A suggestion to avoid miss accident

Image 1

This was what I have encountered when the road from Kepong to LDP highway/Bandar Utama has been changed.

As you can see from the image above, the blue directory board has clearly written that if you want to go to LDP highway/Bandar Utama you have to take the left route. However, I found that although the blue directory board has clearly conveyed the message on how to go LDP highway/Bandar Utama, the blue directory board is not really effective in warning drivers of an approaching intersection because drivers are not given enough time to make the right decision especially for drivers who are too familiar of the initial LDP highway. According to Gutacher and Gutacher (2013), drivers who are familiar with the environment tend to retrieve information that is most readily available, which might unconsciously lead these drivers to use the initial route to LDP highway/Bandar Utama.

The initial common driving behavior from Kepong to LDP highway/Bandar Utama

Initially, drivers who come from Kepong, and want to use the LDP highway or go to the direction of Bandar Utama are more likely to keep on the lane B or C, rather than lane A that I have labeled in the image 1 because lane A is another connected road from Bandar Maluri, and it is more congested compared to the other lanes. Hence, if drivers are at the lane B they can directly go to LDP highway/Bandar Utama, but they will need to cut the lane to B if they are at the lane C; initially, an intersection point is at lane B and C.

Current road situation and behaviors exhibit from drivers who are familiar with the environment

However, now the intersection point has changed to lane A (refer to image 1). If the drivers have forgotten about the road changing, they are more likely to use the initial way to go to LDP highway/Bandar Utama, as mentioned by Gutacher and Gutacher (2013). The initial way for drivers to go to LDP highway/Bandar Utama was either staying at the lane B or C (refer to image 1). Since the drivers are too familiar with the initial route, they might not put much attention and alertness when they drive. Using the term from human factor, these drivers are in the state of mental underload; Gutacher and Gutacher (2013) explained that "mental underload is more likely to occur when the driving environment is predictable" (pg. 22) . Then, suddenly when they remember or see the blue directory board, they will take a sudden stop and turn left, which might cause many miss accidents that I have seen when I was the driver. 

To note that, most people, from my observation, will take a sudden stop when their vehicles are almost right at the intersection point of A and B because drivers will start to be alert when the vehicles of lane A starts to cut to lane B (refer to image 1).

Because of these miss accidents, I think that the blue directory board is not effective enough to assist and guide the drivers in changing their lane to LDP highway/Bandar Utama because the blue directory board was put too near to the intersection point to LDP highway/Bandar Utama. Also, only one directory board is provided for the drivers. Although the directory board is big enough for drivers to see it from the far, this directory board is being blocked by an overhead highway. When the drivers have passed over the overhead highway, they might not easily notice the directory board because the directory board is almost at the top of their vision, which means that if they want to look at the directory board, they might need to slightly raise their head, which leave drivers to have around a fraction of a second to turn left if they are at the lane B or C (refer to image 1). This might cause miss accidents or a car accident that endangers drivers.

Therefore, I think that the information that requires drivers to make decision to maneuver their vehicle in a particular lane should be also placed before the overhead highway. By having a directory board before the overhead highway can provide the drivers, especially drivers who are too familiar with the initial environment, a sufficient amount of time to make decision to maneuver their vehicle, as suggested by Gutacher and Gutacher (2013).

Reference:

Gutacher, E. & Gutacher, Z. (2013). Human factors as causes for road traffic accidents in the Sultanate of Oman under consideration of road construction design. Retrieved from http://epub.uni-regensburg.de/29768/1/Dissertation%20Kai%20Plankermann.pdf