BAD IDEA FROM JAINAB

SABAH Dap State Vice Chairman, Edward Ewol Mujie said that is a bad idea doing away with the road roundabouts and replacing them with traffic light intersections as proposed by the Karambunai State Assembly Woman Datuk Jainab Ahmad.

He said she is wrong because her statement is unfounded and without proper technical knowledge of the situation. She just made wrong assumption ignoring the basic principle of traffic design and its practicality.

Edward said just look at the problems we had in the traffic lights controlled road intersection when the frequent power failure hits, the traffic congestion is immense. It may even cause many accidents once the traffic lights malfunction due to power failure.

As in the case of the roundabout, even though there is traffic jam, still the traffic can still move on. He said this is why the traffic light at the Inanam junction to Kiansom road has been replaced with a big roundabout.

JKR must have done a details study on this matter and found that roundabout is more practical than traffic lights to provide some maintenance free traffic control measures.

He said when Sabah DAP highlighted out the danger faced by drivers at the roundabout at Jalan Sepanggar to the KK Polytechnic road, it has never been intended to do away with roundabout, but merely requesting the authorities concerned to install more street lights on the roundabout and also put more signage indicating that there is a roundabout ahead. This is to warn and make the drivers aware that there is a roundabout infront especially during night time and rainy days.

Edward said Janiab must not forget that many road flyovers in KL, there are also roundabouts beneath them. Just imagined how much it would cost to demolish and modify all the hundreds of roundabouts in the Kota Kinabalu City, and replace them with traffic lights. What happen when there is power failure, the whole city will be jammed with traffic congestion, he said.

Will the JKR traffic light division be able to maintain and service all the traffic lights? At the moment, their crews and technician are already exhausted servicing the existing traffic lights.

If Janiab is so concerned about the roundabouts and traffic lights, she should immediately ask the JKR to start implementing design to build more flyovers in Kota Kinabalu if not for the whole of Sabah. For her, it is her responsibility to get the money to finance the work.

We need flyovers in Jalan Kolam with Jalan Lintas Junction, Foh Sang to Damai Junction, Mile 5.5 Tuaran Road with Jalan Lintas Junction, the Inanam to Jalan Kiansom Junction and many other major road junctions.

Edward said we are moving to a new era and we should not go back to the old fashion thing that has been phased out.