Banning heavy vehicles from bridge not a solution!

Lately, there have a lot of talk again in the newspapers about the proposal to ban heavy commercial vehicles - lorries and trailers - from using the Penang Bridge during peak hours in the morning and afternoon. The reason for the proposed ban is to reduce traffic congestion on the bridge and especially, traffic jams at peak hours should a commercial vehicle break down.

Penang Bridge Sdn Bhd wants to have the ban implemented but there's a lot of opposition from the transporters themselves. They are unhappy with this proposal because they say it is a bad move. I heard that they had a meeting recently and some of the more interesting points they voiced included:

• Exporters could ill afford to miss air cargo flights out of the Bayan Lepas International Airport because flights leave at scheduled times;
• Transporters will lose six to seven hours of transportation time per day due to the ban, and the expenses would eventually be passed back to the consumers;
• Transporters' concern that due to the long queues at the toll plaza, their vehicles may be barred from entering the bridge even though they may have queued early;
• Transporters' concern that heavy commercial vehicles may cause stress on the bridge structure should all of them drive onto the bridge at the same time from either direction.

I've one comment about Point No. 4. Whether it is true or not is debatable. The transporters brought up a valid concern and it's best to let the civil engineers worry about this. Let the engineers decide whether the transporters' concern holds water. After all, they're paid to do this job.

Let me add just one more comment. Traffic jams will occur at any time of the day or night. It doesn't take a lorry or trailer to break down during peak hours to cause a jam. Any time will be a bad time, or otherwise I wouldn't have been caught in a jam on the bridge recently at 6.40am. And it wasn't even caused by a big commercial vehicle. Just a small, four-wheeled truck.

Well, what are the authorities going to do now? To ban or not to ban the heavy commercial vehicles from the Penang Bridge? Hobson's choice, I tell you! There's still no firm decision and it may be back to the drawing board, I suppose!