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Transportation body wants ERP applied to cars entering Jakarta
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An aerial view of the Cikarang-Bekasi toll road on Dec. 19, 2017. The Greater Jakarta Transportation Body (BPTJ) is mulling over charging private cars entering Jakarta as part of an attempt to ease traffic gridlock. (Antara/Risky Andrianto)
Transportation authorities are mulling over charging private cars entering Jakarta as part of an attempt to ease traffic gridlock.
“It’s part of our short- and long-term plans […] In our long-term plan, we want to set fares for every car entering Jakarta,” Greater Jakarta Transportation Body (BPTJ) head Bambang Prihartono said on Sunday as quoted by kompas.com.
To support the policy, he said the body would prepare more buses to carry commuters, adding that by the end of this year, an additional 1,000 buses were expected to begin operation.
The body has previously implemented an odd-even policy at the West and East Bekasi toll gates in West Java as part of their major attempt to limit the number of private cars entering Jakarta from the outskirts. As a consequence, a dedicated lane for buses has been prepared to lure more people to use the public transportation service.
A potential policy to support the restriction, Bambang said, was to apply an electronic road pricing (ERP) program. “Otherwise, public transportation services provided by the government won’t be able to compete with private cars,” he said.
Bambang said the implementation of the policy would require more time, as he needed to further study its framework, including discussing it with relevant agencies and city administrations.
He added that to encourage more use of public transportation, more transit-oriented development areas were needed where housing areas are directly interconnected with public transportation. (fac)
