The picture above is the car we need to tackle our urban roads daily!
This issue is causing car drivers and motorcyclists thousands every year which is a totally unnecessary expense.
If you lucky enough to holiday in Australia, New Zealand, Japan and even Singapore and drive on their roads, you will soon notice missing pot-holes and missing raised or lowered man hole covers along your drive. The roads are relatively flat and smooth in urban areas and cars are not subjected to harsh tarmac treatment like here in Malaysia.
Malaysians already pay very high import taxes on cars and then we pay a high road tax every year to keep our cars road legal and yet we have pot holes and broken curbs and damaged sidewalks in our urban areas. The funniest thing is…..whenever a road is newly resurfaced it just takes a matter of weeks before a backhoe tractor is at work digging up a section of new tarmac (preferably a section where we drivers cannot avoid it) for underground work and then the patch-up job is like a badly baked custard pie.
Why is it that the countries we mentioned above and let us add, Thailand also can have smooth roads allowing for vehicles to incur less damages and even more irritating…..rattling interiors.
Yes, the rattling car cabin comes after years or even months of driving over pot-holes…which get even worse when it rains and we drivers cannot spot the pot-holes.
The biggest damage from pot-holes to Malaysian drivers are as follows:
- Damaged tire sidewalls which means changing tires
- Damage to alloy wheels which can be repaired sometimes
- Damage to suspension systems which means total replacement
- Damage to lower steering arms which means total replacement
- Damage to lower front spoilers or bumper lips which means repair and paint or complete replacement
- Finally, the worse issue is possible accidents when you see the pot-hole at the last minute and try and avoid it and you hit another motorist or guardrail
This pot-hole situation is even more dangerous for the thousands or motorcyclists on our roads where hitting a small pot-hole might cause the rider to fall but if they hit a large pot-hole the consequence could be fatal.
So why are we unable to have smooth roads in our urban areas? We think it is a big conspiracy at work.
Think about it. There could be secret meetings weekly between tyre shops owners, workshops owners in urban areas, small motorcycle repair shops and suspension suppliers urging road contractors to deliver badly built roads so that drivers and motorcycle riders will incur problems with their tyres, suspensions, mountings and more to keep business moving along nicely!
