WHEN the New Straits Times decided to champion the cause of hundreds of thousands of commuters facing daily traffic jams at the Causeway, it received a lot of help from the Johorean biker community.
In the course of covering the story, my colleague Rizalman Hammim and I spoke to motorcyclists who commute daily between Johor and Singapore for work.
What we discovered was a large, close-knit community who looked out for each other when facing the daily grind of traffic snarls at the Causeway and Second Link.
The conversations we had with them were an eye-opener. I followed one rider on his commute to the republic in the wee hours of a Wednesday morning recently.
It took about an hour to queue up for Malaysian and Singapore immigration clearance on both sides of the Causeway. The return journey in the evening was longer as the stress-inducing, fume-filled gridlock lasted for an hour and 20 minutes.
That was a good day. Many motorcyclists faced worse conditions the next day as heavy rain and longer queues formed at the Singapore side in the evening.
The Causeway congestion is a long-standing issue, which has plagued the 1.06km-long border crossing for decades.
Motorcyclists said the situation became worse two years ago, when the Secured Automated Clearance System for Malaysian Citizen Motorcyclists (M-BIKE) was introduced.
The Johor Immigration Department admitted to some of the technical problems that affected the M-BIKE system in its first year, but explained that those issues were no longer present.
A lot is riding on the effectiveness of this automated clearance system, as the vendor’s renewal for its contract is due soon.
Despite these teething issues with technology, the overarching concern is socio-economy.
Universiti Teknologi Malaysia’s (UTM) Assoc Prof Dr Muhammad Zaly Shah said the long-standing issue of congestion at the Causeway was not merely about transportation.
The plight of motorcyclists who are willing to face the daily grind at the Causeway reflected the current socio-demography of Malaysians living in Johor and Singaporeans who were willing to cross the border daily to earn a living in Singapore, and the cost-effective ways they go about doing so.
“Riding a bike to get to work in Singapore via the Causeway is more cost-effective than using the Second Link.
“The Second Link was built to divert the huge volume of vehicles from the the Causeway, but commuters and travellers still prefer the Causeway as it is closer to the Johor Baru and Singapore city centres.
“The Second Link, despite being good infrastructure remains non-attractive and is not cost effective enough for motorcyclists whose main priority is to cut their travel costs,” said Muhammad Zaly, who is director of UTM’s Centre for Innovative Planning and Development under its Faculty of Built Environment and Surveying.
Stulang assemblyman Andrew Chen, who heads a Johor government task force to look into congestion matters at the Sultan Iskandar Building (BSI) Customs, Immigration and Quarantine complex, admitted the problems at the overland crossing have been accumulating in the past 30 years.
This was despite the launch of the new Woodlands Checkpoint in 1999, and the BSI which began operations in 2008.
Singapore authorities admitted that traveller and vehicle traffic has increased and the security threat has heightened significantly since then.
In December 2015, lorry drivers endured a six-hour crawl on the Causeway, instead of the two hours they normally went through to reach the Singapore customs checkpoint.
This was due to Singapore authorities conducting thorough security checks at entry points after a deadly terror attack in Paris, France.
Two years later, car drivers endured a two-hour gridlock when the Hari Raya Aidilfitri festive rush coincided with the last day
of the Singaporean school holiday.
Muhammad Zaly said such “outlier” cases was not a factor considered by most planners. But he said the authorities needed to seriously consider how the Causeway was unable to cope with an increasing number of vehicles.
“The Causeway was built in the 1920s based on the demand of people and goods movements at the time. Today, the Causeway has exceeded it capacity in terms of its volume of people and vehicles plying it.”
This is where the federal government’s interest in reviving the Crooked Bridge plan comes in. The Johor government and its agencies must look at all options available to them when it comes to this.
It is also important for Johor to keep the federal government in the loop when it comes to big traffic issues affecting both sides of the Causeway.
Johor remains the frontline state in Malaysia’s relationship with Singapore. But the state needs the help of federal-level entities such as the Home Ministry, Work Ministry and Transport Ministry to resolve long-standing issues involving connectivity between the two countries.
“The best option is to build a new bridge to replace the Causeway, as it could meet the future demand of users and benefit the environment by opening up the Johor straits. But that requires political will on both countries,” said Muhammad Zaly.
Until then, the 300,000 people who ply daily one of the world’s busiest overland border crossings, will have to continue with their daily grind.
Ahmad Fairuz Othman likes music, movies and theatre. He enjoys good food and great company. He can be reached via ahmadfairuz@mediaprima.com.my