Scooter bees

Like every big city - traffic can be a challenge in KL with it's own unique "unofficial" rules and methods.  As a westerner the biggest thing you notice is the scooters / motorcycles.  Thousands of them - "buzzing" along in between lanes, ignoring traffic convention, etc.  The biggest reason Janet doesn't want to drive is so she doesn't hit one of these scooters.  They are like bees or some other insect - "buzzing" around with their own rhythm.  The advice we (and every other expat) was given was if you hit one (or one hits your car) to not stop but go to the closest police station.  I hope we never have that experience - would be hard to drive away from someone on the ground from hitting 2,000 pounds of moving steel.

A different but very practical action the scooter drivers take is to wear a coat backwards - too prevent the bugs and other debris from getting on clothes.  Just like in Indonesia the law seems to be for adults to wear helmets but not children.

A small sample parked and waiting to take off

There are complaints about KL traffic but it's like anywhere else - if you go into congested areas during rush hour with traffic - you will be stuck. 

A few other pointers - rain has a big impact on traffic.  Like anywhere heavy rain limits visibility and people will slow down but in addition the scooters will congregate under overpasses (specially marked places) and can ofter take up 2 or 3 lanes of a 4 lane road if the rain is exceptionally heavy or long lasting.  Must be bad during monsoon season.

Other challenges can be parking - double parking and staying to chat or just leaving your car and reducing traffic to one lane seems to be perfectly acceptable.  Signals can be very optional.  My taxi driver seems to use his signals and has commented more than a few times about people that don't. 

Like much of Malaysia the traffic laws seem to be suggestions (much stronger suggestions than in India or Indonesia) so you need to get used to people easing out in front of you and or just cutting you off.  Most taxi drivers don't seen to think anything is unique and the amount of horn honking and frustration appears to be minimal.  Some of the action I have seen could cause gun play on Houston freeways.


To control traffic speed off the main roads there are speed bumps all over - to my mind excessively so there is a fair amount of acceleration, deceleration to ease over the speed bump, and then repeat for the next 200 meters. 

Very few older cars - surprising how many new and in many cases very high-end nice cars are on the roads.  This is especially true since the import tax on non-Malaysian cars is something like 200%.  So a low end BMW for example could cost  2-3x what it would in the US for people with the average salary 25-30% of US.  Easy to see why people live at home with Mom and Dad - especially if they want a car.

If you can handle right hand side driving, loose traffic laws and constantly check your mirrors and blindspots for buzzing scooters - you can handle traffic in KL.