3-in-1 extension to start on Monday
Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The Jakarta administration will kick off on Monday the tryout of an extended three-in-one traffic policy along the 12.9-kilometer corridor of the bus rapid transit (BRT) or busway, from Blok M, South Jakarta, to Kota, West Jakarta.
The one-month tryout is partly to anticipate the operation of 56 new buses along the busway special lane starting on Jan. 15.
The three-in-one policy currently requires private vehicles to contain at least three passengers while passing along Jl. Sudirman and Jl. Thamrin from 6:30 a.m. to 10 a.m., Mondays to Fridays.
Under the new policy, both the corridor and the time will be extended. The policy will be effective on all the roads from Blok M to Kota while the time period is proposed from 6:30 a.m. to 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.
"The time (for the policy) will be decided later. It could be between 6:30 a.m. and 8 p.m. or from 6:30 a.m. to 10 a.m. and from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.," said assistant to the city secretary for development affairs Irzal Djamal on Wednesday.
During the tryout, motorists in vehicles carrying fewer than three passengers in the corridor will not be penalized, as police officers will simply direct them away from the corridor.
"The objective of the tryout is to get motorists accustomed to the new policy," he said.
Governor Sutiyoso is scheduled to sign the draft gubernatorial degree on Saturday to become the legal basis for the implementation of the new three-in-one traffic policy extension.
The extension plan has received strong public opposition because it has failed to reduce congestion along those roads since it was launched in 1993; motorists simply hired joki (people offering themselves, in return for a small fee, as passengers for a few hundred meters as they pass the single checkpoint).
Irzal, however, said motorists would not be able to hire joki as the new policy would be effective along roads that are currently entry points under the current policy. He estimated the new policy could reduce the number of private cars along the well-traveled roads by up to 30 percent.
Irzal said his office had also prepared two other gubernatorial decrees in connection with the busway operation -- a decree on an alternate license plate program and a decree on the establishment of a busway management body.
Under the planned, alternate license plate program, only vehicles with certain numbers would be allowed to operate on specific days. For example, cars with plate numbers ending with 1 or 2 would be allowed to operate on the designated roads on specified days only.
But Irzal added the decree could not immediately be implemented as the administration needed time to distribute stickers bearing the plate numbers to be attached to vehicles' front and rear windshields.
The planned busway management body will consist of representatives of four transportation operators that currently serve the Blok M to Kota route: city bus operators PPD, Steady Safe and Pahala Kencana, and city-owned taxi operator PT Ratax Armada.
The bus route from Blok M to Kota will be scrapped when the busway starts to operate next month.