Despite long-standing doubts about the effectiveness of schedule staggering in relieving traffic congestion, the Jakarta Transportation Agency has called for office hours to be staggered according to municipality.
The agency suggested on Monday that office starting hours be staggered according to zones, where offices in North and Central Jakarta start at 7:30 a.m., those in West and East Jakarta at 8 a.m. and those in South Jakarta at 9 a.m. in order to ease rush hour traffic snarls.
The city suggested the same policy last year after implementing a plan to bring back school hours by 30 minutes.
Rakyan Adibrata, 29, an employee of a private company in South Jakarta said that the suggested policy would not be effective because not all the employees worked and lived in the same municipality.
“I work in South Jakarta but I live in East Jakarta. So how could the location-based staggering of working hours help?” he said.
A secretary who works in Central Jakarta, Amelia M., 22, also said the proposed program would not be
effective.
“I am afraid that it would just shift the hours of traffic congestion; besides, the working hours of
those companies are not so different,” Amelia, who lives in Central Jakarta, said.
She said most of her colleagues would likely continue to go to the office at the same time in the morning regardless.
“It is a matter of habit. I would still go the office as early as I do now despite the change,” Amelia said.
Trisakti University transportation expert Trisbiantara told The Jakarta Post that the working hours zone system would not be nearly as effective as improving the management of public transportation.
“Jakarta has highly saturated traffic even during non-peak hours. I think improving the busway management by adding more TransJakarta buses would be more effective as more public transportation users would reduce the number of private vehicles,” he said.
The main problem in Jakarta is that there are too many private vehicles, while public transportation is not well managed, Trisbiantara said.
He said the gap between office hours in the different zones should be increased.
Previously, the Jakarta administration issued a gubernatorial decree shifting school hours 30 minutes earlier to 6:30 a.m. to address the chronic traffic congestion in the city.
The decree, which took effect at the beginning of 2009, did not improve the problem.
A survey last year showed that office hours at 45 percent of offices in Central Jakarta and 47 percent in North Jakarta started at 7:30 a.m.
Nearly 60 percent of offices in West Jakarta and 61 percent in East Jakarta started at 8 a.m., and almost 48 percent of South Jakarta’s offices opened at 9 a.m., the survey stated. (not)
I work in South Jakarta but I live in East Jakarta. So how could the location-based staggering of working hours help?
