Bandung traffic jams costing Rp 1 billion per day

Bandung traffic jams costing Rp 1 billion per day

Yuli Tri Suwarni, Bandung

The seemingly endless traffic congestion in Bandung is one of the
biggest constraints on the development of the city, which the
municipal administration has been finding difficult to address.

Transportation experts from the Bandung Institute of
Technology (ITB) have estimated that traffic snarl-ups could be
causing losses of up to Rp 1 billion (US$120,000) per day.

Bandung Mayor Dada Rosada said the traffic chaos was due to
the weak control in the vicinity of such places as shopping malls
and traditional markets near roadsides and intersections, and so-
called "spillover markets".

Uncontrolled parking at other public places, such as schools
and hospitals, damaged roads, on-street-parking that takes up too
much of the road and street vendors were also blamed for the
congestion.

Bottlenecks are daily occurrences on main roads across
Bandung, including Jl. Asia-Afrika and Jl. Braga in the city
center, from the start of Jl. Ahmad Yani to Cicaheum and Cibiru
in the east of the city, Jl. Merdeka, Jl. Juanda and Jl.
Karapitan in the north, Jl. Mohamad Ramdan to Buah Batu and Jl.
Setiabudi in the south, and Jl. Pasteur and Jl. Pasirkaliki in
the west, where the traffic situation is very bad as a result of
the construction of the Pasteur-Surapati flyover.

ITB transportation expert Ade Sjafruddin concurred with the
mayor, saying much of the congestion in the city was due to
various problems such as on-street-parking, roadside vendors and
public transportation vehicles that allowed passengers to board
and alight at random.

The road network in Bandung, which stands at less than 2,300
kilometers, or about 2 percent of the city's area, also added to
the traffic jams, he added. Ideally, a road network should make
up at least 5 percent of a city's area.

Poor law enforcement against traffic violators was also blamed
for the congestion as violators often bribed the police in order
not to ticket them.

Ude Nugraha, a motorcyclist, revealed that for only Rp 20,000,
he could get on the "right side" of a traffic policeman who would
otherwise ticket him for running a red light.

The Bandung traffic police declined to comment on this matter.

Instead, they criticized the municipal administration for what
they claimed was its inconsistency in handling the traffic
problem.

"The municipal authorities are not consistent in resolving the
traffic problems. We ban street vendors, but the provincial
revenue office protests it will reduce their revenue," said
Bandung Police traffic chief Adj. Sr. Comr. M. Ikhsan.

"Likewise, if we prohibit the roadside from being used for
parking, the city parking agency also objects because they too
will lose revenue," he added.

Ikhsan said the municipal administration should be steadfast
and decisive on traffic control.

He also lamented the local government for allegedly being too
lenient in issuing permits for shopping malls, factory outlets
operating near intersections, and other businesses.

Such permits were issued without considering the impact on the
city's traffic, such as had happened in the case of more than 10
factory outlets on Jl. Riau (Martadinata) and dozens of others on
Jl. Juanda (Dago), which often caused bottlenecks, especially at
weekends.

Tjetje Subrata, the head of the Bandung regional development
planning agency, admitted that the municipal administration had
no specific plans to overcome the traffic problem.

More than 70 percent of the road network in Bandung is made up
of roads designed for medium weight vehicles traveling at medium
speeds, and local side streets, he said.

Tjetje said Bandung was also characterized by the frequent
number of intersections found on its roads.

The number of vehicles using the city's roads stand at more
than 379,000 per day, with almost 200,000 of these being
motorcycles.

The cash-strapped municipal administration is unable to build
more roads.

"We have (financial) problems even in repairing damaged roads,
let alone building new ones. At least Rp 43 billion is needed for
repairs, but only Rp 7 billion is available from the budget,"
Tjetje said.

Ikhsan further said that in order to tackle the traffic
problems, the Bandung police has proposed a one-way traffic
system and 3-in-1 restricted zones for all Bandung roads except
for Jl. Soekarno-Hatta, which, with six lanes, is not so badly
congested.

The municipal government is currently discussing the idea with
the local legislative council.