Frando stood helplessly beside his immovable black Honda Brio, parked on the sidewalk of Jl. Gajah Mada in Central Jakarta.

The 27-year-old Tangerang resident slept at his girlfriend’s boarding house on Tuesday night and woke at around 7 a.m. when the building owner told him that Transportation Agency officials had flattened his car’s tires.

“There is not enough parking space inside [the boarding house] and I thought it was only parking on roadsides that was forbidden not here on the sidewalk,” Frando told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

Several online motorcycle taxi drivers had their motorbikes confiscated for parking illegally on the roadside of Jl. Gajah Mada. The Jakarta Transportation Agency and Police officers also seized motorbikes parked on the sidewalk, in front of shops and at Gajah Mada Plaza.

“I blame the agency for ticketing me because I did not park. I just stopped and sat on my motorbike. If I had left it unattended, then they could have taken it away,” Uber driver Putro Anggoro said, adding that instead of seizing his motorbike the officials took his vehicle registration document (STNK) away.

After receiving many complaints from pedestrians about sidewalk infringements, the Jakarta administration has launched the Orderly Sidewalk Month. After two days of implementation, officials had raided hundreds of cars and motorcycles as well as street vendors, which occupied the sidewalks.

“This kind of operation has always been conducted as part of the agency’s job. This month’s program aims to educate people that parking on the sidewalk as well as doing other activities on it such as street vending, are against the law,” said August Fabian, the Jakarta Transportation Agency’s legal enforcement section head.

Based on Law No. 22/2009 on traffic, perpetrators who occupy sidewalks are to be fined up to
Rp 500,000 (US$ 37.51) or serve two months in prison.

The agency cooperated with the Indonesian Military (TNI), police and the Jakarta Public Order Agency (Satpol PP) in a sweep of all sidewalks along the capital’s roads to crack down on perpetrators.

The Jakarta Police have ticketed 884 motorists for sidewalk violations in the past two days.

“We’re also concerned about motorists driving on the sidewalks,” August said.

Jakarta has faced many problems dealing with the millions of vehicles that traverse its streets every day. In addition to congestion, parking has become scarce, forcing motorists to leave their vehicles at any random space available.

Koalisi Pejalan Kaki (Pedestrian Coalition) chairperson Alfred Sitorus suggested the administration should ban private vehicles from entering the inner-city.

“Jakarta only has about 200 kilometers of road and about 5 million vehicles, however that number can reach 20 million vehicles during rush hour when people from satellite cities drive to work. Even if only 13 percent of them were on the roads it would still create gridlock,” Alfred said.

He said providing parking spaces at bus terminals and train stations in the city’s periphery areas such as Ragunan in South Jakarta would enable people to park their vehicles and use public transportations to travel to the inner-city.

“As for street vendors, the Surabaya administration has set a good example by building spaces like food courts close to roads and letting street vendors rent them,” he said. (dra)

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