Ending traffic jams

A lot has been written on the causes of traffic jams in Jakarta. Lack of discipline and too many vehicles, these have been cited as major causes. I wish to touch upon another reason which seems correctable to me.

Just a look at the traffic conditions on Jl. Rasuna Said, for example, brings us face to face with it. Jl. Rasuna Said has five lanes in each direction, two jalur lambat slow lanes and three jalur cepat (fast lanes). While the leftmost lane in slowlanes is clogged due to bus stops, the right lane is clogged by vehicles trying to make it to the fast lanes. On the other hand, the leftmost lane is choked with vehicles wanting to get into the slow lanes and the rightmost lane is choked with traffic trying to take a U-turn. Thus the only lane (out of total five) available for a smooth flow of traffic is the middle lane of the fast lanes.

If the divider between the slow lanes and the fast lanes are removed, the leftmost and the rightmost of the five lanes would still be clogged, but we would have three lanes in the center available for a smooth flow of traffic. The dividers probably have storm drains below them which will need to be fitted with necessary heavy-duty grilles which can take the heavy traffic. Also some leveling will be needed. I think both of these are quite feasible from a civil engineering point of view.

What I wrote about Jl. Rasuna Said is from my personal experience but it may be applicable to Jl. Jend. Sudirman, Jl. Thamrin as well as other major arterial roads of Jakarta too. On the other hand the traffic on Jalan Gatot Subroto which doesn't have slow lanes and fast lanes is very smooth compared to the roads mentioned above.

I am by no means an expert on the traffic flow in Jakarta. But one must remember that most improvements in the world have come from user feedback! My comments above should be taken only in that context.

K.B. KALE

Jakarta