KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 7 — Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) will decide on the changes that will be made to the 11.9km bicycle route, particularly the use of rubber bicycle lane dividers, which were removed on January 22 following a public backlash.
KL Mayor Tan Sri Mhd Amin Nordin Abd Aziz said an audit that is currently being carried out is expected to be completed in two months.
“The audit will take a bit of time... we have only started this pilot project, and cannot compare with the UK and Europe which have installed bicycle lanes for many years,” he said.
Mhd Amin said the city council is assessing dangerous areas to determine what is the best solution to address to the issue.
He said the use of the “flexipoles” as a replacement for the rubber barriers would also be maintained if no further problems were encountered.
When asked if any losses were incurred for removing the rubber barriers, Mhd Amin said they can be reused in other areas.
“We accept that there is some faultiness but we will continue to improve it from time to time,” said Mhd Amin, referring to the RM4 million 11.9km bicycle route that was installed in conjunction with the ninth World Urban Forum (WUF9).
Mhd Amin said some of the issues that need to be addressed include the shared use of the lanes with motorcycles and buses.
He said the city council is considering repositioning some of the route locations, from the left to the right of the road.
“For now, we will just leave it be. There will be an overlapping use... but in a few months, when we have received the feedback, we will reevaluate the situation and adjust it accordingly.
“The problem is some of the roads and pedestrian walkways in the city are narrow, especially the two-lane roads; therefore, we have to cater to this and make do with what we can,” he said.
Earlier, Mhd Amin launched the WUF9 Village in Medan Pasar, which is dubbed a living laboratory to showcase the future of urban living in the city centre.
“Medan Pasar was selected as this is one of the older areas in KL, and usually such areas would end up as slums. Therefore, we had joint forced on how to redesign the area to rehabilitate it and make it livelier for more tourists to visit.
“There are many areas in the city that have been abandoned that we can restore, and we should take up to opportunity to upgrade it in such a way,” he said.
The WUF9, which started today and will end on February 13, will be the first to implement both the New Urban Agenda (NUA) adopted at the Habitat III in Ecuador in 2016, as well as the Sustainable Development Goals.
The mega forum will host over 500 events, which includes assemblies, plenary meetings, policy dialogues, high-level roundtables, trainings and networking events throughout the seven-day forum.
