Haywire traffic accompanies school opening<\/p>\n
Urip Hudiono, Jakarta<\/p>\n
An international school that opened its doors on Wednesday in
\nKemayoran, Central Jakarta, is turning the usually slow traffic
\nin the suburb to one resembling hectic downtown.<\/p>\n
As the clock nears the 7:15 a.m. school bell, traffic backs up
\nalong the streets bordering Gandhi Memorial International School,
\nwhich recently relocated from Sunter, North Jakarta, owing to a
\nproperty dispute.<\/p>\n
The long queues of cars shuttling students to school turns
\ninto a bottleneck: It appears each student wants to be dropped
\noff at the main entrance, although a dozen security guards
\ndeployed by the school to help coordinate traffic had told
\ndrivers to go through the parking lot first.<\/p>\n
The parking lot, which is located behind the school, quickly
\nfills in a few minutes and causes a separate jam, as its entrance
\nfronts a nearby intersection.<\/p>\n
A motorist, who declined to be named, said it took her about
\n1.5 hours on Wednesday to take her two children to their school
\non the other side of Gandhi Memorial.<\/p>\n
\"There had been no problems for the last two-and-a-half
\nyears... Now, getting to school is rather traumatic,\" she said.<\/p>\n
However, the students and their parents cannot be blamed for
\nthe traffic jams, because they have no alternative means of
\ntransportation -- Gandhi Memorial does not provide school buses.<\/p>\n
Jakartans have to endure similar logjams in the morning and
\nearly afternoon around popular state or private schools, such as
\nSt. Theresia Catholic School in Menteng, Central Jakarta, and
\nstate high school SMA 70 in Bulungan, South Jakarta.<\/p>\n
Most schools in Jakarta are located on busy streets that are
\nopen to public transportation vehicles, which only worsen
\ntraffic.<\/p>\n
No regulation exists to obligate schools to provide large
\nenough parking lots to accommodate private cars used to shuttle
\nstudents to and from school. Without ample space, many parents
\nand drivers of students end up parking along the road in front of
\nthe school.<\/p>\n
Juli, an administrator at Gandhi Memorial, said the school bus
\nservice was not yet ready, and they were still registering
\nstudents for the service and planning out bus routes.<\/p>\n
\"Hopefully, the buses will be running next week,\" she said.
\n\"The ones we have now are only for teachers and staff.\"<\/p>\n
Although the school can probably get away with stopping up
\ntraffic -- if it is temporary -- considering the mostly light
\ntraffic in the area, several passing motorists have already
\nbecome irritated by the daily morning jams.<\/p>\n
Hariyadi, who happened to pass by the school on his way to
\nMangga Dua from Sunter, regretted it and said he would definitely
\nfind another route.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Ramly, who lives in a low-cost apartment in the
\narea, wondered how worse congestion could become, as plans are
\nunderway to develop Kemayoran into a business district.<\/p>\n
\"Just one school is enough to cause such heavy congestion,\" he
\nsaid.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/haywire-traffic-accompanies-school-opening-1447893297",
"image": ""
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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