Governor Fauzi Bowo argued that the two elevated toll roads would smooth traffic flow on the inner-city toll roads. The intercity drivers would have alternative routes and could avoid the congested inner-city toll roads.

The other four toll roads, including Kampung Melayu to Kemayoran, Pasar Minggu to Casablanca, Kampung Melayu to Duri Pulo and Ulujami toTanah Abang will be built in the next three phases. The six elevated toll roads will add 67.74 kilometers to Jakarta’s road length and will cost Rp 40 trillion (US$4.4 billion).

Are these new elevated toll roads going to reduce the traffic congestion in Jakarta? Many critics have said the new elevated toll roads would not alleviate the traffic congestion, and may even worsen the chronic transportation problems in Jakarta.

The traffic congestion in Jakarta cannot be separated from the high growth rate of vehicle ownership — 9 to 11 percent per year — which has not been supported by a growth in road development, which is less than 1 percent per year. The development of new roads will never meet the high growth rate of vehicle ownership.

A new highway or a widened road only alleviates traffic congestion for a short period of time. After a few years, any new highway fills with traffic that would not have existed if the highway had not been built.

Similarly, any widened road fills with traffic within just a few months. Such a phenomenon is called induced demand. Because of induced demand, neither building new roads nor widening roads are viable long-term solutions to traffic congestion.

The new toll roads will also undermine the efforts of developing the mass transportation system in Jakarta. The main idea of developing the mass transportation system, including the busway, a monorail, and Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) projects, to reduce traffic congestion is to reduce the number of car riders and motorcyclists on Jakarta’s streets.

The car riders and motorcyclists are expected to use the mass transportation modes and reduce the burden on the streets of Jakarta. The new toll roads will attract car riders back to Jakarta’s streets.

Not only will the elevated toll roads cause induced demand and worsen traffic congestion, but could also jeopardize the livability of neighborhoods along the elevated toll roads.

In many cities in other countries, such as Seoul, New Orleans, San Francisco and New York, the elevated freeways caused the decline in livability of neighborhoods along the elevated freeways. In many developed countries, we have seen the shift in urban planning from enhancing mobility toward promoting livability.

As an example, the Chonggyecheon Freeway was completed in 1977 and was used as a symbol of modernization and industrialization in South Korea after the Korean War.

This elevated freeway was built above a 5.8-kilometer creek flowing west to east through downtown Seoul. In 2000, the area was considered as the most crowded and noisy part of Seoul and it became the eyesore of the city. In July 2003, then Seoul mayor, incumbent South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, launched a project to destroy the Chonggyecheon Freeway, revitalize the surrounding area and restore the river flow.

During the demolition of the Chonggyecheon Freeway, the Seoul city administration developed public transportation systems, including Rapid Transit Bus lines. Today, the Chonggyecheon area has been revitalized and has become one of the main tourist areas in the city of Seoul.

Meanwhile, in 1973, New York’s West Side elevated highway collapsed and was never repaired but replaced by the surface boulevard of West Avenue. Similarly, two elevated freeways in San Francisco, the Embarcadero and Central freeways, were badly damaged by the Loma Prieta earthquake of 1989.

The San Francisco city administration decided not to rebuild the elevated freeways, but replaced them with surface boulevards. The conversion of elevated freeways in both New York and San Francisco did not cause traffic havoc.

The traffic switched to the boulevards, nearby streets or to mass transit systems (James and Norquist, 2010). Furthermore, a team of researchers from the University of California, Berkeley (Cervero, Kang, and Shively, 2009) found that the conversion of the elevated Embarcadero and Central freeways with boulevards had stimulated reinvestment in the neighborhoods along the freeways without seriously sacrificing transportation performance.

More recently, the residents of New Orleans have decided not to rebuild the elevated expressway damaged by Hurricane Katrina, but replace it with an oak-lined boulevard (James and Norquist, 2010).

The conversion of elevated freeways to surface boulevards in Seoul, New York City, San Francisco or New Orleans is evidence of a paradigm shift from a focus on expediting the movement of automobiles to a focus on increasing the livability of neighborhoods.

The livability of neighborhoods should be prioritized over the increase of mobility. Jakarta needs to learn from what has happened in Seoul, New Orleans, San Francisco and New York regarding the elevated freeways.

Not only are the proposed six elevated toll road projects not the solution for the traffic congestion in Jakarta, but also they could cause a decline in the livability of neighborhoods along the elevated toll roads.

The Jakarta City Administration should revisit their decision to build the new elevated toll roads and, instead, they should focus their efforts on building mass transportation systems to alleviate the transportation problems in Jakarta.

The writer is assistant professor and coordinator of urban studies and planning at Savannah State University, US.

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