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Focus on MRT, not roads: Expert
Jakartans repeatedly complain about being forced to fight through traffic jams every day to make a living
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Jakartans repeatedly complain about being forced to fight through traffic jams every day to make a living.
However, instead of addressing the public's concerns strategically and with vision, the city administration has proposed several policies that seem to suggest they are missing the point.
The city is currently focused on raising parking fees, forbidding motorcycles from certain areas, applying an electronic road pricing system and building more roads.
An urban expert from Tarumanagara University, Suryono Herlambang, said many commuters in the city had bought motorcycles because there was no other credible way of getting commuting.
"If they had an affordable and effective alternative, *motorcyclists* would prefer to enjoy a comfortable ride on public transportation," he told The Jakarta Post recently.
About 900 new motorcycles are registered every day in the city, according to the Jakarta Police. This mind-blowing figure has been cited as a major cause of traffic congestion in the city.
Critics have repeatedly reminded the city administration that the solution to the city's transportation problems is to build new modes of public transportation and improve the existing ones.
"If the city wants people to use public transportation, then fix it first," Suryono said.
The city is currently developing a public bus system and constructing new elevated roads and flyovers.
The latter concepts have attracted stern criticisms that the new roads will exacerbate congestion in the city by encouraging the use of private vehicles.
Governor Fauzi Bowo said the policy was based on the fact that there was not enough space in the city to develop new roads on the ground.
The city's roads account for about 40.1 square kilometers, around 6.28 percent of the capital's footprint.
The city is currently finishing a tender process to build two elevated roads connecting Jl. Pangeran Antasari with Blok M in South Jakarta and Kampung Melayu in East Jakarta with Tanah Abang in Central Jakarta.
The projects, which will cost a combined Rp 2.2 trillion (US$246 million), are expected to be completed by the end of 2012.
The city is also interested in realizing a plan to build six elevated inner-city toll roads that will span 85.28 kilometers and cost more than Rp 23 trillion.
Head of the Jakarta Development and Planning Agency Sarwo Handayani said the city's transportation policy was to expand the road network and develop a mass public transportation system, implement traffic management systems and encourage motorists to obey the rules of the road.
"We cannot settle the congestion problem with one approach because it should become a total system," he told the Post recently.
In 2016, when the first phase of the Mass Rapid Transit linking Lebak Bulus in South Jakarta is complete and supported by other modes of transportation, she said, Jakarta would still be only a semi-developed modern city.
Transportation expert from the University of Indonesia Alvinsyah said Jakarta, whose population was expected to hit 9.5 million this year, had to develop a rail-based mass transportation system.
He said traffic congestion may remain severe even after the completion of the MRT, but added that at least people would have the option to travel comfortably at low cost.
