KUALA Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) civil engineering and urban transport department director Abd Hamid Surip told Actionline that no roads were narrowed with the installation of dedicated bicycle lanes.
Hamid said his team made sure that the number of lanes and their widths remained the same after the 1.5m wide bicycle lanes were created.
“Where roads were narrow, we built the lanes on pedestrian walkways. These include the bicycle lanes in Jalan Raja Chulan (near the KL Forest Eco-Park), Jalan P. Ramlee, Jalan Sultan Ismaill, Jalan Ampang, and Jalan Raja Laut,” he said.
Hamid added that the bicycle lanes were wide enough as they were one-way. He also pointed out that the speed limit in the city centre was 50kph and 35kph in certain areas.
“DBKL started the pilot project to create bicycle lanes along main roads from Mid Valley Megamall to Dataran Merdeka in 2010.
“We started to extend the bicycle lanes in October last year, and we hope to complete about 11.86km of the first phase ahead of the World Urban Forum (WUF), which will take place from Wednesday to Feb 13.
“Our hope is to promote cycling as an alternative mode of transport, exercise and recreation in the city,” he said.
Hamid said DBKL had invited bicycle associations and others to give their views before the project was implemented, and would welcome suggestions from the public on ways to improve bicycle lanes.
DBKL enforcement department director-general Osman Ismail said the department would continue to conduct regular patrols to educate and discipline the public.
“Any vehicle found to be blocking or parked on the dedicated bicycle lanes will be clamped and the owner will be issued with a compound. So far, we have issued 20 compounds to motorists,” he said.
Under the Road Transport (Amendment) Act 2012, the clamp removal fee is set at RM30 for motorcycles (including three-wheeled motorcycles), RM100 for cars, RM300 for buses and lorries with empty weights not exceeding 3,000kg, and RM400 for tankers, trailer lorries and other types of vehicles with an empty weight of more than 3,000kg.
The compound is set at RM100 for motorcycles (including three-wheeled motorcycles) and RM100 or RM150 for other types of vehicles, depending on the offence.