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Safety the top priority
Jakarta’s usually congested traffic is not back to normal yet although many people have returned to work on Thursday after a long Idul Fitri holiday
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akarta’s usually congested traffic is not back to normal yet although many people have returned to work on Thursday after a long Idul Fitri holiday. It is the arrival of millions of people to Jakarta from their respective hometowns that has made headline on various media platforms, instead.
In fact their return trip on various modes of transportation — airplanes, ships, cars, buses and trains — has always topped the national agenda in this predominantly Muslim country. Not surprising because the Idul Fitri mudik (exodus) involved around 19.5 million people this year, the second-largest in the world after China.
At a glance, this time around, mudik was relatively smooth (although one politician from an opposition party who traveled by plane called the traffic hell) thanks to the hard work of the traffic police, toll operators, the Public Works and Housing Ministry and related institutions in facilitating their journey from and to Jakarta.
President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo and Vice President Jusuf Kalla acknowledged the joint efforts. “I received reports that [mudik] went smoothly,” Jokowi said. “It is much better, especially because two years ago we had the Brexit case,” Kalla said, referring to gridlock at the Brebes exit in Central Java, where 12 home-bound travelers died of exhaustion in 2016.
A longer public holiday — the government decided to start the holiday on June 11 while private companies closed on June 13 — contributed to easing traffic as travelers, especially those who drove, were spread out in batches. The completion, though partially, of the trans-Java toll road from Merak in Banten to Surabaya in East Java — one of Jokowi’s landmark infrastructure projects — also played a major role in accelerating the travel time. Some sections of the toll road, although not yet completed, were passable.
Of course, the connectivity was not flawless.
Just like a double-edged sword, a better toll road requires better driving skills and behavior otherwise accidents will happen. The police recorded 1,478 accidents during the holiday season, a 30 percent decrease from last year’s figure. The number of fatalities stood at 333, compared to last year’s 815.
The police and toll operators also responded quickly to congestion as evidenced when they initiated a one-way traffic rule from Cikampek to Jakarta on Monday night to facilitate the returning holidaymakers. This was expanded to the Palimanan-Cikampek route the next day as the return traffic peaked.
Less traffic hassle during mudik is a must, but safety should be the top priority as we learned from the shocking incident on Lake Toba in North Sumatra on Sunday, which left more than 190 people missing.
Proper safety standards for all transportation modes matter, especially due to the country’s huge population and vast territory. Awareness of safety rules will prevent the unnecessary loss of lives.
Now that the government has improved the transportation infrastructure, fatal accidents during the recent Idul Fitri holiday only indicate that we are still neglecting or compromising on safety.
