8-9 lanes of traffic into Penang Island

 Development issues, Public transport, Sustainable development  18 Responses »
May 032011
 

If you think Penang is already congested, well, you ain’t seen nuthin’ yet.

Three more lanes of traffic will pour into Penang Island once the second bridge is completed by 2013, if all goes as scheduled – adding to the three lanes of incoming traffic on the now widened existing Penang Bridge.

And if the cross-channel tunnel project from Gurney Drive to Butterworth goes ahead, which could add another two or three lanes of incoming traffic, we could see eight to nine lanes of incoming traffic choking the island by 2020.

Click on the icon at the bottom right to expand the slideshow to full-screen mode Continue reading »

 Posted by Anil Netto at 10.23am  Tagged with: , , ,

Second bridge ready by Nov 2013, but…

 Development issues, Public transport, Sustainable development  9 Responses »
Feb 092011
 

The second Penang bridge is expected to be completed by November 2013, barring delays. The big question now is how are the roads on the island going to cope with all that traffic?

My main disappointment is that planners never thought of building an inter-city rail link to the island instead. That would have eased inter-city traffic on the existing bridge. Without a rail link, the traffic pouring into Penang will reach nightmarish proportions. Anyone who was in Penang Island over the Lunar New Year holidays will have got a taste of things to come (in terms of traffic congestion). Continue reading »

 Posted by Anil Netto at 11.12pm  Tagged with: , , , ,

Second Penang bridge: Foresight – or folly?

 Development issues, Environment, Public transport  44 Responses »
Feb 222010
 

Spotted this letter in theSun today about the second Penang bridge (now in the preliminary stages of construction). It mirrors my thoughts exactly.

Penang’s roads are already congested during peak hours, Friday and Saturday evenings, and festive periods – and that is with three lanes of traffic along the newly widened Penang Bridge pouring into the island. What happens when the second bridge creates two or three additional lanes of vehicles flowing into the island?

No need for second link

I AM a resident of Penang Island and a regular user of the Penang Bridge. Every day the traffic report on the radio nearly always has the same good news for users of the bridge like me: “Clear on both lanes and at the entry and exit points both on the mainland and on the island.”

Continue reading »

 Posted by Anil Netto at 10.39pm  Tagged with: , ,
Page 1 of 212