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.