Jakartans love motorcycles and for some, they are willing to fight for their right to use motorcycles on the streets following the announcement of a future ban restricting their movements across the city.

Affordable operational costs and easy maneuvering are the top two reasons why motorcycles are so popular in Jakarta. Amid a traffic-clogged city, riders can easily slip in between lines of traffic and jammed cars, contributing to the growing popularity of online-based motorcycle transportation services, or ojek.

As of June this year, there were 13.64 million motorcycles registered with the Jakarta Police, nearly three times the 4.81 million cars registered.

However, the presence of such a large number of motorcycles has been deemed dangerous by the city administration, which claims that the majority of traffic violators are motorcycle riders. Their growing numbers and concerns around safety issues have prompted the city administration to begin a trial imposing wider motorcycles restrictions.

Motorcycles have been barred from passing through the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle to Jl. Medan Merdeka Barat in Central Jakarta since 2014 and a wider ban is going to be implemented from the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle to the Senayan traffic circle.

The trial is set to run for a month from Sept. 12 before being officially imposed on Oct. 11. The main thoroughfares have lines of office buildings and hotels along parts of Transjakarta Bus corridor 1 connecting Blok M in South Jakarta to Kota in West Jakarta.

The ban follows a 2014 city bylaw that allows the administration to ban motorcycles from passing through certain areas, based on the 2011 Law on Traffic Management and Engineering.

Popular

RI, Australia strengthen partnership on taxing crypto assets

Analysis: Indonesia denies normalization with Israel to enter OECD

Citroen to produce electric cars in Indonesia