LETTER | I refer to MCA deputy president Wee Ka Siong’s statement posted on the Penang Tunnel Scandal website.

Wee says: “Firstly, the project cost is RM6.34 billion. Many Penang NGOs including the Penang Forum have said that these roads and tunnel are unnecessary as they will not ease traffic on the Island and there is still ample capacity on the two existing Penang bridges – particularly the 2nd Penang Bridge which still has a 50 percent available capacity.”

Let’s examine the statement above. While it is true that 2nd Penang Bridge still has ample capacity, the Penang Bridge operates near its maximum capacity during working days.

I don’t know the exact figures, but any frequent Penang Bridge user can tell you how congested the traffic is on the bridge during morning and evening peak hours.

Along the way heading toward the Penang Bridge during the the morning rush hour, the island-bound traffic jam begins from the toll plaza, southbound traffic from the Plus highway piles up to Hospital Seberang Jaya, sometimes even further up to Sungai Dua.

Traffic from the opposite direction may extend until Autocity, sometimes down to Bukit Tambun.

Along Federal Road 1, traffic from Perai may extend till Chai Leng Park or further. Traffic from the opposite direction may extend till Bukit Tengah. So traffic, mainly from both the Plus highway and Federal Road 1, causes terrible jam while merging into the Penang Bridge.

Bridge users typically spend 1-2 hours just to reach Penang Island, and the same journey may extend to 3-4 hours due to vehicle breakdowns or accidents on the bridge.

Next is the mainland-bound traffic heading toward the Penang Bridge during the evening rush hour. Northbound traffic from Bayan Lepas industrial area piles up along Tun Dr Lim Chong Eu highway, from the Penang Bridge entry to Queensbay Mall, sometimes even extending until Batu Maung.

From opposite direction on the same highway, the traffic jam extends to Tesco E-gate, sometimes up to Sungai Pinang area.

Based on all this, I would like to ask how frequent does Wee feel the pain of having to go through a 7-10km crawl just to get onto a bridge, then another 13.5km crawl to the exit?

And the pain doesn’t stop here. The Penang Bridge exit merges onto the Plus highway, which is one of the main bottlenecks “choking” both bridge and highway users.

You still have the last leg of the journey home. Overall, you are lucky if the journey to mainland takes less than 1 hour. Worse, it may take up to 3-4 hours.

So, what alternatives do bridge users have? Let’s use the 2nd Penang Bridge. Let say I start to drive from Queensbay Mall during the evening rush hour, heading back to Seberang Jaya. Instead of using the shortest route via the Penang Bridge, I take the longer route via the 2nd Penang Bridge, then head north along Plus highway.

After the additional 20+ km journey, and paying additional toll at Juru, I still get stuck at the same bottleneck near the Penang Bridge exit. Sometimes the jam begins right after 2nd Penang Bridge exit, all the way to Seberang Jaya.

So, what’s the benefit of using the 2nd Penang Bridge, other than burning more fuel and paying extra toll?

If Wee is experienced enough in traffic planning, please help to divert traffic away from the bottleneck at the merging point between the Plus highway and the Penang Bridge entry/exit.

The 2nd Penang Bridge only benefits users coming from Seberang Perai Selatan, e.g., Simpang Empat, Bukit Tambun or Jawi. It doesn’t help those coming from Butterworth, Kepala Batas, Bukit Mertajam, etc.

That explains why traffics on the Penang Bridge is nowadays is at least seven times higher than the 2nd Penang Bridge. The majority of bridge users still prefer to use the Penang Bridge no matter how bad the traffic condition is.

It is extremely shallow-minded to claim that bridge users do not need the third alternative just because there’s still ample capacity on the existing two Penang bridges.

The 2nd Penang Bridge will not be the solution for majority of bridge users until the bottleneck at the Penang Bridge exit on the mainland is resolved.

So to Wee, don’t be so cruel to Penang bridge users. Show us your plan if you think the undersea tunnel is not the solution.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.