It’s another long weekend, and for quite a few, this will be another opportunity to hit the road and visit friends and family. For longer jaunts out of town, this typically means travelling on highways. As always, safety should be paramount, and route planning goes a long way towards a smooth and safe drive.
It is understandably daunting when you’re faced with a split in the highway and you don’t know for sure which way to go. Overshooting the intended exit is probably something we’ve all done before, and we’ve surely seen what some have done in a bid to save time and get back on the right path – they’ve gone against the flow of traffic, to the unpleasant surprise of everyone else along that stretch.
It really does not need to be this way. Pretty much everyone has a smartphone these days, so a reliable navigation app like Google Maps and Waze are just taps and a download away. Make use of one of those apps, add a phone holder (or use a smartphone integration function like Apple CarPlay or Android Auto) and you can find your way safely. For motorcyclists, phone-based navigation is a more involved process than it is for car drivers but nevertheless possible – check out Mohan’s review of one such unit here.
Even then, it is still possible to miss your exit. Maybe you misinterpreted the map or the spoken direction, or you were engrossed in a conversation with a passenger and sailed past. Whatever it is, it is imperative that you carry on forwards anyway – under no circumstances should you attempt to reverse towards it, even on the hard shoulder or the emergency lane.
You probably already know this, but missing an exit isn’t the end of the world. There will be another exit or intersection further ahead that will still take you to your eventual destination, and the extra time and fuel spent on the detour is a very, very small price to pay compared to a potential collision and the risk of injury or death due to driving against traffic – especially dangerous on highways. And of course, it goes without saying that reversing against the flow of traffic is also against the law.
Even if near misses don’t result in a direct collision between the offending vehicle and the innocent road user, this could pose serious issues for the latter who will need to take evasive action. Also spare a thought for the motorcyclists, who have at least two fewer contact patches on the road, and have to be far more physically involved when emergency manoeuvres need to be executed.
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Very useful piece of info and SAFETY is always first!!
This is very common amongst Malaysians especially those who have big families and many kids. This is because the many kids in the car are always disturbing the concentration of the driver sampai they miss the exit.
I hope this problem is looked into by PDRM.
Big families with many kids. need to get big cars such as Exora and X70…
Usually those who do this are UiTM, Mara and UIA grads. They are not that good at planning their journey and always make mistakes when driving.
Deswai better ride bikes…maluApabossku.
WTF? To the PT editorial team, please stop allowing racist comments like this one from this idiot Suhaimi Sulaiman.
Those who do this are the lazy type Madey was talking about. They are too lazy to drive further to U turn
Same dupe “conversation” by our racist troll. What’s new is just the made up names.
Too many kids in a small Saga or a Axia shouting and screaming….of course lah driver also hilang focus and concentration
Not to mention couple who doing their ‘project’ in car untill miss the exit. Stupid comment ever. Never seen any bus driver miss the exit, if total passenger is the factor.
Govt must implement the camera inside car.
This problem actually originates from the defiance of motobikes and the PDRM lack of enforcement and tidak apa attitude of the polis.
How many times have we seen motobikes beating the red lights at the four junction and the abang abang polisman just look and biarkan?
How many times do you see our abang2 bikers going on the opposite direction of the road just to save minyak and time? Nearly everyday. Polis see also, tak kisah.
So, this attitude now has gone to car drivers. The majority have tidak apa attitude and don’t mind gostan all the way. It all started from the abang2 motorbikes in the first place and PDRM tidak apa attitude.
This is the origins of why people think it okay to do wrong and get away with it.
This problem is prevalent up north. Very normal for them.
Too many kids and too many wives in the car shouting at the driver….he also cannot focus.
Our town planners and road planners are the worst in the world. How many Malaysians have seen road signs just few seconds before the exit?
Also, every other road, from two lanes suddenly become one lane?
In overseas, any road from two lanes becoming one lanes has tens of warning messages few KM before the merger.
The road signs are like that. Go to Putrajaya and see our road signs. It is all in a mess.
This is why our town planners in Malaysia are incompetent and have very low competency.
whinging 508
Town planners usually come from institutions that have no good training in Malaysia. Mainly Uitm grads.
Please educate the kampung folk about this. They think coming into highway is like driving in their kampung. Can bantai and do anything. Somemore the Mat Moto also just ride their moto with no helmet, thinking it is still their kampung red sand non tarred roads.
dont forget your origins….. from kampong oso
FYI, Not many are born or raise up in Kampungs.
Those real kampungs are the one that really need to be further educated properly when they migrate to the urbans.
No kampung mentalities in urban areas please ..
agree, good article. If i may add, it is timely also to remind all road users of duties of ALL MALAYSIANS of KESOPANAN DAN KESUSILAAN loosely translated as COMMON COURTESY AND MORALITY. Try the PROACTIVELY Give and Take and you’d be surprise the positive feel good feeling you get. Of course, the easier REACTIVE approach of cursing, swearing and sometimes road rage (God Forbids) is the popular “route” and what’d you get….. negative thots generate negative hormones that’d harm you physically, physiologically and psychologically sooner of later. So yeah, stay cool stay calm be that Courteous Malaysian that Rukunegara has been reming us all along, and may we take one more little step towards making this place called Malaysia a better place to live in. God Willing.
I have seen this so many times. They are so eager to go back and see Opah in the kampung until they forget basic safety rules like this.
I have even seen people gostan up to 1KM also. These people normally got no regard for safety of others.
I would like to propose that JPJ/PDRM charges any driver who reverses out of highway exits with attempted murder regardless if there is an accident caused. It is a very dangerous manoeuvre and any driver should be banned from driving for life if he/she attempts one.
sounds like OVERKILL to go for ATTEMPTED MURDER bro :), but yeah, agree that a VERY STRONG DETERRENT PUNISHMENT must be meted out to this kind of HARMFUL, SELFISH, IRRESPONSIBLE AND STUPID behaviour.
Really hope more Malaysian can change their mindset. It’s never end of the world if you miss a junction. And for those that didn’t get into lane early and have to cut queue, this article applies to you too.
Just follow Malaysian style. Driving against incoming traffic or reverse all the way back until reach the intersection you want. This is Malaysia Baharu mah, Malaysia memang boleh apaapa.
Missed your highway exit? Keep calm and carry on with Equanimity.. huhu
This is expected from a X70 buyer. You yourself have admitted this.
Biasalah bang.
Biasalah, selalu tengok ramai pemandu maibi buat macam tu. Cuba langgar X70 tengok siapa nahas.
Missing ALL Ipoh exits (Facing North) will lead to a 45min & 50km drive to next exit.
So?
so what is ur point? is your 45mins of time & 50km of petrol is more important than other motorist’s life? just keep calm & drive to the next exit la.
Yes, turning back at gua musang is real killer.
You must be blind, deaf and dumb to miss all the exits. The words “IPOH” are even the biggest among all other signs on the whole highway. If you still miss that then you deserve that 50km penalty.
There are 2 exits to Ipoh but often the main one is a long drive in a separated road b4 the exit to Ipoh, so anybody can easily missed the junction towards that road if that person was unfamiliar. Don’t simply judge.
Bro KT, probably “Dude” is just those special few that does not know what & how to use “Waze/Google Map”. Probably he can’t understand the voice command… “In next 3km, take the left exit…”, “In next 500m, take the left exit”
Ipoh ? Hmmm. That cannot be a road sign. Its a green billboard for an Apple product.
sometimes people want to exit from certain exits, not just follow Ipoh sign. so if the person wants to exit the last exit but missed it, best is double signal and reverse slowly on emergency lane.
No wonder you have a potato head.
Yes, there is only 1 IPOH exit, but there are multiple HUGE signs 2km, 1.5km and 500m from the exit. Like the guy on top, if you have managed to miss ALL of those then that 50km detour is deserving.
Plus did this to reduce congestion, previously all north bound traffic had to exit at Ipoh toll.
Missed an exit? Keep cursing and carry on
Anda tak akan tahu erti penyesalan sehingga terlepas exit Ipoh
Tapi penyesalan paling hebat pun tak akan berguna untuk orang yang anda bunuh sebab ambil keputusan gila melawan arus trafik.
Not to mention couple who doing their ‘project’ in car untill miss the exit. Stupid comment ever. Never seen any bus driver miss the exit, if total passenger is the factor.
sounds like OVERKILL to go for ATTEMPTED MURDER bro :), but yeah, agree that a VERY STRONG DETERRENT PUNISHMENT must be meted out to this kind of HARMFUL, SELFISH, IRRESPONSIBLE AND STUPID behaviour.
Lol, last year i am travelling from penang to kuala kangsar. And i missed kuala kangsar exit. So, i have to climb the ipoh hill to the other side exit the toll and get back into highway, and need to climb back the hill….to make thing worse there was an accident on the way back.
This is the result of the below combination:
1) poor location of road siganges
2) kopi-O licence drivers,or no-licence drivers
3) tak-apa attitude
4) lousy enforcements
When your highways have no U turns….that is the problem
Or just abolish the toll. If missed the exit can still turn back at the next exit like the Interstate in US
PH says abolishing tolls is fake news.