City traffic needs an independent management body

JAKARTA (JP): The city administration came under pressure yesterday to review the way it handles the city's congested traffic conditions.

A senior legislator proposed the formation of an independent body to tackle the traffic problem, arguing that traffic management is chaotic at present because it is handled by several separate agencies with poor mutual coordination.

The proposal, made by councilor Ronggo Sutrisno of the United Development Party, has the support of the Indonesian Consumers Agency, which has also suggested that coordination be improved among the agencies currently concerned with traffic matters.

"It is important to form an independent body to manage the traffic and transportation system, because currently there is no coordination among related offices, such as the police and the land transportation agency," Ronggo, who is also the vice chairman of the council's commission E, which oversees people's welfare, told reporters.

Ronggo said that at present the offices tended to work independently of one another and sometimes performed tasks that did not fall within their respective areas of responsibility.

He said that, for instance, the land transportation agency was the authority that controls traffic lights, but that in practice the police often took over the job by directing traffic and thereby made congestion worse.

"This indicates that the city administration has no clear policy on the traffic and transportation management system," Ronggo said.

He said the problem would only get worse if the city administration did not set out a clear policy as soon as possible. He said that policy reform would be especially important after the integrated transport terminal in Manggarai, South Jakarta, commenced operations.

The independent body proposed by Ronggo would, he said, also receive complaints about transport and traffic filed by Jakartans. He said that currently people were not sure with whom they should lodge complaints about traffic conditions.

Meanwhile, Secretary of the Indonesian Consumers Agency Zaim Saidi said the most important thing was to make the most of the capacities of the existing institutions.

Zaim said there were already enough offices to manage traffic and transportation in the city, arguing that the problem lay in the lack of coordination among them.

He said the ministry of transportation was responsible for the transportation system, the police were responsible for security and control while the land transportation control agency was responsible for traffic management.

"If each office does its job effectively the traffic conditions in the city will surely improve," he said.

Traffic jams

Zaim added that currently the city administration tended to change the lay-out of the city without consulting with other relevant agencies. This practice, he said, had often resulted in worse traffic jams.

An example, he said, was the development of a shopping mall in an area which had insufficient roads.

Zaim agreed with the idea of an independent body which would receive traffic and transportation complaints.

"The body would play an important role in solving traffic and transportation problems in the city because it could arrive at a sophisticated plan for a traffic and transportation system on the basis of the public's suggestions," he said. (yns)