I

ntan Larasati, 22, can only grumble when passing the Cikampek turnpike on her morning commute riding a public bus from her house in Bekasi, West Java, to her office in Grogol, West Jakarta.

Leaving her house at 5:15 a.m., Intan said she regularly spent three hours on the road in the morning amid massive congestion on the Cikampek toll road that connects Jakarta with several satellite cities in West Java.

On the worst days, she could spend four hours on the road to reach her office. The return trip was slightly better, as it took “only” two hours, she said.

However, like for most commuters in Bekasi, her options are limited. Besides taking the bus she also sometimes takes the commuter train from Bekasi.

The government and transportation authorities have mulled several measures to ease traffic congestion in Cikampek, which has worsened lately on the back of multiple construction projects happening at the same time. The projects are the Jakarta – Cikampek elevated toll road, the light rail transit (LRT) connecting the capital and East Bekasi in West Java, and a toll road connecting Cibitung in West Java and Cilincing in North Jakarta.

The authorities, which include the Transportation Ministry’s Greater Jakarta Transportation Body (BPTJ), Cikampek toll road operator Jasa Marga and the National Police, had created a high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lane in the toll road, which is a special lane for commuter busses.

In the policy, the BPTJ teamed up with state-run bus company PPD and Jakarta’s bus operator PT Transportasi Jakarta (Transjakarta) to serve passengers traveling from Bekasi to the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle in Central Jakarta. Applied since late July, 20 buses were now plying the route, and their number would increase to 60, BPTJ head Bambang Prihartono said.

He added that an evaluation of the policy had shown that it reduced traveling time from three hours to 1.5 hours by bus.

“[With the policy], the BPTJ aims to move commuters from private vehicles to public transportation,” he said.

Jasa Marga operations director Subakti Syukur said even without the ongoing construction projects the Cikampek turnpike had been used beyond its intended capacity, with more than 9,200 vehicles passing the road per hour.

To alleviate congestion, he said, Jasa Marga had met up with the BPTJ and the police to thrash out solutions. In the meeting, several suggestions were made, including the HOV lane and an odd-even license plate policy.

“However, if we [Jasa Marga] are asked what should be prioritized, we would choose to limit operational hours for trucks on the toll road,” he said.

The plan to limit trucks’ operational hours was currently under examination by the relevant parties, he added. However, the plan had met with protest from businessmen, considering it would hamper national logistics, impact exports and raise operational costs.

“The Cikampek toll road is a major logistics lane, not only for Jakarta but also national,” said Indonesia Logistics Association (ALI) chairman Zaldy Masita, adding that export industries were mostly located along areas from Cibitung to Karawang in West Java, which is accessed via the Cikampek toll road.

Another traffic measure mulled is the odd-even policy, which has been a hotly debated topic in social media, where people have questioned its implementation and effectiveness. However, that policy was unlikely to be applied in the near future, as further discussions were needed, Bambang of the BPTJ said.