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View all search resultsTraffic jams move outside Jakarta
As Jakartans left the capital for the holiday season, traffic to resort cities like Bogor and Bandung in West Java had begun to snarl up as of Wednesday evening
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A
s Jakartans left the capital for the holiday season, traffic to resort cities like Bogor and Bandung in West Java had begun to snarl up as of Wednesday evening.
In contrast, Jakarta was relatively quiet on Thursday, except for popular tourist attractions like Ragunan Zoo in South Jakarta and the National Monument (Monas) in Central Jakarta.
Hundreds of thousands of Jakarta residents left the capital for the end-of-year break, triggering severe traffic jams on various access roads connecting Jakarta to nearby cities.
Gridlock was reported on the road from Bandung to Jakarta.
Passengers of a number of shuttle buses en route to Jakarta were stranded, as the buses arrived in Bandung hours later than usual.
A few passengers resorted to other transportation means to get to the capital. 'I tried a shuttle service but there was no bus available so I went to the railway station immediately to get a ticket,' Ahmad, a passenger, said.
Homemaker Siti Rahayu, 24, said the departure of her shuttle bus to Bandung on Wednesday evening was delayed due to traffic gridlock on the Cipularang toll road. A number of traffic accidents also made the situation worse.
'Our bus was scheduled to depart at 8:30 p.m. [on Wednesday] but could only leave at 10 p.m. because the bus was caught in traffic jam on the way to Jakarta. I spent hours on the way to my hometown of Bandung and finally arrived at 3 a.m.,' she told The Jakarta Post on Thursday. Normally, the travel time from Jakarta to Bandung via the Cipularang toll road is around three hours.
An employee of an oil and gas company, Fanny, 26, who decided to leave Jakarta on Thursday morning, had similar experience. 'I left Jakarta at 10 a.m. and spent more than five hours getting to Bandung,' she said.
The Jakarta Traffic Police reported severe traffic jams on access roads to the hilly area of Puncak in Bogor regency and to Bogor city throughout the day.
Meanwhile, major thoroughfares in Jakarta such as Jl. Gatot Subroto, Jl. MH Thamrin and Jl. Sudirman were relatively quiet on Thursday. Visitors and residents who stayed in the capital during the holiday season flocked to tourist attractions such as Monas and Ragunan Zoo, as well as shopping malls, triggering gridlock and long parking lines at those areas.
