The new MRT line from Sungai -Buloh to Cyberjaya offered free rides until last Friday and I hopped on board at the Batu station after delivering my car to the workshop at 4pm.
During Ramadan, with the breaking of fast at 7.24pm, road traffic will peak earlier and the decision to take the MRT was driven by the benefit of its magic carpet ride above the traffic jams of the MRR2 and the Sungei Buloh road on my way home.
To my pleasant surprise, the train was already packed with passengers who looked like they would be regular commuters, free ride or not.
A good public transport system can take a corresponding number of motorcyclists and their pillion riders off the public roads.
Malaysia can reduce the number of road crashes, where 70% of the fatalities are motorcyclists, and avoid the real tragedy of those who will be rendered totally and permanently disabled, becoming a lifelong financial and emotional burden on the family.
Azman Aziz Mohammed, CEO of Socso (the Social Security Organisation), recently recounted the cases of two delivery riders who suffered road crashes.
One was in a six-month coma at Sungai Buloh neurosurgery ward. This victim was covered under Socso and received temporary disability benefits worth RM7,000 and medical treatment.
The other was a Grab rider who was killed in the crash and his dependents received RM1,395 a month because he was covered by Socso’s security scheme for the self-employed.
Total permanent disability (TPD) refers to a condition in which a person cannot work due to injuries. Sadly, most of the non-fatal motorcycle crashes involve the lower limbs and cause total permanent disability.
Let’s go upstream and try to prevent the road crashes from even happening.
Overall, a multi-pronged approach that includes improvements to infrastructure, education and awareness campaigns and law enforcement can help reduce the number of TPDs from road crashes particularly among motorcyclists in Malaysia and Thailand.
In Thailand, there has been a construction boom in public transport systems and by April, Bangkok’s eighth MRT line will be opened.
In Malaysia, while the MRT and LRT lines are good people movers, the last mile connectivity is poorly serviced and diminishes the overall effectiveness of Prasarana’s multi-billion annual expenses.
Let’s hope that this government can sweat the mass transit public transport asset and minimise the count of TPD motorcyclists.
Education of motorcyclists is important in the negative way too: the daily transgressions of many ride-hailing motorcyclists at traffic lights provokes otherwise law-abiding motorcyclists to reluctantly violate the law.
This is where technology should step in. Owners of the ride-hailing platforms should look at the long term and embed a carrot-and-stick approach to their job assigning algorithms so that safety is rewarded, and penalties imposed for running traffic lights and over speeding.
Riders are their most important resource, and they have an economic duty, not just corporate social responsibility to protect their crew.
According to a study by two researchers at the Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research (Miros), almost 60% of motorcyclist crashes were at traffic light junctions including T-junctions.
On this note, the standards organisation Sirim, has drafted a new standard on road traffic safety for e-package platform providers which has yet to be ratified by the transport minister.
It details how e-package platform providers can continuously improve good practices and safety culture of e-package riders.
Hopefully this document will motivate the e-package platform providers to introduce a safety culture including smart helmets where the smartphone audio is paired to speakers in the helmets. If the smartphone’s gravity sensors detect that the rider is holding the smartphone and riding – extremely distracted riding – the rider should be penalised for his own safety and his family’s well-being.
As a veteran road safety practitioner and a former senior official of Miros said: “If platform providers can do such a good job of incorporating road safety culture to their e-hailing drivers, why can’t they do the same for the e-package riders?”
Another aspect of technology is how to design cars and Advanced Driving Assistance Systems to better detect and protect motorcyclists from traffic crashes.
This research is currently being undertaken by Miros and the results of this research will begin to surface by 2026 when Asean NCAP star ratings will reward cars that incorporate features to enhance safety of motorcyclists in the event of a crash.
NCAP refers to “New Car Assessment Program” which was an initiative started in the US and its insurance industry with the objective of reducing road crashes.
There are currently 10 NCAP programmes in the world, with the Asean NCAP the 9th and India the 10th.
Ideally, the new era of 5G telecommunications could see motorcyclists’ smartphones “talking” with roadside antennas starting with junctions recording the highest number of crashes.
Every smartphone is an IoT device, and they will report to the e-hailing platforms and the traffic police of motorists and motorcyclists who run red lights.
Will Malaysian society accept IoT monitoring and vehicle number plate recognition to improve road safety compliance and reduce road crash victims, especially totally permanently disabled tragedies? - FMT
The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.