DLLAJ seeks ways to curb air pollution

DLLAJ seeks ways to curb air pollution

JAKARTA (JP): The next time you are on standing on the street,
look around at the passing vehicles. Then, take a glance at the
passengers and you will see that in contrast to the frequently
overcrowded public buses, most private cars are almost empty.

During peak hours, according to the City Land Transportation
Agency (DLLAJ), only 4 percent of private vehicles carry four
passengers or more, and 82 percent only carry between one and two
passengers.

And 60 percent to 70 percent of private vehicles and
motorcycles exceed emission standards.

"That means there has to be a policy restricting the use of
private vehicles," D.A. Rini, the head of DLLAJ's program
supervision department, said during a seminar here on Saturday.

But private vehicles are not the only cause of the city's
transportation woes, Rini added.

"The transportation problems in the capital are very complex
and wide-ranging, and one thing is related to another," she said.

The number of vehicles -- and the distances traveled in them
-- is connected to the speed and type of fuel of the vehicles,
all of which contribute to and worsen air pollution, she
explained.

Every day, Rini said, there are about 16 million people on the
move in the city, with 20 percent of them being commuters from
Greater Jakarta as more and more residents move to the suburbs.

"As a result, more fuel is needed and chronic traffic jams
occur along the roads in the suburbs, especially in the morning
and afternoon," she stated.

Traffic jams reduce the speed of vehicles, and the slower the
speed the higher the concentration of the hydrocarbon gases and
carbon monoxide (CO) emitted by the vehicles.

"Right now, air pollution caused by gasoline is greater than
that caused by diesel or car gas, as 99 percent of the vehicles
in Jakarta use gasoline," Rini said.

The city is to ban the use of leaded gasoline starting from
July 1 in an effort to reduce air pollution.

This, however, is not enough.

According to Rini, the most urgent step is to reduce vehicle
density and increase the average vehicle speed on the streets.

"The three-in-one program, where only cars with at least three
passengers can travel on main thoroughfares, is good. But it
should be optimized as the program only operates between 6:30
a.m. and 10 a.m.," she said.

The next program, she added, should be to arrange the
capital's parking system so as to increase revenue, limit
unnecessary travel, improve traffic flows, and protect
pedestrians and the environment.

"Parking along city arteries should be banned. The
collaboration with the private sector in parking should be
reviewed," Rini said.

As for traffic, she said there should be more area traffic
control systems at junctions which would shorten the length of
time vehicles are stopped at them.

Rini also noted that the public transportation system must be
improved to reduce the number of private vehicles on the streets.

"Residents and the private sector should also be involved in
the program through measures such as expanding the opportunities
for owning public transportation companies, providing more auto-
repair shops to check vehicle emissions, providing converter kits
to enable automobiles to run on car gas, and making vehicles
using car gas more widely available," she said.

Meanwhile, the head of the City Environmental Impact
Management Agency, Aboejoewono Aboeprajitno, said that starting
next year there would be a one-stop system for obtaining drivers'
licenses and having vehicle emissions checked.

"So vehicle owners will only be able to receive official
permission to use their cars if they pass an emissions test at a
licensed auto-repair shop," he said.

The Japan International Cooperation Agency announced in 1995
that 71 percent of air pollutants in the capital came from
motorized vehicles, of which there were 3.87 million, with this
figure growing annually by 9.77 percent.

Of the total number of motorized vehicles, there were over two
million motorcycles, making up 54 percent of the total.
Motorcycles were followed by private vehicles (27 percent) and
public transportation and commercial vehicles (19 percent).(hdn)