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year after the issuance of Gubernatorial Regulation No. 31/2017 on parking charges, the Jakarta administration has yet to implement the maximum fee for onsite and offsite parking, which road users say has kept them dependent on using their own vehicles as they can afford to pay for parking.

The regulation sets the rate for parking on streets at Rp 3,000 (20 US cents) to Rp 12,000 per hour. For motorcycles, the parking fee is set at Rp 2,000 to Rp 6,000 per hour.

Inside buildings, parking fees are set at Rp 3,000 to Rp 9,000 and Rp 2,000 to Rp 4,500 per hour for cars and motorcycles respectively.

Almost all parking lots in the city adopt the low parking fee of between Rp 3,000 and Rp 5,000 per hour for cars and Rp 2,000 to Rp 4,000 per hour for motorcycles, contributing to the increase in private vehicle ownership and worsening traffic jams.

The head of the city’s technical managing unit on parking areas, Tiodor Sianturi, said the city administration needed to conduct further studies on the implementation of the regulation.

“We have to review places where the regulation can be implemented as well as the people’s ability and willingness to pay,” Tiodor said during a group discussion at the Jakarta Public Housing and Settlement Area
office in Central Jakarta, on Monday.

A member of the Jakarta Transportation Council (DTKJ), Najid, said the city administration should soon enforce the parking charge regulation by requiring all parties to charge higher parking fees.

A survey conducted by the DTKJ in Kuningan, South Jakarta, and Jl. MH Thamrin, Central Jakarta, showed that most respondents did not mind paying a parking fee of between Rp 32,000 and Rp 36,000 per day.

If the parking fee was set at Rp 45,000, most of the respondents in Kuningan said they would consider using Transjakarta buses, while in Thamrin, most of the respondents said they would consider leaving their private vehicles at home and use public transportation.

“If the parking fee reaches Rp 50,000, most of the respondents in Kuningan and Jl. MH Thamrin said they would shift to using the Transjakarta buses,” Najid said.

The survey showed that a fee of Rp 10,000 per hour will encourage respondents to use Transjakarta buses, which charge Rp 3,500 per journey, Najid said. He added that some business owners disagreed with implementing maximum charges as it might discourage people from visiting them. Therefore, they called on the city administration to ensure the provision of public transportation so that people would still go to the commercial areas.

By increasing the parking charges, the city administration could reduce the number of private vehicle users and receive more revenue, Najid added.

In 2017, the city received Rp 107 billion from parking fees across the capital.

The DTKJ has requested the city administration to complete its study in 2019.

In the meantime, Tiodor said the city administration would focus on developing park and ride facilities in the city.

The city will also develop park and rides facilities in areas adjacent to its satellite cities.

Currently, the city administration operates eight park and ride facilities, with another 16 planned to begin operation in the near future.

Rio Octaviano, chairman of the Indonesian Parking Association, said in Jakarta, parking charges had yet to be used as an instrument to reduce the number of private vehicle users.

Many still believed an increase in parking charges would contribute to inflation in the city, he said.

“It should be understood that it is traffic jams that cause inflation, not parking charges,” he said.