highways that even navigation goes haywire.

5. Lack of a cohesive public transportation system

Talking about infrastructure, the government has been spending billions of Ringgit to upgrade, if not build more public transportation facilities. Yet, it is not enough. Compounding the problem is the lack of a cohesive system. To paint a broad picture, only certain areas are covered, while a majority are not. Public bus schedules are like some bad joke although the consortiums are promising higher frequency but their buses are caught in the jam. There is no proper last-mile (or km, if you wish) connectivity once one gets off the train and heads to the office. Heck, there is no proper pedestrian walkways 100 metres away from most stations, apart from those at hotspots.

So, what do people do when they are faced with these problems and more? Buy a car or bike!

6. Construction/Over-development

Road works or construction projects are no doubt another culprit that cause traffic to back up. This is also why we said that building more roads is not the final answer. Then add large construction projects that need to divert traffic and you have a congestion.

Apart from that, housing projects are being pushed further and further out of the city. (And ironically, every project flattens the jungle and then the developers call them “Eco.”)

Since these projects are way outside the reach of existing public transportation, residents will continue to use their own vehicles, if not adding more. Public transportation development could not catch up with so many projects going on everywhere.

7. Roads that do not favour smooth traffic flow

Some roads seem to exist merely because a road is needed. Unfortunately, some of these roads are the arteries that connect to main roads and they consist of many intersections, traffic lights, roundabouts, and speed bumps.

There are so many roads that see shoddy patching over potholes, that makes you think your car has just hit a hill or mountain.

8. Weather

Granted, we cannot control the weather, but some drivers seem to be petrified of rain despite having four large contact patches and a roof over their heads, as if the road is covered with ice with engine oil as icing. Cars do not just slide off as soon as the road is wet. Please.

To be fair, there are places on our roads that grow huge deep puddles in thunderstorms and these can cause aquaplaning if approached too fast. Besides that, there are flash floods such as one a few days ag0 at the super busy Berjaya Times Square intersection. The water was as deep as the car’s bumper.

Conclusion

So there you have it, some of the major causes of traffic congestions in our country. There should be more factors, but it is already getting to long. We will see some suggestions for solutions in a future article. Ride and drive safe, everyone.

The KTM 450 Rally Replica is the closest the buying public can get to a factory-kitted race bike as one can get, and it has proven to be popular. Now, the 2025 KTM 450 Rally Replica has been launched, with the biggest changes since its introduction in 2020.

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Up until recently, KTM is the force to be reckoned with in motorcycle rallies (in the 450cc, class). They have since won the Dakar Rally 19 times since 2001. But Honda has since made inroads to this dominance for the last two years, and it is high time for the Austrian brand to move the goalposts.

Changes for the 2025 KTM 450 Rally Replica ranges from the powertrain and right through the chassis.

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Highlights:
  • The single-cylinder 450cc engine gets a new cylinder head (still SOHC, though), reinforced clutch, and a strengthened transmission.
  • The radiator is now double-sided.
  • Engine frame guard at the rear near the engine mounts. The sections of this guard were laser-cut and hydro-formed, then welded by hand at KTM Motorsports.
  • According to KTM, the frame features “specifically calculated” longitudinal and torsional flex characteristics, but “maintains exceptional” rider feedback, bump absorption, and straight-line stability. That is a lot of different parameters from the frame.
  • Biggest change here is the absence of a “traditional” rear subframe. Instead, the new bike uses its new self-supporting 16-litre fuel tank as the subframe.
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  • Speaking of fuel, the 16-litres at the back, combined with one front 9-litre tank, and another with 9.5-litres means the 2025 model can carry 34.5 litres in total.
  • Up front are WP Xact Pro 7548 closed cartridge cone valved 48mm diameter forks, clamped in new 23mm offset CNC-machined triple clamp, plus a Scotts steering damper.
  • The rear is supended by a WP Xact Pro 7750 shock, which acts on a new die-cast hollow aluminium swingarm.
  • Up in the cockpit, the navigation tower takes centre stage behind a redesigned fairing.
  • New LED lighting to improve output by 33%.

New vehicle sales dropped 10 percent in March 2024, compared to March 2023.

That means 71,052 units were registered compared to 78,881 in the same month last year, said the Malaysian Automotive Association (MAA).

However, the association stated that total industry volume (TIV) in March was +10% higher than February 2024 at 64,290 units.

“This is because the companies were pushing to make deliveries as their financial year ended on March 31, 2024 in addition to promotional campaigns for the Hari Raya festive season,” MAA added.

Of that number, 64,760 were passenger vehicles (PV), which dropped -9% compared to the 70,490 units sold in February 2024. For commercial vehicles (CV), sales dropped -21% to 6,292 units from 7,941 units.

However, the annual total up to March 2024 saw an increase of +5% to 202,245 units compared to 192,615 units registered in the same period in 2023. This included 184,994 PV units (+8%) and 17,251 CV units (-16%).

Production figures

In terms of production, MAA said 66,923 vehicles were produced in March 2024, a reduction of -12% from the 76,069 units witnessed during March last year.

The total included 63,778 PV units, down -11% from 71,731 units in the same month last year, while the remaining 3,145 units were CV (-28%) compared to the previous 4,338 units.

Total production in 2024 up to March increased by +6%, amounting to 210,431 units compared to 198,394 units in the same period last year.

This includes 199,199 PV units (+7%) from the same period last year while the remaining 11,232 (-8%) are CVs.

Sales for April 2024 are expected to be weaker due to a shorter working month following the Hari Raya holiday.

Pol Tarres and the Yamaha Ténéré 700 triumphs in Moroccan Desert Challenge 2024.

The victory goes into the record books as the first rider to win the rally on a twin-cylinder adventure motorcycle, by beating out specialised single-cylinder 450cc Rally entrants. Tarres won in six of the eight stages, including the last special stage.

This was the rider’s maiden desert rally win. He led from the start by attacking the stages despite being the “sweeper” and trailblazer being in front. By doing so, he won the first four stages. A sandstorm swept in during the fifth stage, so Tarres waited it out before finishing in second.

The sixth stage saw him finishing in fourth despite errors in his roadbook which missed two waypoints.

He came back to winning the seventh and penultimate stage, and gassed through the final stage to win the crown.

Another amazing fact is that Tarres had been competing in Rally Raids only since 2022. He had been on the podium of the Morocco Desert Challenge in 2023. This victory is another notch in his cap after the 2023 TransAnatolia, and the third place at the Africa Eco Race this January.

His performance meant he took the overall victory by an astounding margin of 2 hours, 21 minutes, and 6 seconds, a feat made all the more remarkable due to the fact he was competing on the Yamaha Ténéré 700 against lighter single-cylinder 450cc purpose-built machines.

This year’s Morocco Desert Challenge covered more terrain this year, despite an extremely tough 2023 edition that took the life of two participants. The 3,000 km route connected the Mediterranean sea and Atlantic ocean through some of the toughest terrain on the planet.

Closer to home, the Yamaha Ténéré 700 has been reigning supreme in the Rimba Raid rally races, particularly among the Thai participants.

The Yoshimura SERT Suzuki team won the Le Mans 24 Hours endurance race for an unprecedented 10th time over the weekend.

The team had an early scare when one of their riders, Greg Black, was chucked over the handlebars and crashed at the exit of Les Esse Blue. It was later learned that the bike had traction control issues. Black managed to nurse the bike back to the pits for repairs and they rejoined the race far behind the field.

Black’s crash meant that the YART Yamaha racing team took over the lead, and built it up to being in front by several laps. However, Karel Hanika also crashed at the same corner as Black on early Sunday morning. Luckily, the corner was just next to the pit lane, so Hanika brought the bike back to the pits for repairs. Unfortunately, they were already laps behind when they rejoined.

Yamaha’s misfortune handed the lead to the MRP BMW team but they suffered a slow pit stop, which saw Suzuki back into the lead.

Suzuki’s rider Black, who crashed 20 hours earlier, seemed to redeem himself by riding a steady final stint to the victory flag, the Yoshimura SERT Suzuki’s 10th victory at the event. It was also the rider’s third Le Mans 24 Hour win.

YART Yamaha riders Marvin Fritz and Niccolo Canepa made their way up the field and back on the podium in third, behind the BMW team.

The 24 Hours of Le Mans (24 Heures Motos) was the first race in the 2024 FIM Endurance World Championship. There are only 4 races this year, and unfortunately, they will not visit the Sepang International Circuit.

The two traffic police officers who were detained for assisting in the extortion case against the public at Bangunan Sultan Ismail (BSI) in Johor Bahru have returned to duty as the remand order against them expired today.

South Johor Bahru District Police Chief, Assistant Commissioner Raub Selamat said they were on duty as usual because no work stoppage order had been imposed.

“They are now back on duty under the Johor contingent as usual until there is a stop work order (if any),” he said when contacted by Berita Harian.

Yesterday, the Johor police stated that they would submit a letter to Bukit Aman to obtain a suspension order against the two policemen.

The two policemen on duty at the BSI were arrested on April 5, to assist in the investigation of an extortion case involving a victim by asking for a payment of RM2,000 to avoid being prosecuted for having a record of past offenses in an incident earlier this month.

They were arrested again last Saturday for a complaint submitted by a 50-year-old victim who was allegedly threatened by the two suspects while at BSI, on January 4.

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