Horrible Traffic

Yesterday I faced one of worst experience in my history of driving car.

I was supposed to be a Judge of for a Speech Contest held by the Motivators Toastmasters Club which take place at the Mayapada Building, Central Jakarta, which starts at 6.30 pm. 

Usually, it would take me not more than one hour to get to that place. But considering that it was raining quite heavily since 4 pm, I left my office in Pondok Indah, South Jakarta, at 4.30 pm.

The streets that I passed were so heavily crowded with cars, motorcycles, bicycles, taxis, big and small buses. Some of the streets were inundated by water at the depth of around 10 centimeters, forcing drivers to move very slowly and stop causing a very bad traffic jam.

At 6.30pm I only reached the street in front of the Hotel Sultan, Central Jakarta, which means that I only reach a half way of my destination, and the vehicles in front of me were almost not moving. 

I tried to call Tantia the Chief Judge at Motivators but not answered so I sent a text message via Blackberry Messenger (BBM) telling her about the ugly situation and apologize that I cannot come to the Club.

After half an hour, I decided to return home by taking the toll road, so I ascended the Semanggi flyover and drove to Jl Gatot Subroto. The traffic was also jammed and I reached the nearest toll gate at 8 pm. Thank God the toll road road was not so crowded.

I reached my house in South Jakarta at 9pm feeling so very tired body and soul.

Jakarta Traffic

Traffic in Jakarta is getting worse every day, especially during rush hours in the morning and late afternoon.

The reason is because the numbers of cars and motorcycles increased much faster than the construction of new roads, as well as insufficiency of good quality public transportation.

In 2010, there were around 6.7 million cars and motorcycles in Jakarta. The number would be much bigger if we include surrounding area of Depok, Bekasi and Tangerang where many of their inhabitants work in Jakarta i.e around 11 million vehicles consisting of 3 million cars and 8 million motorcycles.

According to the media, the sales of cars in Indonesia last year rose 57% to 764.710 from 486,061 in 2009, and motorcycles rose 26% to 7.37 million. Around 700 thousand motor vehicles were sold in Jakarta.

Actually, the Jakarta government has made some efforts to solve the traffic problems.
It has developed the Busway system that connects many parts of the city, but considering it was built on existing roads, no additional roads, therefore the traffic became worst.
It has imposed Car limitations on the city's main roads Jalan Thamrin, Gatot Subroto and Jalan Sudirman, few hours in the morning and in the afternoon.
Starting this year the Jakarta government shall impose progressive car ownership tax, whereby citizens must pay higher additional tax for every cars they have.  

Besides, there is also a plan to start the construction of an integrated  mass transportation system, but the project need several years to complete, in the meantime the number of motor vehicles would be increasing very fast.

Considering the above, I felt that the government of Jakarta must expedite the development of an integrated mass transportation system i.e. the Subway connecting the south-central-west, resume construction of the Monorail.

Moreover, misuse of lands and road pavements should be stopped and corrected,  development of shopping malls should be stopped because we already have more than enough. Existing malls should be required to provide more access for entrance and exist to their facilities.

Sources :
-  Indonesia Car Sales up 57%, Motorcycles Sales Up 26 (Kompas)
-  Tahun in Jumlah Sepeda Motor di Jakarta 8 Juta Unit (Tribune News)

Photo :  Courtesy of Viva News.

The President and Traffic Jam

On 17 November 2004, seven cars crashed against each other at the Jakarta entrance gate of the Jagorawi toll road leaving six people dead and ten others wounded.

The incident occurred just ten minutes before President Susilo Bambang Yudoyono (SBY), on the way to office in Jakarta from his private home at Cikeas, West Java, entered the toll gate, therefore has made some people blamed SBY's security men for not arranging the traffic properly, and caused the incident.

No investigation has been reported, but SBY and his family still took the same route quite often, and his men kept on harshly stopping other cars before and when they passed the roads, making the traffic more and more jammed.

Last Friday, a Chief Editor of an Automotive magazine i.e. Hendra NS wrote an open letter telling SBY that he has been treated badly by the security men. He also requested SBY and his family to move Jakarta so that people would not suffer more from the traffic jam.

Considering that the state has provide SBY and his family an official residence, I hope that they would spend more time there, so as to lessen the traffic jam.

Sources for this post :
-  Enough with the Motorcade Madness, Frustrated Jakarta Commuter Tells Indonesian President (The Jakarta Globe)
-  6 Tewas 10 luka luka di Tol Jagorawi (Suara Merdeka)
-  Polri Petieskan Kasus Tabrakan di Tol Jagorawi (Detik)