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s Jakarta is facing the real threat of traffic gridlock within the next two years, city authorities have still not come up with a solution to curb the increasing number of private vehicles.

Plans mooted over the years to deal with the problem have included increasing parking fees, applying an electronic road pricing (ERP) system, as well as restricting car owners to drive their vehicles on certain days of the week, based on the car’s color or license plate number.

The latest idea is to implement a “weekend car” scheme, under which car owners can enjoy vehicle tax rebates on the condition that they drive their cars only on weekends.

However, these plans are so far still far from implementation.

Jakarta Police traffic division safety and security head Adj. Sr. Comr. Yakub Dedi Karyawan said the police had scrapped the color-based and plate number-based driving restriction plans as they would be difficult to apply.

While the plans might reduce traffic congestion up to 50 percent on roads where they are applied, they would create new congestion at other spots throughout the city, he said.

“The plans are easier said than done. For example, how can you expect traffic policemen to monitor all of the cars’ colors or plate numbers on the streets, one by one, all the time?”

According to Yakub, the plate number-based policy may also induce negative side effects, such as the possibility of car owners making fake license plates in order to deceive police.

“I believe that public resistance to the plan would be high, and thus, it wouldn’t be as effective as we all think,” he added.

He further said that for the time being, the best thing to do to avoid traffic gridlock would be to put the ERP into practice as soon as possible and impose a ban on on-street parking.

“The weekend car scheme is also good. However, we have to do more in-depth study of the plan before it can be implemented,” he said.

City Police traffic directorate deputy chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Wahyono said that the police were still trying to design the best possible plan to limit the number of vehicles in Jakarta.

“We are still in the initial stages of discussing the plans with the Trade Ministry and the city’s transportation agency,” he recently told reporters. “We want to thoroughly analyze the economic and sociocultural impacts of the plans before implementing them.”

He refused to disclose exactly what the plans were, merely saying, “Rest assured, the police always have plans and innovations to solve the city’s traffic problems.”

Jakarta Police traffic directorate chief Sr. Comr. Dwi Sigit Nurmantyas has said that the police are expecting an increase of between 10 and 12 percent in the number of vehicles in the city in the year ahead.

“The annual increase has been steady at around those percentages in recent years,” he said.

Data from Jakarta Police’s traffic directorate show that as of 2011, there were more than 13 million motorized vehicles in Greater Jakarta — comprising more than 9.8 million motorcycles, about 2.5 million passenger cars, 581,290 trucks and 363,710 buses.

According to the data, the city saw an 11.26 percent increase in the number of vehicles, or around 1.35 million units, between 2010 and 2011.

The highest jump, at 11.13 percent, was in the number of motorcycles. More than 1.09 million new motorbikes were purchased last year, roughly equal to 3,006 new motorcycles every day.

As for the number of passenger cars, the city saw a 19 percent increase in 2011. Some 206,468 new cars, or roughly 565 new cars per day, were purchased last year.

The inevitable result of all this is that traffic snarls on Jakarta’s major thoroughfares are becoming more severe.

Yakub said the average traffic speed in Jakarta “is somewhere between 15 to 20 kilometers per hour [kph]”.

“This is below the global average traffic speed, which is above 20 kph.” (mim)