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Jakarta revamps overcrowded markets
Unwelcome economic growth: Traders bring chaos to the streets, leaving little space for pedestrians and vehicles at Tanah Abang market in Central Jakarta on Sunday
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span class="inline inline-center">Unwelcome economic growth: Traders bring chaos to the streets, leaving little space for pedestrians and vehicles at Tanah Abang market in Central Jakarta on Sunday. JP/Wendra Ajistyatama
Cars and motorcycles jammed Jl. Pasar Minggu, South Jakarta on Saturday afternoon, as usual. The area is notorious for its appalling traffic, but the flow was smoother than two weeks ago when the market and bus terminal were restructured.
Congestion is inevitable, but the absence of street vendors and illegal parking means the vehicles can at least crawl forward.
The Jakarta administration is regulating on-street parking and street vendors around Jatinegara market and Pasar Rebo in East Jakarta, Tanah Abang market in Central Jakarta and Pasar Minggu in South Jakarta.
Transportation agency head Udar Pristono is working with the police, the public order agency (Satpol PP), market managers and the small business agency (UMKM) to find a permanent solution.
To find this permanent solution to the problem, the city has started a push-pull system.
'We have regulated vendors and parking in Pasar Minggu and Tanah Abang. Commuters can feel the difference already,' Udar said. The plan will roll out to Jatinegara and Pasar Rebo soon.
Besides ticketing illegally parked cars, his agency is trying to add more parking spaces inside the markets with help from market managers like city-owned market operator PD Pasar Jaya, to accommodate all vehicles belonging to traders and shoppers.
'Pusat Grosir Jatinegara shopping center has provided spacious parking lots but motorists still prefer to park on the streets.'
The city administration is doing something similar for street vendors. The UMKM has had to find spaces for street vendors so they do not lose income or return to their previous stations.
Agency head Ratna Ningsih said on Sunday that all vendors would operate inside the market. 'We are trying to pull all the vendors into the market. Satpol PP will guard the streets, so they do not go back,' she said.
The response from vendors has been quite good and most of them want to be relocated.
'They said they are willing to move as long as all vendors do the same,' she said.
It is difficult to find space for vendors in some crowded markets like Tanah Abang.
'We hope PD Pasar Jaya will help us find space for them,' she said, adding that she faced the same problem in Jatinegara market.
Director of the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP) Yoga Adiwinarto said regulating street vendors and illegal parking was a must, and that relocating vendors instead of evicting them was a good solution.
'Satpol PP must make sure the previous spaces are guarded and not occupied by new vendors,' he said.
