Smart.Traffic.In.Smart.Tunnel

Have been using the Smart Tunnel to work for the past few days and incase you are wondering like me why both the tunnels look different internally, this is why.

The tunnels are about 4 km long with cemented road surfaces instead of tar which makes the journey rather *bumpie* (You will hear glik-gluk-glik-gluk all the way). Safety exits are available all through the tunnel.

The traffic I encountered for the past few days in the tunnel wasn't exactly smooth. Heading towards KL, the congestion starts about 1 to 2 kms from the Jalan Sultan Ismail and Jalan Tun Razak split. For the first few days, the drivers were mainly confused as to which lane to use. Those on the left would want to switch to the right and vice versa causing the slow moving traffic.

As the days passed, it has become an abused where drivers will use the lane before the Jalan Sultan Ismail split (left) to cut into the Jalan Tun Razak lane (right) causing more slow moving traffic. The exit is somewhat, I say dumb, because it is a one lane exit from the tunnel. But that's enough traffic diversion to congest the later parts of Jalan Tun Razak as cars switch lanes (probably to go to KLCC like me or go to Jalan Ampang).

Coming back from KL is much better. You can admire the beautiful arch facade of the tunnel. There were no congestions in the tunnel but ... after you exit from the toll gates to Seremban highway, it is a 4 lanes (unofficially 5 lanes) converge to one. Hence, all the time savings will be spent on fighting your way through that little exit lane.

I hope they won't charge too much for the toll when they are ready to squeeze us. I'm already paying 2 tolls per trip on NPE to go to work everyday. I think 0.50 cents should be reasonable since they can recover through volume. Any higher, I will rather take the old roads. And by the way, you can't listen to any radio while you are in the tunnel.