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here should be no attempts made to challenge the recent Supreme Court (MA) decision, which is final and binding, to annul a 2014 gubernatorial decree that banned motorcycles from traveling along the crowded thoroughfares downtown.

With all due respect, however, the ruling marks a setback as far as the city’s traffic management is concerned. The Jakarta administration will have to design a brand new traffic arrangement on Jl. MH Thamrin and Jl. Medan Merdeka Barat that fulfills the jurisprudence.

Worse still, the court’s decision may set a bad precedent as any road user could file a judicial review against any traffic restriction policy she or he deems as violating his or her right as a taxpayer — and win. Though this may seem a far-fetching scenario, truck drivers could follow in the footsteps of the plaintiffs, the two motorcycle riders Yuliansah Hamid and Diki Iskandar, for the sake of equality before the law. Even drivers of becak (pedicab), which were banned in 1988, could seek justice at the court by claiming their constitutional right was violated by the Jakarta administration.

Justice has been served for motorcycle drivers and motorcycle taxi customers with the revocation of the decree, at a high price. Unsurprisingly traffic regulators like the chief of the Jakarta Police traffic directorate, Sr. Comr. Halim Pagarra, expressed regret over the court’s decision.

Traffic restrictions like the now defunct no-motorcycle-zone policy were designed to change people’s behavior from high dependence on private vehicles to a reliance on public transportation. In the case of the motorcycle ban, Halim said, the objective was reached.

The multiplier effects of the motorcycle ban were overarching, according to Halim. As many people shifted to Transjakarta buses, which run on gas, the air pollution level in the areas had dropped significantly. Traffic violations and accident rates also nosedived, simply because motorcycle drivers contributed the most to these offenses.

Halim said police records showed that nearly 90 percent of traffic violations in Jakarta were committed by motorcycle drivers. This lack of discipline has not only caused chaos on Jakarta’s streets , but in many cases has also led to deaths. The limited ban was introduced in 2014 for the sake of drivers’ safety and that of other road users in the first place.

Now that the ban has been lifted there is an incentive for people to return to their old habits of riding motorcycles as the cheapest and fastest way to reach their places of work. The city administration, under Governor Anies Baswedan, more than just hailing the court’s decision, should prepare a new policy that will spare the city’s main thoroughfares, where construction of the MRT is underway, from traffic madness.

As the motorcycle restriction had followed a thorough study, Anies also needs advice from all stakeholders to design a policy that meets good traffic governance principles. As Deputy Governor Sandiaga Uno has stated, an odd-even plate policy for motorcycles could be a good place to start.