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‘Mudik’ traffic heaviest in evening to past midnight: Police
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A general view of a traffic jam at a toll booth as Indonesians return to their hometowns during the Idul Fitri holiday season in Karawang regency.
(Reuters/Yuddy Cahya Budiman)
T
he police have observed that traffic going out of Jakarta is heaviest from dusk to midnight as more people are leaving the capital to celebrate Idul Fitri in their hometowns.
National Traffic Police chief Insp. Gen. Firman Shantyabudi said that the police had to make adjustments to the one-way traffic management strategy to conform to the traffic patterns.
To ease severe traffic congestion, the police have applied a one-way traffic system from Cikampek in West Java to Kalikangkung in Central Java on the trans-Java toll road during the holiday season. The toll road stretch is the main passage for people leaving Jakarta eastward to Central Java, Yogyakarta and East Java.
Firman said the one-way system, which was initially implemented from 5 p.m. to midnight, had been extended to 8 a.m.
“With the numbers we have been observing, we are trying to adjust to travelers' tendencies,” the official said as quoted by Tempo.
Firman is calling the homebound travelers to follow the police guidelines. People heading westward on the trans-Java toll road are advised to do so from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Authorities had expected the peak of mudik (exodus) traffic to happen on Friday, the first day of the national collective leave period. The government has declared May 2 and 3 national Idul Fitri holidays, alongside mandatory collective leave on Friday and May 4 to 6.
The Transportation Ministry has predicted that 85 million people will travel for Idul Fitri this year as pandemic restrictions ease. Around 14 million will depart from the Jakarta metropolitan area alone, braving hours in traffic to celebrate the end of Ramadan with their families. (dre)
