The rains are coming<\/p>\n
The utter confusion that crippled Jakarta's traffic system
\nearlier this week was not a first for the Indonesian capital in
\nrecent years. It was, however, assuredly one of the worst. In
\nseveral parts of the city, motorists were trapped for hours in
\ntraffic snarls so huge it took them hours to travel a distance of
\nlittle more than a kilometer.<\/p>\n
With traffic crawling or brought to a total standstill,
\nimpatient motorists tried to outflank one another, thereby adding
\nto the chaos. To make matters worse, at many points along the
\ncity's main arteries traffic lights did not function and traffic
\npolice, where they were present, had their hands full trying to
\nmake some order out of the chaos.<\/p>\n
One might well ask what the reason was for all this chaos.
\nAfter all, it is no exaggeration to say that Tuesday evening's
\nchaos constituted a total and systemic breakdown of Jakarta's
\ntraffic system.<\/p>\n
On the surface of it, the answer seems obvious enough. For
\nmany years now, Jakarta's traffic has become chaotic in many
\nplaces throughout the city every time a downpour occurs for a few
\nhours and with some degree of intensity, as was the case last
\nTuesday. Or it may happen that heavy rains are falling in the
\nmountains in Jakarta's West Java hinterland, although the city
\nitself remains perfectly dry. Sections of roads, if not whole
\nneighborhoods, then get inundated and traffic is severely slowed
\ndown.<\/p>\n
Flooding, however, is only part of the answer. Another part is
\nthe Jakarta city administration's apparent lack of attention to
\nthe proper functioning of the city's traffic lights and other
\npublic facilities under its jurisdiction. Another reason is the
\nlack of discipline on the part of Jakarta's road users -- meaning
\nnot only motorists but cyclists and pedestrians as well -- which
\nseverely contributes to Jakarta's traffic to be anything from
\nmildly disorderly to chaotic, even in the best of conditions.
\nJakarta's motorists, in particular, are notorious for being
\ncompliant to the law only as long as they know police are
\nwatching them, then becoming erratic the moment they are not.<\/p>\n
Lack of organization and coordination in and among agencies
\nseems to be another affliction standing in the way of putting
\norder in Jakarta's traffic. What, for example, happened to the
\nagency known as \"kopro banjir\", set up during the 1970s by then
\ngovernor Ali Sadikin, whose duty was to watch water levels in
\nrivers streaming into Jakarta and sounding the alarm as soon as
\nflooding appeared to be imminent?<\/p>\n
In short, one lesson that last Tuesday's flooding and
\nresulting chaos on the roads can teach us is that many of the
\nthings and circumstances that happen in a city such as Jakarta do
\nnot stand on their own. In this latest case, Jakarta's dirty and
\nheavily polluted rivers and canals slowed down the drainage of
\nexcessive water from city roads and neighborhoods. Ill-managed or
\nill-planned road improvement projects and failure on the part of
\nthe city authorities to warn citizens of the danger of flooding
\nin certain areas have added to the confusion.<\/p>\n
The victim here is not just the motorist, who is being
\ninconvenienced. The economic cost, in terms of time and
\nopportunities lost, and fuel wasted, caused by traffic jams like
\nTuesday night's is huge. This is not to mention the potential
\nsecurity risk that such incidents bring. On Tuesday night, for
\nexample, hundreds of stranded bus passengers lost their patience
\nand tempers and started walking along the roads banging their
\nfists on cars.<\/p>\n
One would wish precautionary steps could have been taken well
\nbefore the rain started falling. However, now that the rainy
\nseason is on Jakarta's threshold, serious assessment of the
\npossible impact on Jakarta is certainly warranted and
\nprecautionary measures must be taken.<\/p>",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
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