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transportation observer coalition, Transportation Demand Management, is proposing a zoning system for parking to discourage on-street parking.

Tubagus Haryo Karbyanto, a member of the coalition, said the current system, which was not clearly defined, was not effective in regulating on-street parking because it currently only moved congestion from one location to another.

“When categories are based on the road vehicle density, congestion moves to less busy on-street parking,” he said.

The city’s parking unit head Benjamin Bukit previously explained that under the current system for on-street parking, the city’s streets were divided into two categories, A and B, based on the congestion level.

Category A is busier than B, thus there are higher parking fees.

Meanwhile, under the proposed zoning system, areas in the city are divided into at least three categories based on the level of busy activities in the area.

The coalition proposes that the main zone in the city will have a parking fee five times higher than the outskirts zone. The mid zone will have a three-times higher parking fee than the outskirts zone.

Another coalition member, Azas Tigor Nainggolan, said he expected the zoning system would dissuade people from using private vehicles when entering busy business areas, which apply higher parking fees.

“The zoning system is expected to reduce vehicle traffic flow in busy areas such as the central business district in Central Jakarta or South Jakarta, encouraging people to leave their vehicles at home,” he said.

He said the zoning system idea resurfaced after the coalition observed that traffic continued from the city’s outskirts to central areas.

“Our utmost goal is to scrap on-street parking and encourage people to shift from using private vehicles to public transportation,” he said, adding that the zoning system was proposed to be applied to on-street and off-street parking.

Azas said the coalition also proposed three other policies to support the system in the improvement of parking management.

“The city should revise building regulations to allow offices and commercial buildings to share a parking area, the park-and-ride system should be better developed, especially in the city’s outskirts and law enforcement should be upheld.”

Azas admitted that better parking management with higher parking fees could not stand alone in the battle to tackle traffic congestion because many Jakartans could afford high parking fees.

“We should also thwart people from using cars by applying electronic road pricing and high vehicle tax and gas,” Azas said.

Governor Fauzi Bowo previously stated his idea to implement the zoning system, a policy he drew up in his administration’s five-year program.

However, the idea does not exist in the submitted revised bylaw draft on retribution, which only proposed parking fee hikes. The content on the parking issue in the draft is the same as the 2006 bylaw for higher tariffs.

Property consultant Colliers International conducted the Global CBD Parking Rate Survey in 2009, covering 140 cities worldwide.

The survey said Jakarta was the second cheapest city in terms of parking fares. Jakarta’s average monthly parking fee was US$27.20, only higher than Mumbai’s $25.68.

London City topped the list with $1,020.29 per month, followed by London’s West End and then Amsterdam, Hong Kong and Sydney.