No plans to increase national speed limits: Work Ministry

KUALA LUMPUR: The government has no plans to increase the national speed limit of 80kph on state roads, 90kph on federal roads and 110 kmph on expressways.
The Work Ministry, in a written reply to Dr Ismail Daut (BN-Merbok) at the Dewan Rakyat today, said this was because statistics showed that the road accident rate was still high and that there would be cost implications to upgrade the geometric of the roads involved.
"The speed limit of every road was set and gazetted after taking into consideration its geometric design, traffic flow capacity and accident risks.
"Although some expressways in the country were designed to sustain speeds of over 110 kmph, the speed limit gazetted by the government remains at a maximum level of 110 kmph," the ministry said.
Ismail had wanted to know the development of the discussions held between the ministry and the Road Safety Department on the proposal to increase the default speed limit of expressway in the country to 130 kmph.
The ministry explained that no further discussions were held with the department on the matter as the fixing of the speed limit on roads and expressways in the country was aimed at ensuring safety of road users. — Bernama