For motorists travelling along Jalan Syed Putra in Kuala Lumpur, there’s good news: the bus lanes on both sides of the road have been deactivated and the lanes are now open for use by all vehicles at any time. The signs on the road and yellow lines marking the lanes have been painted over.
Until recently, the lanes were only meant for use by buses and taxis, although on Sundays and Public Holidays, other vehicles could use them.
Though the upgraded road from the old Istana up to the Federal Highway was done in the mid-1970s, it was only in the late 1990s that the bus lanes were introduced as an attempt to allow quicker movement for public transport vehicles.
However, congestion also worsened as there were bottlenecks where the bus lanes started – in front of Wisma Belia going towards Petaling Jaya and from the Brickfields bridge going towards the city. The police occasionally set up traps to catch motorists travelling on the bus lanes but there were also times, especially during evening rush hours, when they would signal to motorists to use the bus lanes.
On the other side, going towards the city, the bus lane runs from the Brickfields bridge up to the Kuen Cheng school. Emergency lanes are still present along the edges of Jalan Syed Putra.
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