Sep. 1, 2023 was Polling Day in Singapore — a public holiday that was declared barely a couple of weeks earlier for a full day to be set aside for citizens to pick a new president.

Those who cast their ballots early then took it upon themselves to do what Singaporeans do best whenever there is holiday.

That's right, go to Johor Bahru.

Except that the plan went off with a hitch: Hundreds of thousands of Singaporeans also shared the same idea.

Epic jam along Causeway and Second Link

The result was massive jams that built up along the Causeway in Woodlands and the Second Link in Tuas.

As reported, an eight-hour jam occurred at the Causeway as thousands of vehicles tried to enter Malaysia throughout the day.

9-hour Second Link jam

And it has been revealed that the situation at the Second Link in Tuas was just as dire.

One man from Singapore took to Facebook to say "never again", after he was caught in a nine-hour jam along the Second Link.

His post wrote: "Soul destroying. Worst ever jam in my 20 years of going JB. Please learn from my mistake and avoid going to JB on long weekends. Or on all weekends actually."

He claimed that he was queuing at Tuas to exit Singapore from 10am and was still queuing to enter JB at about 7pm.

A photo he put up showed it was dusk by the time he got to Malaysia, essentially taking nine hours to travel a 2.4km stretch across the Johor Strait.

Responses

The post generated a number of comments discussing what happened.

One comment said the Singapore presidential election on Sep. 1 coincided with Malaysia's national day on Aug. 31, which makes it two public holidays back-to-back.

This long weekend would see both Singaporeans and Malaysians make the journey across the land crossings at the same time.

The start of September was also the commencement of the week-long school holidays for children in Singapore, which usually sees a large number of families travelling during this period.

The discussion also centred on whether idling for such long hours is detrimental to engines, and questions were raised about how occupants of vehicles relieved themselves.

Others who apparently made the journey before 10am said clearance was about two hours.

The suggestion from some seasoned day tripping travellers was to cross the land crossings only in the wee hours of the morning for long weekends to avoid getting caught in epic jams.

Top photos via Eddy Wayne