City traffic needs an independent management body

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)