Surviving the Mother of All Jams

It took us 2 hours to travel one kilometer on Sunday when I decided to drive my wife back to Singapore.

The queue started just before the Komtar building and after that it was pure bedlam as the traffic stalled with buses and other queue-jumpers just ignoring human decency in the usual rush to exit Johor Bahru.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Johor Bahru; this is the stretch just before the Causeway that has been affected by the construction on the new CIQ.

There has been a one-way traffic flow so that all traffic flows south.The Caltex station about 500 meters before the CIQ is the basic cause of the traffic problem as many motorists simply enter the station and treat is as another lane to cut the queue.

At this point, there could be vehicles six abreast when for orderly flow there should only be four lanes. The vehicles from the left squeeze out patient motorists who queue in an orderly manner in the proper lanes and there is very little chance to change lanes.

To make matters worse there is a pedestrian bridge that only allows four lanes to pass so the overall flow gets even more restricted nearer the CIQ.

Is there no one bothered about such a chaotic situation? The traffic police appear to have become extinct in this part of Johor Baru and motorists have to suffer the ordeal of moving one kilometer in two hours.

What can the traffic police do? It would help a lot if they can control the point where traffic has to merge into narrower sections. Even one cop will make a significant difference here so lanes will have a chance to flow evenly.

The only people adding chaos to the situation were the beggars who move about the moving car park and try to get alms.

It took us about 2 hours to exit the jam and that too after having to switch to the left lane after 1 hour of patient inching along.

There were only 4 lanes operating in the immigration department when we reached the booths around midnight. I guess they were worried about midnight during the Hungry Ghost month.

It was plain sailing the moment we joined the Causeway as the traffic flowed freely and we spent about 10 minutes at the Singapore end.
The difference was as stark as night against day.

Sorry to say this but Johor Bahru FAILS big time.