Malaysia is famous for many things, the Petronas Twin Tower, Sepang F1 Circuit, Genting Highland, KL Golden Triangle, FOOD!!! and the list goes on. Not forgetting, the one most important thing of all, TRAFFIC JAM. I'm sure most of you would agree with me on this, especially if you are living in the Klang Valley. Despite the rising fuel price, and government aggressive reduction of fuel subsidy in recent year, the numbers of cars never seems to get lesser, in fact it grows day by day.
The government and their crony see this as an opportunity to make $$$$. Thus they came up with lame excuse to reduce the congestion. Their brilliant idea was to build expressway(highway) at every single corner of the city. However they only manage to reduce the congestion for a short period of time. One good example would the the Sprint Highway Toll Plaza located near. That toll booth would normally be congested before the toll booth and even after paying RM1.60, you wont be spared from the terrible congestion all the way to 1Utama. A typical jam from that toll to 1Utama during peak hours can take up to 60 minute of your precious time which other wise would take only less than 5 minute without the congestion. Maybe its time they start submitting an entry for the Guinness Book of Record, I'm sure The Malaysia's Traffic Jam will be able to make it to the top and make Malaysian proud.
If you have read my previous post entitled It was a black Tuesday, you would notice that even when I uses the Touch & Go card which suppose to mean that i just need to touch the card at the toll booth and proceed driving, hassle free as i wont have to pay cash to the toll operator and wait for my change as well as receipt. However the incident that day force my car to crawl like a turtle.
Two days after that incident, while driving along the Federal Highway from the City Center heading to Shah Alam, I saw a message display on a electronic board which reads: Promosi Smart Tag di Toll Sunway(LDP) hanya untuk Hari ini 24hb April 2008. So i decided to make a detour to get my self one of those little electronic gadget which will enable me to cut those waiting time at the toll booth. It cost me RM120 cash, they only accept cash for this promotion. For the benefit of those who might still be living in the cave and do not know what Touch & Go and Smart Tag, I shall give you a brief introduction.
Touch & GO(T&G): It's a magnetic card which allows to load cash value and function like a debit card with preloaded credit. All you need to do is touch the card at the electronic terminal when you drive pass the toll booth or any other public transport such as the LRT, Monorail, RapidKL Buses.
Smart Tag: An advance electronic device which requires you to insert a touch & go card. The device will actually beam your card information to a wireless electronic terminal strategically places at each toll booth. This will allow you to drive pass the toll booth with out stopping your car, winding down the window and finally touch your T&G card on the electronic terminal (but you need to slow down to like 20km/h)
The government and their crony see this as an opportunity to make $$$$. Thus they came up with lame excuse to reduce the congestion. Their brilliant idea was to build expressway(highway) at every single corner of the city. However they only manage to reduce the congestion for a short period of time. One good example would the the Sprint Highway Toll Plaza located near. That toll booth would normally be congested before the toll booth and even after paying RM1.60, you wont be spared from the terrible congestion all the way to 1Utama. A typical jam from that toll to 1Utama during peak hours can take up to 60 minute of your precious time which other wise would take only less than 5 minute without the congestion. Maybe its time they start submitting an entry for the Guinness Book of Record, I'm sure The Malaysia's Traffic Jam will be able to make it to the top and make Malaysian proud.
If you have read my previous post entitled It was a black Tuesday, you would notice that even when I uses the Touch & Go card which suppose to mean that i just need to touch the card at the toll booth and proceed driving, hassle free as i wont have to pay cash to the toll operator and wait for my change as well as receipt. However the incident that day force my car to crawl like a turtle.
Two days after that incident, while driving along the Federal Highway from the City Center heading to Shah Alam, I saw a message display on a electronic board which reads: Promosi Smart Tag di Toll Sunway(LDP) hanya untuk Hari ini 24hb April 2008. So i decided to make a detour to get my self one of those little electronic gadget which will enable me to cut those waiting time at the toll booth. It cost me RM120 cash, they only accept cash for this promotion. For the benefit of those who might still be living in the cave and do not know what Touch & Go and Smart Tag, I shall give you a brief introduction.
Touch & GO(T&G): It's a magnetic card which allows to load cash value and function like a debit card with preloaded credit. All you need to do is touch the card at the electronic terminal when you drive pass the toll booth or any other public transport such as the LRT, Monorail, RapidKL Buses.
Smart Tag: An advance electronic device which requires you to insert a touch & go card. The device will actually beam your card information to a wireless electronic terminal strategically places at each toll booth. This will allow you to drive pass the toll booth with out stopping your car, winding down the window and finally touch your T&G card on the electronic terminal (but you need to slow down to like 20km/h)
Life in the Fast lane!!!
See they even come up with a nice tag line: Life in the Fast lane. LOL. Ya right, after toll still have to be stuck in the Jam. The only benefit if that you get to drive pass the toll booth faster than those without Smart Tag. Nice packing eh? So whats in the package?
Tada.... Clockwise starting from top right: SmartTag Unit, Smart Tag Holder, Touch & Go card(RM20 preloaded credit), 9v battery, and a warranty card(1 year only).
Have a read at the brochure and User guide on the right. This promotion is jointly organised by Etiqa(the insurance arm of Maybank)
They even list a benefit which includes RM10,000 worth of Personal Accident Coverage and RM2000 Medical reimbursement.
I've finally decided to invest RM120 to live in the fast lane. Have you invested in one? Although it may not be able to help you cut the queue after the toll, but it certainly can help you to cut the queue before the toll(talking about supremacy on the highway, wahahaha).
9 comments:
Stupid la, ERP in Singapore where got need to slowdown one, just zoom pass.
act, if they allow ppl to top up the touch & go at the tolls that would make things easier. they should look into this.
Simon: aihh its sad to say that Malaysia is always one step behind people wan lah.
Quachee: erm actually they do allow people to topup their touch & go at the toll. If you realised, there will always be a long queue of cars waiting to topup their touch & go, causing more congestion.
heya charlie
sorry i didnt put it clear.
i meant top up at any booth rather than just the dedicated booths. that means any cash counter can be used for topping up too.
i dont know why they never look into this.
Quachee.....if ppl can top up any booth, then all booths will definately cause more hassle. Ppl gonna wait longer though they dont plan to top up. Look and think from the other point of view too not just your view alone.
hi bobby
i dont quite understand what you mean.
but if i hear you right, you say if a driver is allowed to top up at any cash lanes, then, it will affect the cash lanes as well (ie they will have to wait longer).
ur right to an extend... but, look at it this way:
10 cars in T&G lane divided into 5 lanes = 2 extra cars in each lane.
yes, the T&G ppl will benefit, the cash only ppl will not, but its not like a million cars in queue.
another alternative, i agree, do like what simon says - go ERP style.
just a point of view, bobby - not only mine, but lets move with the world, not just msian style.
Unfortunately, u r living in Malaysis. We are all following the malaysian style.If you wanna make a change, u first propose it to the authority. Majority are cash users. Of course they will the majority view.
majority can become minority if the system is right. maybe one of the reasons ppl dun want t&g is because of the queue - it beats the purpose.
ur also telling me that our lrt system is good? that you interchange at masjid jamek and walk out of the station to another station and buy another ticket in between? have u tried it? is that msian style? does the majority want that way?
or our broadband speed? our north south ktm?
boby, im a proud msian. and msia has many things to be proud of.
but if somethings needs to be improved, we shld look into it. we cant just say 'itu dia orang...., kita tak sama macam amerika'... or 'itu london.. kita malaysia'...
thats why we never lead, but only follow!
living in msia doesnt mean we are close to advancement and progress (not that we are fully - but sometimes i think we are!)
i shant comment further here. and you have yr right to yr opinion.
*in spore, all cars have something like the Tag - just zoom in the ERP gates. check it out!
sorry need to add one last thought:
if tng is only for an elite few, and the smart tag even less.. and if we think of only serving the majority (in yr point of view, bobby), then, i believe you are unhappy with tng & tag as they take up to a few lanes which can serve the majority.
hence, why dont you then propose it to the authorities?
*my solution is to make all cars have the tag embeded like the cars in spore to solve this issue.
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