Suherdjoko and Hyginus Hardoyo, The Jakarta Post, Semarang, Jakarta
An increasing number of small children are joining their parents to travel by motorcycle for arduous journeys of hundreds of kilometers during the Idul Fitri holiday period.
Riding motorcycles is cheaper than catching the bus or the train with costs estimated to be around a fifth of public transportation.
Rizki, a one-year-old boy, was one of many children who traveled by motorbike with his family from Jakarta to the Central Java capital of Semarang two days before the Idul Fitri holidays began last week. On Sunday he joined parents Syafrudin and Yuniarti on the long ride back to the city.
""The thing that makes me happy is that my child is still healthy (despite the long journey). It means a lot to me,"" said Syafrudin, a resident of Pluit in North Jakarta, when the family stopped in the Mangkang rest area, to the west of Semarang.
""Frankly speaking, I was forced to go by motorcycle with the family because bus and train fares are expensive, and public transportation is often uncomfortable and ... overcrowded,"" he said.
Traffic jams and a lack of tickets were another reason why it was preferable to take a motorcycle, Udin said.
The Jakarta Post met several families with children traveling by motorbike at Mangkang.
The children often sat in the middle between their parents or up front with their fathers, with the larger ones sitting behind on the back-bar.
The large bags the families brought on the trip were neatly tied on extended wooden baggage racks on the back of the bikes.
Convoys of thousands of motorcycles have crowded Java's major roads during the weekend, filing past slow-moving trucks and buses, especially on roads leading to Jakarta.
According to data at the Central Java Transportation Office the number of motorcycles used to travel during this year's Idul Fitri holiday reached a recorded 841,487, a jump of 57 percent from only 533,684 last year.
Responding to the substantial increase, a member of the House of Representatives has urged the government to pass a law on the use of motorcycles for inter-provincial transportation.
With tens of thousands of motorcycles being used for long-distance travel, the government is overdue in regulating their use, Sumaryoto, a legislator, said, as reported by Antara.
If the government allowed the continued use of the bikes for long-distance travel, it should build motorcycle-only lanes to prevent traffic accidents, he said.
Meanwhile, Transportation Minister Hatta Radjasa said in Surakarta, Central Java, Saturday that the government would intensify controls on the use of motorcycles as a means of traveling between provinces during Idul Fitri.
Traveling a long distance by motorcycles needs rulings, he said. ""We will regulate them to make sure they are orderly during the journey so as not to disturb drivers of other vehicles,"" he said.
