The road transport department (JPJ) has been posting public reminders on various topics on its social media pages for a while now, including how to properly navigate roundabouts and the usage of hazard lights.
Now, the department is focusing on the white lines you find as you come up to a traffic light. The reminder is a simple one: stop before the white line. In its posting, the department said that the white lines aren’t just markings on the road, but is meant to form a safety boundary to protect all road users.
This shouldn’t be that difficult but there are still instances where drivers fail to stop before the white line and overshoot it by quite some distance. Did you know that doing so is an offence? As previously reported, motorists who stop their vehicles beyond the white line at traffic lights may face a fine of RM2,000 or a jail term of six months.
Back in August 2023, the police conducted the nationwide ‘Ops Garisan Putih’ to catch motorists committing the act. Under Rule 38 of the Road Traffic Rules (LN166/1959), a motorist must not cause the vehicle or any part of the vehicle to stop in the crossing area unless he is prevented from moving by circumstances beyond his control or if he must stop to avoid an accident.
Being overly cautious and stopping your vehicle too far away from the white line isn’t wrong but drivers that do so are unknowingly evading the inductive loop detector that is located beneath the road surface. These detectors, which you may have seen as dark lines on the road, are meant to trigger a different traffic light cycle to let traffic through when a vehicle is above them. So, follow the Goldilocks principle of not being too far away or overshooting, but right in place just behind the line.
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while list this is a good advise, where is the enforcement against those fella who car/motorcyle modified with offroad yellow lights. Already there are a lot white LED white lights that is brightness lumen beyond the needs of city drive use, allowing these sort of lights on the road is blinding and not helping others users that are using the same road.