T

he Jakarta administration is planning to impose a restriction that would limit cars on streets based on even-odd license plate numbers, beginning in March 2013 at the latest.

The policy would temporarily replace the current “3-in-1” car pooling zones and would be effective from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. on weekdays. It would also affect roads used by the Transjakarta Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system and a number of other main roads.

Governor Joko “Jokowi” Widodo acknowledged that the policy was unpopular, but he believed it would help lessen traffic jams.

“If we don’t try it, we will never know [the impact]. But we are not doing it without any studies or preparation,” he said on Thursday at City Hall after a meeting with representatives from the Jakarta Police, the Jakarta Transportation Council (DTKJ) and transportation experts.

In its implementation, cars with odd-numbered license plates will be banned on even dates and vice versa. The vehicles would be marked with stickers, red for odd numbers and green for even numbers.

City Transportation Agency chief Udar Pristono said that the administration would coordinate with the police to enforce the policy.

“The even-odd restriction would serve as a transition from the 3-in-1 policy and the Electronic Road Pricing [ERP],” he said.

Jokowi has been optimistic that the much anticipated ERP could be implemented next year following approval from the central government.

The administration had been waiting for a Government Regulation (PP) drafted by the Finance Ministry regarding the ERP. One of the main obstacles holding back the implementation of the ERP scheme was that the road-pricing levy was not included as tax or retribution in the 2009 Regional Tax and Retribution Law.

The initial plan for the scheme is for the ERP to be applied on main roads from Blok M in South Jakarta to Kota in West Jakarta during morning and afternoon rush hour on weekdays.

Udar said the agency had calculated that the restriction would increase the average speed on Jakarta’s roads from 16.8 kilometers per hour to 47 kilometers per hour and cut down roads affected by jams from 43.7 percent to 32.7 percent.

The restriction is also expected to save up to Rp 8.85 trillion (US$920 million) worth of productive time and vehicle operational cost as well as 345,000 liters of subsidized fuel each year.

The agency has also calculated that cutting almost half of the vehicles used each day would result in a need to provide an alternative for around 2.6 million person trips each day.

Udar said that the city would compensate by providing a total of around 500 new buses in the BRT, granting 1,000 new minibuses to replace decade-old public minibuses (Metromini and Kopaja), and integrating the minibus services to the BRT system.