`Private' traffic wardens often create mayhem<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): The young men who throughout the city hold up
\ntraffic in order to allow the motorists who pay them to make U-
\nturns, is still raising questions on whether they expedite or
\nhamper the flow of traffic.<\/p>\n
They can be found standing at crossroads, three-way corners
\nand U-turns to stop the stream of vehicles.<\/p>\n
\"We want to help smoothen the rush of traffic that is usually
\ncongested in this area,\" said 21-year Muhammad Kurnadi.<\/p>\n
Muhammad and his four friends that afternoon were guarding a
\nthree-way at the Bintaro Raya and Deplu Raya streets in South
\nJakarta.<\/p>\n
He said that he and his friends help to ease the glut of
\ntraffic coming in and out of Deplu Raya, which he said is at its
\nworst between 6:30 and 8:00 and 16:00 and 18:30.<\/p>\n
Muhammad said that he and his friends did not demand money for
\ntheir services. \"People give us between Rp 100 (four US cents)
\nand Rp 500 out of their own free will.\"<\/p>\n
He further revealed that on average they make about Rp 100,000
\neach day, except for Sundays which are usually least crowded.<\/p>\n
At a U-turn on the new arteri road about 100 meters from the
\ntraffic light at Jl. Bungur, another group of youngsters direct
\ntraffic wanting to turn around by way of a broken road barrier.<\/p>\n
About six-months ago police closed the U-turn by erecting a
\nchain fence and cement block since it became a major congestion
\narea for cars heading for Blok-M and Pondok Indah.<\/p>\n
Barriers<\/p>\n
However the barriers did not last long, almost over night
\nunidentified people broke the erected barriers and allowed cars
\nto pass through again.<\/p>\n
One of the young attendants at the U-turn named Sidik Tedja
\nswore that he knew nothing about those who broke the cement
\nbarriers.<\/p>\n
\"I think people like it this way because there are many cars
\nwho want to go the other way and the next U-turn is too far,\" he
\nexplained.<\/p>\n
Sidik said that he and his friends were out of work and that
\nrather than doing no good they felt they could do something
\nuseful by helping people with the traffic.<\/p>\n
Though cars openly use that location, police seem to have
\ngiven up attempting to undertake preventive measures.<\/p>\n
Thus youngsters are publicly directing traffic through the
\nillegal U-turn, causing a tremendous bottleneck which slows cars
\nin their own lane while the boys delay traffic going in the other
\ndirection, causing another chaotic bottleneck.<\/p>\n
\"Yes, sometimes we have to slow down the other cars but its
\nall well meant,\" Sidik said.<\/p>\n
Nevertheless when confronted with several observations that
\nthey would allow cars to cut-in if paid about Rp 500, Sidik said
\nthat he and his friends never intend it to be that way. \"They're
\ngoing to cut-in anyway so we might as well take their money.\"<\/p>\n
City police chief Maj. Gen. Mochammad Hindarto has tried to
\nmanage the presence of these \"private\" traffic wardens by giving
\nthem basic traffic training. He recently inaugurated 419 traffic
\nwarden volunteers or Supeltas as they are known.<\/p>\n
However based on the observations conducted by The Jakarta
\nPost at four locations in South Jakarta yesterday, none of the
\ntraffic wardens had been trained or formally authorized by the
\npolice.(mds)<\/p>",
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