Tuesday, August 11, 2009

A SIMPLE Plan CAN Improve JB's CIQ....

You would have heard the usual complaints of Malaysia's top leaders....
"first world infrastructure and third world mentality".
I have a beef about the first part of the phrase but let's not go there today as I want to just relate how some basic and elementary foresight can help ease the CIQ woes.
We left our home in JB at about 1:40am to avoid the earlier jam after taking a view at the camera of the Causeway -- the diamond stretch was missing with just a few scattered headlights indicating that the jam was over.
We were able to drive along JB's mostly deserted roads untill the first set of traffic lights just before the CIQ complex.
Then we had 2 lanes at the traffic lights converge on a single lane for cars and a mixed lane for cars/buses. After the second set of traffic lights, the cars had to merge into a single lane for about 200 meters and then just before the CIQ, the lane expanded into three major queues that fed the immigration booths.
I don't know if the officer in charge of operations had a quirky sense of humour or if he failed in common sense but after about 100meters of the 3 major queues forming, 2 lanes were blocked off and all the cars had to re-merge into the central queue.
I then thought that most of the booths were closed but NO, there were at least 8 booths operating. This means that the 3 queues could have been allocated with 3:3:2 booths and reduce the hassle and inconvenience for motorists.
I really wonder what is the real reason for such poor planning at the JB CIQ. Maybe the product of Malaysia's poor education system?

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