The Jalan Tutong Jam

I saw a frustrated motorist commenting on HYS entitled "Tahniah Polis" - "Biskita telah membuat kerja yang baik sadaya upaya kan melancarkan perjalanan kereta di sapanjang jalan kilanas, tasek meradun bunut HARI INI. TAPI TIDAK BERJAYA BAIK PULANG KAMI PAKAI LAMPU SAJA. HARI ADALAH HARI PALING JEM BERMULA DARI KILANAS. SELALUNYA BERMULA HANYA DARI TASEK MERADUN TAPI HARI ANI POLIS ADA BERTUGAS DI TRAFIC LIGHT ANTARA BENGKURONG & TASEK MERADUN YANG MENGAKIBATKAN JEM YANG TERUK. SO POLIS INDA TAH PAYAH TAH MENAHAN KERITA LAGI CUKUP TAH PAKAI LAMPU SAJA."

Yes the jam was true. Yesterday's can probably ranked among the worst jams on Jalan Tutong I have ever seen since my family moved to the area about 11 years ago. My wife and my son left the house at about 6:50 in the morning and by 7:15 my wife called me (I was still at home) and told me that she has only gone as far as in front of Masjid Bunut. When I left the house, I decided to go the opposite way through Jalan Gadong but gave that up as that was also jammed. Then I went by the longest route possible via Jalan Jerudong and then the Highway. My wife later told me that after the Simpang Telanai, the road was clear all the way through.

What happened? Considering it was the worst jam in for many years, unfortunately did not make the news so there is no official explanation. What I managed to glean was some snippets of news on HYS - there was a little accident in front of Masjid Bunut - the traffic light at the Simpang of Jalan Tutong/Bengkurong did not work and the traffic light at Simpang Telanai did not work either. The police did their best but at the end of the day, they are only human.

I am thankful the police is around. But sometimes I wished they might as well not bother. What they do sometimes worsen the traffic so much more than actually trying to clear it. There are normally two sets of policemen. One set at the Jalan Tutong/Bengkurong Simpang and the other at the Jalan Tutong in front of Masjid Bunut. The former supposedly is to clear traffic coming in from Bengkurong at the expense of traffic coming from Kilanas. The latter to help traffic from Medewa/Bunut doing a u-turn heading towards Bandar. The first lot to me is useless. There is a traffic light there and all they had to do was actually worked together with the Electrical Department (in charge of traffic lights) and redo the timing sequences of the stopping time. The second set tended to be a bit biased. They cannot see the volume of traffic being held up at the Bengkurong end because their remit is to help the traffic from Medewa/Bunut which by nature whose volume is probably about one tenth of the volume coming through Bengkurong from the Sungai Kebun/Lumapas area. Most motorists who go through here know it apart from those uniformed officers manning these two spots.

A longer term solution means finding an outlet allowing the ever increasing volume of traffic heading towards Bandar and heading back from Bandar everyday because the two lanes both ways are not not sufficient. One answer is enlarging the road but at the moment this is physically impossible because the road is already at its widest. Another solution would be to build another road on top of the existing one turning this if this was to happen the first double tier road in Brunei. This looks very expensive. A third solution is to build another outlet towards Bandar. That means building another bridge across Kampung Ayer from the Sungai Kebun area. Is this feasible? This is as feasible as the building a second tier of road and probably more expensive. Are the costs worth it? To most people who had to endure the jams, yes. But to the authorities who have to juggle the various priorities, probably no. I am all for public transportation. My better half has a simpler solution. Leave early. Hmmmm....