Holland Tunnel

By Dr. Muhammad Hafizullah

I was trying to be meticulous and overcautious! I wanted to arrive three hours before the departure time, allocating thirty extra minutes to the expected sixty minutes journey from Queens, New York to Newark airport in New Jersey.

I had heard lots of stories of people getting late, so I tried to plan it well and leave well in advance. Little I knew that I will be very close to missing the flight. My mammon, an engineer by profession Dr Sajjad Ahmed had been working for the state highway department of New York, so he literally knows the town like his palm and perhaps he is one of the very few people in New York who can find their way without Global Positioning System (GPS).   

It was not supposed to be single hop rather it was designed to be series of journeys as it takes one through Brooklyn, passing through Manhattan and then crossing Holland tunnel landing into New Jersey. The expected time for journey was around fifty to sixty minutes. 

The start was Ok as we left according to the set plan. The itinerary was familiar as we had travelled through the same route, a couple of days earlier with his son Haseeb - a medic student. The initial lethargy in traffic was ascribed to some people leaving the office before time because of a long weekend. We picked up our pace as we joined the main free way -American version of our motor way.

We were in time, as we crossed the main traffic of down town and Brooklyn. We were eagerly looking for signs of Holland tunnel which eluded us for quite sometime. And as we sighted the signs, we were told that Newark airport was only twenty minutes from the tunnel. "We are ahead of time," I told myself and secretly appreciated my time management. I started considering various possibilities to spend time at the airport - shopping being out of course.

The traffic slowed down as we headed towards the tunnel. "It may be an accident," we all conjured and hoped it to clear in due course of time. "It takes thirty minutes for the emergency services to reach the site of accident whereas in California they have brought it down to twenty three minutes," my Mamoon informed me.

"The only solution could be either to keep a separate lane for emergency or have these ambulances parked on different highways and freeways at different intervals," he added to my information. "Both these options are extremely expensive and not cost-effective, the only practical solution which can be cost effective, quick and efficient would be to have a helicopter service to pick up the injured and perhaps lift the vehicles as well to resume the flow,"  I offered my non-expert opinion.

The speed of vehicles slowed down further, and we thought it might be due to closing hours of offices. A series of traffic lights thwarted the flow of traffic heading to the tunnel. Lights changed from red to green and the traffic inched but no more. The lights changed again from red to green and again only a couple of cars could cross the crossing. Many cars on realising this turned towards right and sped away.   "May be they know some shortcuts that we don't know," my Mammani remarked. Leaving the mainstream and looking for shortcuts in the absence of GPS did not seem to be a good idea.

"We still have time on our side, let’s continue on the same route," I offered. Lights changed hue again and again but there was absolutely no movement at all. And what was supposed to be a nightmare started changing into a reality. Traffic was at standstill! Someone on the back tried to blow horn and attract attention but everyone else was composed behind the wheel. "Minimal fine for honking horn is $350," announced a warning sign attached to traffic light. "This must be a common occurrence and this explains the warning," I thought and that sank my heart.

Another twenty minutes passed and we had not moved an inch! "Is there any other option? Any other route that takes us to Newark," my wife asked while gazing at her watch. "Not at this stage, when we are so close to Holland tunnel," my Mamoon kept his composure and replied. A few more minutes passed and though traffic moved from left to right and vice-versa, there was no forward movement at all.

Heart started beating faster and we started feeling uncomfortable in our seats. 'Ayat Ul Kursi' started rolling on our lips and sincere prayers started finding their ways out. We were literally trapped in an ocean of vehicles -hundreds behind thousands ahead and scores on sides. "Is there any train service for the airport?" I enquired and the answer was a curt "No!"

On a red light, some people losing patience, jumped the queue and traffic wardens appeared from nowhere to offer challans to them for being obstructive to traffic. "what about our traffic - standstill for ninety minutes?" I asked and the answer was nothing but a wry smile. We sought answers to our standstill from radio reporting traffic, which reported delays up to twenty five minutes. But there we were stranded in traffic for the last ninety minutes and at the last limits of our patience and sanity.

Our road was merging into a sea of traffic coming from right on a large avenue. So this explains the snail speed of our traffic, as only two cars were being allowed to join the mainstream after sometime.

We waited patiently for our turn which took twenty minutes, the warden would turn around and allow two vehicles. Hopes started building up as we joined the main flow heading towards Holland tunnel. And then the inevitable happened and we entered the tunnel!

Another twenty minutes to cross the four lanes long tunnel to land in New Jersey.  We realised that more than fifteen lanes had eventually converged into two lanes and that explained the delay. There were no physical obstructions, it was a simple supply and demand scenario. Too many people decided to use Holland tunnel to get out of New York and we happened to be one of them!

As we crossed to NewJersey my heart sank once again on seeing a series of traffic lights. But luckily it did not offer a prolonged resistance! By now I was urging my Mammoon to break all traffic rules and start flying as we stood a good chance of missing our international flight.

At one time there were no penalties for missing an international flight, but now even to change a reservation in advance is stamped with hundred dollars fine. I reminded him that we were carrying four boxes and we had to rush up!

At last, signs of the airport started appearing but it took another twenty minutes to go through various up and downs, lefts and rights to approach the departure gates. Hurriedly, I got hold of the cart and positioned four boxes and rushed into get check in. 

Checking in is half of the story, crossing the security is the main hurdle. Though we arrived quite late by international flight standards - merely an hour before the departure time, luckily rest of the formalities did not take long!

Making ourselves comfortable in the flight leaving for Glasgow, we realised what a nerve wrecking experience it had been! The cruelest joke was that on the way back, my Mamoon crossed Holland tunnel in fifteen minutes to reach home before we took off! To me, Holland tunnel became a symbol of human misery and test of patience! But a few lessons that we learnt were - never to lose hope, maintain firm belief in Allah Subhanu Taala and above all never trust New York traffic.

In the sojourn of life, there are many 'Holland tunnels', offering obstructions -physical and sometimes mental, all these have to be crossed with firm belief and determination. 'Holland tunnels' should never be allowed to abandon the avenues leading to success nor lower the aims!