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transportation expert from the University of Indonesia has said that there would never be enough streets in Jakarta to handle all the vehicles inside the city, much less other vehicles coming from its surrounding suburbs.

'The expansion of the city's roads will never keep up with the growth in the number of vehicles. [The road construction] therefore, will never finish, [even if we wait] until the end of the world,' said Sigit Pranowo Hadiwardoyo, 55, in a recent interview.

According to the Central Statistics Agency (BPS), the total length of road in Jakarta expanded by an annual average of only 3.8 percent during the 1988-2011 period, while the annual growth in the number of vehicles reached 10.55 percent, said Sigit.

'The expansion rate of roads exceeded the growth rate of vehicles in 1990 only,' he said. 'In other years, the growth rate of vehicles always far exceeded the expansion rate of the roads.'

He said the wide gap between the road and vehicle growth rates had undoubtedly caused severe traffic congestion and financial losses for road-users. 'Furthermore, without [proper] maintenance, roads can be easily damaged, resulting in increased costs for vehicle maintenance and travel time,' Sigit had said in a speech when he became a professor at the university.

Jakarta is predicted to suffer from total traffic gridlock next year when the number of vehicles on the roads eclipses available road space.

Therefore, Sigit said, the city administration should focus on improving public transportation, such as adding buses and commuter trains and constructing new infrastructure.

Sigit said that the city administration's plans to limit the number of vehicles on the roads would not work unless it provided alternative options for transportation in the city.

The city administration plans to reduce private vehicles through the implementation of an electronic road pricing (ERP) scheme, the expansion of the progressive taxation rates for the ownership of many vehicles and an increase in the vehicle-ownership transfer fee (BBNKB).

The administration has also planned to construct seven underpasses and three overpasses this year.

'If the number of buses and trains are increased and their services are on schedule and improved, vehicle owners will prefer to use public transportation rather than driving on their own,' Sigit said. (nai)