Big Buses Should Not Use Forlong Short Cut

If you know the roads in Wangsa Maju like I do, there are plenty of short-cuts that can take you from Wangsa Maju to the otherside of the world, such as Gombak and Sentul or Gurney Road quite easily. Cuts travelling time and saves petrol. Yes, even with the drop in price announced, it's still expensive, but what the heck, it's another matter altogether.

I will introduce you the Forlong Shortcut, which connects Jalan Gombak at Diamond Square to Taman Forlong near P. Ramlee's house or more appropriately, the Mun Yee Chinese Secondary School. This short cut has been here since the early 2000 and I suspect it could even be as early as the late 1990s.

Of course, cars were not allowed those days as the tiny lane could only take one vehicle and getting through takes a lot of give and take. Now it still is although two cars can comfortably squeeze through.

However, of late, buses like the behemoths featured here have been using the lane and damaging the roads in the name of cutting travelling time, sometimes almost running down or squeezing smaller incoming vehicles.

This writer thinks the residents nearby this bottleneck should put up a height-barrier and prevent these buses from going through before tragedy happens one day.

A pedestrian walking through here might easily be run over by big buses travelling through this poorly lit stretch as can be seen from these pictures taken by us early one morning following complaints from motorists and pedestrians using the road.
Look at the sequential shots below.


This monster takes a turn into Diamond Square at Jalan Gombak. Buses should in fact use Jalan Gombak-Jalan Pahang Left Turn to get into Genting Kelang. This driver apparently do not give a damn and use this Forlong Shortcut.


The driver approaches the Forlong Apartments when the road becomes a squeeze. This is the beginning of the danger - the poorly-lit lane which is also used by pedestrians and cyclists. If the driver is sleepy and do not see them, one might end up in the drain (look below, from the yellow signboard) at the side of the road and it won't be the bus driver.


See the oncoming Kancil? The driver had to reverse quickly or risk being swept off the road and possibly run over by this bus.