T

he city administration said the streets of Jakarta would soon be equipped with electronic parking devices (e-parking) with a progressive tariff system, with the devices to be piloted in selected areas before a complete roll-out.

'€œWe are coordinating with private companies to implement the system and share the income,'€ Deputy Jakarta Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama said at City Hall.

The system will implement technology that requires vehicle owners to pay beforehand.

'€œParking officials, using their devices, will check the meter whether a vehicle has exceeded its time or not,'€ he said. '€œIf it does, then the owner will get a ticket.'€

The Pasar Baru area in Central Jakarta and Jl. Boulevard Kelapa Gading in North Jakarta are to be included in the pilot project.

The city administration is currently revising the 2010 Gubernatorial Regulation on remuneration for parking officials.

Basuki said he wanted to increase the remuneration percentage so that attendants would be more diligent, especially with the new system as it will determine their pay.

Meanwhile, the Jakarta Transportation Agency said it planned to increase the price of on-street parking. Syaifuddin Zuhri, planning manager from agency'€™s technical operation unit, said his team would increase the price of on-street parking for cars from Rp 4,000 (41 US cents) to Rp 8,000 for areas with a high demand for parking spaces.

'€œThe price for motorcycle parking will also double to Rp 4,000 in the same areas,'€ he said, giving Sabang district as an example.

'€œWe hope a gubernatorial decree on the new tariff will be issued by the end of this year,'€ he said on Friday.

According to the agency, the city has 405 official on-street parking spaces; 378 on-street spots and 27 in building complexes.

Zoltan Gyarmati, parking and transportation demand management expert and consultant from Hungary, urged Jakarta to improve its on-street management.

'€œBesides addressing congestion, the income could be used for public transportation,'€ he told a public discussion on Friday.

According to Zoltan, the city could use a zoning scheme, like the one he made in Budapest, to determine the tariff.

'€œIf parking space occupancy reaches 90 percent, the city should increase the price until it decreases,'€ he said, adding that the further the location, the cheaper the price.

Paul Barter, a parking management expert from Lee Kuan Yeuw School of Public Policy, said the administration should not worry about the readiness of public transportation.

'€œOnly a few people will shift to public transportation, but these few people will make a difference,'€ he said, adding that people had many alternative means of reducing the cost of traveling.