I was heading for the City Hall area today and as I was leaving my house I saw my bus (Service 14) pass by and missed it so I decided to take another bus (Service 10) which would drop me at One Raffles Link instead. Little did I know that I would come head on with one massive jam at Nicoll Highway.
Let me elaborate a bit more on that. The jam in fact started - coincidentally - at the ERP gantry along Nicoll Highway (near Kallang Stadium). Now using Google Earth, I measured the distance from the start of the jam to my final destination at One Raffles Link (red line in Fig. 1). 2.70km. WTF. (Those training for IPPT, just start 300m away from the ERP gantry and run all the way to the Suntec City junction). The last I remember of a really bad jam was during the IMF when roads were cordoned off and buses had to plow in nice circles around the War Memorial Park. Today's jam was phenomenal.
Fig. 1. A bird's eye Google Earth's view of da jam
I travel on Nicoll Highway 3 times a week to go to school and back and today, I have never had a more scenic moment. I actually spent enough time at a particular section of the highway (yellow X in Fig. 1) to admire dragon-boaters training, the resultant ripples in the water from their boats, and the nice backdrop of condominiums in Tanjong Rhu. The bus inched its way closer to my destination but at the rate it was going, I reckon I'd be spending another good 30 minutes admiring more scenery. The bus eventually approached its next bus stop (opposite the Concourse and two stops before One Raffles Link) and I saw some people getting ready to disembark, obvious that they felt they would make better ground on foot. I decided to follow them and got off.
My walk from that bus stop to One Raffles Link (blue line in Fig. 1) was one of relief, awe and pity. Relief, because I was definitely getting to my destination much faster. Awe, because the amount of buses stranded along that stretch was incredulous. I saw the bus I missed earlier on. I saw at least two more Service 10's further down. I saw three Service 16's, two of which were practically sardines on wheels and that's where the pity part came in. I was basically counting the number of buses as I made my way down. When I reached the Suntec City bus stop, I saw the amount of people waiting for buses there and thought to myself, "Whatever bus you're waiting for, there's at least 2 or 3 of them down the road."
I finally made my way to my destination and then realised that the jam actually further extended all the way down Raffles Boulevard and cars from Bras Basah Road were constantly trying to squeeze in. Because of that, they clogged up the junction there and thus caused the entire Nicoll Highway to literally jam. The roads leading to Esplanade Drive were totally empty.
The initials 'I.T.' probably meant two things that day depending on who was involved. To shoppers, it probably meant 'Irresistable Take-away's' since it was the last day of the fair and prices were slashed to facilitate clearance. To drivers, it was probably 'Impossible Traffic'. So the next time the I.T. Fair is in town, well, get ready to jam.
