Penang Bridge

IMG_3225
Originally uploaded by wanhashim

Penang bridge with the recently open additional traffic lane on both sides of the bridge. Just wondering why there is no provision for motorcycle lane on the bridge.

Traffic Jam

Traffic jam is a major issue in most city centers. With the increasing of number of vehicles on the road, the traffic jam is becoming more prevalent.

In order to alleviate traffic jam, the infrastructure needs to be expanded. For example, in the case of the Penang Bridge, the expansion of the bridge is near completion. The additional traffic lane plus a motorcycle lane was added to both sides of the bridge. I am confident that with the bridge expansion and removal of certain bottleneck areas along the bridge, traffic jam will be problems of the past. The newly refurbish bridge can carry the intended number of traffic until several years to come. After the completion of the second link to Penang, the Penang Bridge even can be congestion free for more years to come.

However, some incident can still cause the bridge to encounter traffic jam. According to this report, traffic jam occurred due to burning vehicle on the bridge. Traffic jam can also occur due to some incidents such as traffic accident along the bridge. As the bridge is being expanded to be more than three lanes in one direction, even though there is an accident, traffic still can flow through the bridge as compared to before where traffic just cannot flow because all lanes are being blocked by the vehicles involved in the accidents.

In order to overcome this kind of traffic jam, proper traffic management along the bridge need to be improved. The incident detection management system should be more efficient to detect the incident and immediately remove the incident in order to reduce the intensity of traffic jam.

Pedestrian Walkway as Part of Bridge Design

In Malaysia, almost all of bridges are provided with pedestrian walkway on both sides of the bridge. Usually, the pedestrian walkway is raised several cm above the pavement surface. I am not sure how many pedestrian will ever use the walkway within a day, a week or a month since most of the bridges are located very far from the community.

The raised pedestrian walkway is very dangerous to the motorists especially to the motorcyclists. The motorcyclists can easily hit the raised pedestrian way and cause them to be hit by other vehicles along the road. The existence of the raised pedestrian walkway also causes motorcyclists to encroach into the travelling lane of other vehicles increases the chances of the motorcyclists being hit by other vehicles.

The only used of the pedestrian walkway is by anglers who use the bridge as a perfect staging point of their fishing rods to attract more fish. However, most of the time, there is a notice board somewhere in the vicinity of the bridges discouraging people from fishing along the bridge.

Which Country will be Next?

After Japan's 890-metre (2,900-foot) Tatara Bridge, which was the longest cable-stayed bridge, the new world's longest cable-stayed bridge has officially opened in eastern China, linking the two banks of the Yangtze river.

Facts about the world's longest cable-stayed bridge:

Name: The Sutong bridge

Length: spans 1,088 metres (3,570 feet) over China's longest waterway, Yangtze river and links the cities of Suzhou and Nantong. Located 108 kilometers (67 miles) upstream from the mouth of the Yangtze River.

Number of lanes: six-lane bridge

Travel time: Cut the travel time between Shanghai and Nantong to one hour from the previous four hours.

Construction cost: 1.15 billion dollars

For more information, read HERE.

Which country will be next to break the world's record?