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.
Grab, Gojek drivers want exemption from odd-even traffic scheme
The Jakarta administration’s plan to expand the odd-even license plate policy in an attempt to tackle congestion and air pollution has prompted strong protest from driver partners of ride-hailing apps, who claim the move poses a risk to their business
Change Size
T
span>The Jakarta administration’s plan to expand the odd-even license plate policy in an attempt to tackle congestion and air pollution has prompted strong protest from driver partners of ride-hailing apps, who claim the move poses a risk to their business.
Hundreds of drivers offering their services through smartphone apps run by Grab and Gojek staged a rally in front of City Hall on Monday afternoon, demanding the city administration exempt them from the vehicle restriction.
“We want the administration to exclude online taxis in the odd-even traffic scheme, as it would disrupt our operations,” Ali Famansyah said on Monday.
Wawan Kurniawan, a driver from Bogor, West Java, who joined the rally, said he feared he would get fewer orders as his mobility would be restricted once the expansion was fully enforced.
“I have an even license plate. If I am not exempted from the odd-even policy, I will not be able to get many passengers on odd days of the month; that will be very disadvantageous for me,” he said.
The policy is currently in a trial period until Sept. 6 and is to be fully implemented on Sept. 9. After the expansion, access to 25 major roads of the capital will be restricted during certain hours of the day based on license plates.
Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan issued a gubernatorial instruction earlier this month to curb worsening air pollution, which has put his administration under public scrutiny. One of the provisions of the instruction is the expansion of the odd-even license plate traffic policy.
The city administration has excluded 12 kinds of vehicles from the odd-even policy, including taxis, motorcycles, public transportation, electric vehicles and emergency vehicles.
Transportation Minister Budi Karya Sumadi has suggested that app-based ride-hailing services be exempted from the policy.
“All public transportation should be treated fairly in the policy. If conventional taxis are exempted from the scheme, then online taxis should be given the same treatment,” he said as quoted by kompas.com.
The scheme, which makes certain roads in the capital city only accessible to cars with odd license plate numbers on odd days of the month and vice versa, seemed to cause inconvenience for drivers and passengers alike.
Ningrum, a 24 years-old office worker from East Jakarta, said she had almost missed her train some time ago because she was having difficulty finding a driver with the right license plate on the day of her travel.
“I ordered a [ride-hailing service] to get from my home to Pasar Senen Station in central Jakarta. However, I got cancelled two times, because the [drivers] did not have the right license plate,” she said.
Ningrum encountered the same thing with the third driver, whom she asked to take her to the station despite the wrong number. “The driver ended up making a long detour, which got us stuck in traffic. As a result, I almost missed my train,” she said.
While some residents are inconvenienced by the policy, the head of environmental pollution management at the Jakarta Environment Agency, Agung Pujo Winarko, noted a significant decrease in pollution on the affected roads since the trial run of the extended odd-even policy on Aug. 12.
“There was a 12.9 percent drop in pollution around the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle in Central Jakarta, while Kelapa Gading in North Jakarta saw a 13.51 percent decrease from the previous week,” he said on Monday.
However, Ahmad Safrudin, executive director of the Committee for the Phasing Out of Leaded Fuel, said the impact would be greater if the city administration included motorcycles in the policy, citing research that revealed that motorcycles were the number one air polluter in Jakarta.
“Motorcycles emit two times the carbon monoxide of cars and eight times the hydrocarbon. In total, they emit 8,533 tons of pollution every day, accounting for 44.5 percent of the pollution in the capital city,” he said.
There are around 24.89 million motorcycles registered in Greater Jakarta, according to data from the Greater Jakarta Transportation Agency. That figure makes up 75 percent of all road vehicles, with private cars adding 23 percent and public transportation 2 percent.
Jakarta Transportation Agency head Syafrin Liputo said the administration currently had no plans to include motorcycles in the odd-even policy.
“We don’t have the resources at the moment to impose the policy on motorcyclists. Surveillance would be very difficult for traffic police, as the number of motorcycles in the capital city is massive,” he said. (nal)
