A TOTAL of six roads in Penang island have been marked with zig-zag lines as an initiative to create a safe environment for pedestrians to cross the road.
State Work, Utilities and Flood Mitigation Committee chairman Zairil Khir Johari said following the pilot project done last year at Jalan Burmah near the Penang Buddhist Association, the project has been expanded to five other roads on the island.
He said although the implementation of the project was delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the roads are now ready with the zig-zag lines marked on them.
“The roads include Lebuh Light (in front of State Legislative Assembly building), Beach Street (near Bishop Street junction ), Jalan Kampong Kolam (near Jalan Masjid Kapitan Keling junction), Penang Road (Chulia Street junction) and Gurney Drive (near Gurney hawker centre).
“Roads with zig-zag lines might seem to be something new in our country, but we are actually educating our motorists to get familiarised with this concept,’’ said Zairil during a press conference today.
According to Zairil, the function of the zig-zag lines is to alert the motorists to slow down their vehicles to look out for pedestrians and allow them to cross the road safely.
“Apart from that, as part of our educational campaign on this, we had earlier screened two videos at the theatres (TGV Cinemas) here on the island before movies were screened.
“The third video has to be rescheduled to Aug 27 due to the implementation of movement control order in March.
“We will be also creating awareness on this through Penang Island City Council’s (MBPP) public service announcement via LED screens around the island,’’ he said.
“I would like to thank the MBPP, Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research (Miros), Road Safety Department of Malaysia, TGV Cinemas and ImageFarm for helping us to realise this initiative.
“I hope the project can be implemented in both Penang island and mainland,’’ said Zairil.
Story by Tanushalini Moroter
Pix by Darwina Mohd Daud