Why Do These Drivers Jump The Traffic Light Everyday?

I was in Penang three weeks ago and also was in Singapore last week and not once I saw anyone jump the red light. However when I am back to my own home, I am just embarrassed to see that drivers jumping the red light is a common scene in my own home town.


I don’t know what has happen to these Kuala Lumpur drivers but it seems a lot has started to take the law into their own hand. Maybe it is probably their attitude of “no one will catch me” so I don’t have to follow the law. It could be because their lives are so hectic that they don’t even have times to wait for that red light.

When I was in Penang I covered the entire east side of the island from north to south. Not once in any of the traffic lights that I have waited did I see anyone jumping the red light. Some areas like Batu Ferringi and Batu Maung has light traffics and every one waited for the light to turn green.

While I was in Singapore, I drove to Tao Payoh area to meet a friend and then went into the city and no one is breaking the law. Even as I was leaving the island using the Ayer Rajah Expressway I see that drivers are queuing to go into each traffic interchange and no one jump the queue like what I see in Kuala Lumpur.

On a daily basis coming back to my house I see so many drivers don’t even bother with the red light and just drive on. Of course there are many that obediently abide by the law and waited for the light to turn green before they drive on but there are just too many that don’t bothered. What is sad is that some of these drivers who jumped the red lights are residents of the condo that I am staying in.

I just got my first entry level DSLR which is supposedly has many features that used to be available only in the pro-level camera. So I thought why not try it on these drivers and see if I can capture a clear image with it. Here are some cars that I caught jumping the red light in the 10 minutes span that I was there.

Since this DLSR also boost a full HD video capability, let try to record a video and see how does it performs in capturing the images of cars jumping red lights. Well it comes out very well on my PC and I hope after conversion to FLV format it is as clear as well.


I have no doubt that these drivers will never dare to jump the red light in the city centre. They know the risks of doing that. However in this particular traffic junction, there is one section that has no through traffic. These drivers are just so impatient that they think they can risk their life and jump the red light instead of waiting for a clear signal.

Another factor is probably that since someone is doing it, why not me. Therefore it becomes a habit for them to just do it every day because they are used to it. On a daily basis, I see men, women, student of the nearby medical university, lorry drivers, school bus driver i all sort of cars are breaking the law.

I don’t expect the authority to come to this part of the town so I don’t think this will deter those drivers from continue to do it daily. Maybe the authority should consider programming the traffic lights so that the section that has not through traffic will turn green in a shorter time. I can see that drivers are impatient because it takes too long for the lights to turn green when there is no traffic coming from that section.

With more condo coming up in this area, I think this traffic junction is going to become very busy very soon so I wonder if these drivers will continue to jump the red light anymore.