A speed camera on a Penang highway ramp has been temporarily switched off after dozens of motorists complained they were fined for failing to slow from 80 km/h to 40 km/h in what they describe as an impossibly short distance.
Seri Delima assemblyman Connie Tan Hooi Peng said police speed enforcement at the Jalan Tunku Kudin ramp linking to the Tun Dr Lim Chong Eu Expressway has been paused while technical agencies assess the stretch, according to The Star.
The ramp, part of a relatively new road connecting Jalan Tunku Kudin to the Penang Bridge expressway, has a speed limit that drops abruptly from 80 km/h to 40 km/h. Motorists say the distance between the two signs is far too short to decelerate safely, especially on a downhill section where braking hard risks rear-end collisions.
Facebook user Chan Lilian said her husband received a summons while riding his motorcycle along the stretch. She later drove the route herself and found that even braking hard, she could only slow to about 57 km/h. “The road slopes downhill; you simply cannot slow down that abruptly without risking being hit from behind,” she wrote.
Another regular commuter, speaking on condition of anonymity, said she had accumulated two speeding summonses at the same spot, one for travelling at 55 km/h in March and another at 56 km/h in May. “At normal cruising speed, it is incredibly difficult to drop down to 40 km/h on a road feeding directly into an expressway,” she told The Star.
Penang police chief Datuk Dennis Lim Kwang Keng defended the enforcement, saying motorists must reduce their speed on the sharp bend. “It is a sharp curve, and motorists must reduce their speed. Vehicles risk skidding if they negotiate the bend too fast, particularly when the surface is slick during rainy weather,” he said.
Dennis added that any formal adjustment to the limit would require environmental, traffic, and engineering assessments.
Tan said she had received at least 10 formal complaints from constituents and conducted a site inspection with officials from the Northeast District Traffic Investigation and Enforcement Department, the Malaysian Highway Authority (LLM), and the Public Works Department (JKR). According to Tan, LLM explained that the 40 km/h limit was based on the road’s engineering design, but she has requested a review to identify a more practical solution.
The issue went viral after a motorist received a summons in early June for travelling at 54 km/h, prompting hundreds of other drivers to share similar experiences on social media.
