Smart Lane Activation Leads To Misinformed Community Policing

I suppose there are still a lot of Malaysians who, despite their own ignorance, believe they are serving society well by enforcing the law and instructing others on what to do and not do while they themselves are misinformed at times.

Case in point, an incident that Akhi Ismile posted on Facebook has generated a lot of buzz on social media. According to the shared video, Akhi Ismile's car's side mirror appears to have been purposefully damaged by the motorcycle rider (registration number DEV 9620) while he was travelling the Smart Lane route close to the Sungai Buaya intersection.

Akhi goes on to say that the biker would have most likely been unaware that specific sections of emergency lanes on all major highways would occasionally be converted into "Smart Lanes" in order to better handle heavy traffic volumes, particularly during the busiest travel seasons.

In a separate incident, a motorcyclist went so far as to stop his bike in the emergency lane to chastise the driver for using the lane, and did not appear to care when the driver informed him about the activation of the Smart Lane, according to a Facebook user Maelk Kang on the JBTalks page. The biker then continued to ride away, "schooling" other drivers in the emergency lane to get them to move off the lane, but he didn't act raucous to the point where he caused damage to any of the vehicles he didn't like.

However, because of people's ignorance and lack of common sense regarding rule updates, incidents like this one involving "vigilante" motorcycle riders have been documented multiple times. That being said, these motorcycle riders who are utilising the emergency lanes appear to be unaware that they are also subject to the same usage - more accurately, misuse - regulations.

When it comes to sharing updates about highway lane usage, netizens are also urging the government and highway operations to do more, since the current approach does not appear to adequately reach the majority of the road users. Updates regarding the Smart Lanes are currently shared via the highway's websites, social media pages, and miniature notice boards positioned along the impacted sections of road.

It was evident from both of the aforementioned incidents that there were small notice boards with clear messages about activating Smart Lanes.