SIMANGGANG: Transforming the public transport system and building urban roads alone will not adequately solve the issue of congestion and ensure better road safety.
Instead, emphasis should be placed on changing the attitude of road users themselves to understand and obey the law, said Transport Minister Datuk Seri Lee Kim Shin.
In this regard, he emphasised, his ministry in collaboration with the Sarawak Road Safety Council introduced the T-ABC Programme or Transport – Awareness Behavioural Change to increase community awareness throughout Sarawak.
“It doesn’t matter what the government does, whether through infrastructure development, modern transport systems, transport subsidies, provisions and enforcement of laws and regulations,” he said at Sri Aman Division’s T-ABC Programme here yesterday.
“Actually, we still can’t solve traffic jams if road users themselves don’t contribute to help the authorities.
“Thus, emphasis needs to be placed on changing attitudes so that people understand and obey road rules.”
His speech was read by the Deputy Minister of Education, Innovation and Talent Development Datuk Francis Harden Hollis.
Data from the Royal Malaysian Police (PDRM) showed an increase in road accidents in Sri Aman.
“Overall in Sri Aman Division we have 400 cases in 2022, and recorded 472 cases last year which shows an increase of 17 per cent.
“It’s even sadder that motorcycles and youths account for the highest proportion of deaths in road accidents in Malaysia.
“Therefore, through the T-ABC Programme, the government intends to change the way people behave on the road, changing unwanted behaviour that contributes to traffic congestion, inappropriate parking, dangerous acts, risky driving, road bullying and so on.
“This is because bad behaviour is one of the main factors that contribute to unsafe conditions on the road and traffic congestion,” he said.
About 250 participants attended the programme consisting of students from SMK Simanggang, SMK Lingga, SMK Saint Luke, SMK Sri Aman and SMK Melugu as well as community leaders and tribal leaders (KMKK).
