Getting Around Kuala Lumpur by Driving

Let me put it this way: I wouldn't want to drive in Kuala Lumpur unless I absolutely have to. The roads are so often jammed and you spend much of your time in stressful, unproductive congestion. If you are coming to KL, I would advise you to take the taxi, or the train, even the bus - take anything but your car. However, if your trip to Kuala Lumpur requires you to drive, here are some tips. No, better to say, here are some warnings.

First of all, get to know where you are going before you start your journey. Get hold of the most recent maps of Kuala Lumpur - I recommend those published by World Express Mapping. Find out what are the landmarks that will aid you in navigating to your destination. Find out where you can park safely without bursting a hole in your pocket.

Signages are notoriously inaccurate, non-existent, and if they do appear at all, they are fond of appearing right at the junction where you are supposed to turn, giving you little opportunity to make the turning. And if you miss the turn, you have to go a long way before you get the chance to double back. I also find drivers in Kuala Lumpur rude; they jump queues, they drive on the emergency road shoulder, they switch lanes without warnings, they overtake on the left, they chat on their cellphone while hogging the express lane, in general, they make good drivers miserable. In many places, cars are double-parked like it's the most fashionable thing to do. Being the good guy, you often find your car trapped by a callous driver who simply leaves his vehicle in the middle of the road to go do his whatever business somewhere. The roads are so confusing that even locals get lost. And you still want to drive?

Beware of rush hour. That's between 7:00 am and 10:00 am in the morning, and between 4:30 pm and 7:30 pm in the evening. Places such as Bukit Bintang are often reduced to a crawl even at 10:00 pm at night. If you are going to a shopping mall, be sure to get there early in the day. In spite of the many levels of parking lots, these quickly fill up after office hours and on weekends, that you will waste a lot of time looking for a parking space. Within the city centre itself, any piece of unused land is quickly turned into a makeshift carpark.

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About this website

Hello and thanks for reading this page. My name is Timothy and my hobby is in describing places so that I can share the information with the general public. My website has become the go to site for a lot of people including students, teachers, journalists, etc. whenever they seek information on places, particularly those in Malaysia and Singapore. I have been doing this since 5 January 2003, for over twenty years already. You can read about me at Discover Timothy. By now I have compiled information on thousands of places, mostly in Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore, and I continue to add more almost every day. My goal is to describe every street in every town in Malaysia and Singapore.