The Bikers Are now the blacksheep of jam in Malaysia | Amarjeet Singh @ AJ

The Scapegoat Lane

By Amarjeet Singh @ AJ

Yesterday, I watched a familiar scene unfold on our roads.

Not the jam. Not the horns. Not the chaos.

I watched something more Malaysian than nasi lemak at dawn — the search for a scapegoat.

When Kuala Lumpur chokes, when the Klang Valley turns into one long parking lot, someone will always point at the easiest target and say, “Haa… tu lah punca dia.”

This time, the finger points at the motorcyclist. And honestly… I laughed first. Then I sighed.

Because this is not just about traffic. This is about how easily we blame the people who are already struggling to survive the system.

A Short Story From The Road

Two men leave home at 6.30am.

One drives a car.
Air-cond on. Podcast on. Coffee in the cup holder.
He is alone in the car.

The other rides a motorcycle.
Helmet on. Raincoat tied. Heat on his skin.
He has no comfort. Only focus.

Both want the same thing — to reach work, feed family, live another day.

Halfway to the city, the road becomes slow. Not because of motorcycles. Because the lane is filled with cars… cars… cars… one person per car, one soul per vehicle.

The rider does what riders always do — he squeezes through, carefully, because if he waits like cars wait, he will lose half his day.

He arrives earlier. The car driver arrives later, exhausted, angry, and says:

“Motor ni lah punca jem!”

And I ask: If the rider was not there… would you move faster? Or would you still be stuck behind 5km of cars carrying only one person each?

The Real Question Nobody Wants To Ask

Traffic congestion happens when too many vehicles demand too little space. Not “too many motorcycles”.

Let’s be brutally honest: If every motorcyclist suddenly “upgraded” to a car tomorrow, do you think KL becomes smooth?

No. KL will collapse. The jam will not be 5km. It will be 25km. And then we will blame what next — buses? lorries? pedestrians? birds?

The truth is simple but painful: our cities are built for cars. Our policies make cars easy to buy. Our jobs are centralised. Our public transport is improving — yes — but still not fully connected for real daily life.

If You Want Riders To Shift… Shift The System First

Some people say, “Ask motorcyclists to use public transport.” Good intention. Nice sentence. Sounds modern.

But let me ask, slowly:

• Can everyone walk to an MRT station from home?
• Is the bus reliable enough outside the city centre?
• Can a factory worker in the outskirts realistically depend on this system daily?
• What about last-mile connectivity from station to workplace — safe, shaded, practical?
• During peak hour, is capacity enough — or are we just transferring suffering into a crowded coach?

If you haven’t studied the network gaps, then please… don’t lecture the people who are already adapting to survive.

COVID Already Gave Us The Answer

During COVID, roads were quiet. Who was still moving? Delivery riders. Essential workers. Logistics. And suddenly, the roads felt… normal.

So ask yourself: If motorcycles were the cause of congestion, why did the roads become peaceful when cars disappeared?

Sometimes the evidence is not in journals. Sometimes it’s right in front of our eyes.

Bike Lanes: Another “Show Project”?

Let’s talk about bicycle lanes too. Many bike lanes here are, how do I say politely, more for photography than for function.

Broken, disjointed, abrupt endings, no separation, blocked by cars, used by motorcycles, poorly maintained. You can’t preach “alternative mobility” when the lanes themselves feel like an obstacle course.

So the real question is: Are we building infrastructure to solve problems — or building projects to show we are solving problems?

What We Should Fix (Instead of Blaming)

If we truly want smoother KL, the solution is not to attack motorcycles. It is to redesign the entire mobility ecosystem:

• Improve public transport integration (first-mile and last-mile).
• Expand bus coverage and reliability outside city centres.
• Make walking safer and realistic — shaded paths, connectivity, crossings.
• Reduce single-occupancy car culture through incentives and smarter planning.
• Fix bottlenecks at junctions, ramps, and merges — the real jam triggers.
• Enforce rules fairly — cars included, not just riders.
• Build dedicated lanes properly if we are serious — not symbolic paint.

Because congestion is not a “people problem”. It’s a system problem.

Final Thought

In Malaysia, motorcycles are not just transport. They are livelihood, affordability, survival.

Many riders already have cars at home, but they ride because they don’t want to be trapped inside the very congestion cars create.

So before we blame them, let’s respect the reality they live in.

The jam is not caused by the one who slips through. The jam is caused by the system that forces thousands of us into one-person cars every morning, because alternatives are still incomplete.

And if we keep blaming the easiest target… we will never fix the real problem.

We will only become a nation good at pointing fingers — while staying stuck in the same traffic.

Amarjeet Singh @ AJ

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