I haven’t explored Kuala Lumpur as much as I would want to yet despite already being in the city for nearly two months now. I’m excited to rediscover the city all over again. Unfortunately, there are some whispers in the wind, telling me that Kuala Lumpur hates pedestrians with a capital h.
Generalizing is bad and I might be generalizing. Yet, in the several times that I had taken a walk in the city, I found that busy intersections, like the one nearest to the Indonesian embassy on Jalan Tun Razak, have no crosswalk light for pedestrians at all. Even the paint that mark the crosswalk on the street has somewhat faded. Worse, at some junctions, there is no crosswalk at all. Motorcycles and other vehicles that stop on existing ones instead of behind it don’t make the situation any better.
On the same stretch of road, only closer to the national library, there are crosswalk lights and the crossings are clearly marked. However, most of them don’t work or simply broken. And you don’t have to talk about ergonomic design. I have this one picture to demonstrate that common sense is not so common:
Why does the button face the fence instead of its possible users is beyond me. The button up close and personal:
And this is how people adhere to traffic rule. Observe the crosswalk, the position of the car and the position of the motorcycle on the far right:
And do you see the light for the crosswalk?
It doesn’t work. I waited for nearly 15 minutes, which is enough for the traffic system there to complete maybe two or even three cycles, but it never turned green. And I swear I did press the button several times. Note too that the button that I need to request for a crossing is the one button that faces the fence.
And the person on the other side of the road simply ignored the light when he found out that it doesn’t work.
Beautiful, isn’t it? A nonsensically placed button for a nonworkable crosswalk light is definitely an invention worthy of mention millennia to come. Who could have thought of it, I ask you?
As if it is not enough our rivers look like sewers:
Yes, that is actually a river.
Bah! I’m mad. And rawr! I want to be a cat.
Here pussy, pussy, pussy…
One reply on “[581] Of Kuala Lumpur is pedestrian-unfriendly”
i totally agreed with you. the walkway is uneven, some very steep, gets slippery when it’s wet etc etc
currently with so many tourists in town, i pitied those who pushes their baby’s pram, many times they hv to push in on the road as the walkway is just too narrow or some morons parked their cars on them.