If a new traffic management plan comes into fruition, people driving to Bandung face the prospect of having to park their cars outside the city and shuttling into town on designated public buses.
Bandung municipal authority, together with other related institutions and experts, have discussed the implementation of the “park-and-ride” concept in a bid to ease acute traffic congestion and save its tourism industry.
“We are working on the concept of building parking areas at the two entrances of the Cileunyi-Purwakarta-Padalarang turnpikes,” head of West Java Transportation Agency, Dicky Saromi, said in Bandung recently.
For cars coming from Jakarta, he said, the parking area would likely be located near West Padalarang, while for those coming from the opposite direction, the lot would be built outside the Cileunyi toll road, Bandung regency. Tourists would then be required to continue their trip by public transport.
The authority aims to implement the concept next year at the latest.
Dicky said systematic steps were needed to curb the traffic congestion given experts’ predictions that Bandung faced losing its charm as a tourist destination by failing to address traffic issues properly.
“Bandung will cease to be attractive to investment if it is choked by traffic jams,” Dicky said.
With some 700,000 units of cars, traffic in Bandung is a mess thanks to the imbalance between the 15 percent annual growth in vehicle numbers and the 1 percent of road built in the city each year.
Bandung only has 1,230 kilometers of road, or 5 percent of the city’s total area, far below the ideal
30 percent.
As a result, the average speed of vehicles in the city is only 10 kilometers per hour, a quarter of the ideal speed of 40 kilometers per hour.
During weekends, the city’s traffic suffers even more with many Jakartans making their way to the town for cheap shopping and a clear, cool climate. Research reveals that around 45 million tourists visit the city each year, 70 percent of them from the Greater Jakarta area.
Dicky also said that apart from the “park-and-ride” concept, his team was also considering an alternating road-use system to limit the number of cars on the road on any given day.
“It would be based on whether their registration plates ended in an odd or even number,” said Dicky.
Yachya Machmoed of the provincial Chamber of Commerce and Industry said Bandung dominated tourist figures in the province thanks to its reputation as an attractive culinary and shopping hub.
“I agree with the idea of limiting the access. Otherwise, Bandung will no longer be considered as sexy and tourists will not visit because of the awful traffic,” Yachya said.
