TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Jakartans again oppose planned 10-year vehicle age limit
A recent poll shows that the majority of Jakartans is opposed to implementing a decade-old age limit policy for private vehicles that authorities revived after the President signed the DKJ Law on the city's future fate.
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
Vehicles roll along in bumper-to-bumper traffic on a Jakarta thoroughfare on Dec. 13, 2022, after government lifted COVID-19 restrictions. (AFP/Bay Ismoyo)
T
he Jakarta administration's plan to ban private vehicles aged over 10 years from traveling on its roads has once again met with public resistance.
Authorities have been touting the idea of restricting the age of vehicles allowed to operate in Jakarta since 2015 to address the city’s perennial congestion and air pollution, but the plan has never gotten off the drawing board.
But the idea of imposing a 10-year age limit on vehicles in Jakarta gained traction after President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo signed the Jakarta Special Region (DKJ) Law in April.
The law regulates what happens to Jakarta once it loses its capital city status when the center of government relocates to Nusantara in East Kalimantan.
Article 24 of the DKJ Law stipulates that the Jakarta administration has the authority to restrict the age and number of motor vehicles owned by private denizens, although it does not specify an age limit.
Read also: Jakarta to install more air quality stations to manage pollution
A recent survey by the Indonesian Public Opinion Research and Discussion Group (KedaiKOPI) revealed that only 40.2 percent of Jakartans support the plan to impose a vehicle age limit, compared to 49.2 percent that oppose it.
Economic reasons, including inability to buy new vehicles every few years, were the main cause behind the opposition, said KedaiKOPI research and communication director Ibnu Dwi Cahyo.
Trubus Rahadiansyah, a transportation expert at Trisakti University, has questioned the proposed policy, saying it was irrelevant today.
"Maybe the policy was relevant 10 years ago, but certainly not now. It will only raise food prices in the city, because the majority of essential goods in Jakarta are transported using old vehicles," Trubus said on Sunday, as quoted by Kompas.com.
He also suggested the policy was formulated not to accommodate public interest, but to support the interests of automotive companies. (nal)
