Influx of holiday travelers less than estimated
Influx of holiday travelers less than estimated
JAKARTA (JP): The wave of travelers returning from their Idul Fitri holidays has escalated in the city's inter-city bus terminals and railway stations over the past two days.
However, the number remained far lower than those estimated earlier by officials, who thought that the number of returning travelers would peak on Sunday.
The lower than anticipated number of returning travelers was caused by the fact that many holidaymakers whose hometowns are far from Jakarta take an extra day to rest before returning to the capital to resume work.
As of late yesterday afternoon, the flow of traffic heading to the city on the Cikampek-Jakarta and Merak-Jakarta toll roads was still far below the amount of traffic on the roads on normal days.
Most of the vehicles were private cars with only a few buses being seen heading towards the city.
The Jatibening tollgate, one of the toll's busy entries for vehicles from the eastern part of Java, for example, recorded only 37,388 vehicles on Sunday. The gate normally records an average of 40,000 vehicles per day on ordinary days. Over 45,000 per day were recorded several days leading up to the recent Idul Fitri, Wartono, head of the Jatibening tollgate, explained.
As of 1:30 p.m., there were not many cars queued up at the tollgates heading into the city.
"I almost can't believe this situation," commented Col. Muhantojo, a senior city police officer, who monitored the traffic flow heading into the city from a helicopter.
Routes
Muhantojo, who is also head of the city police command, control and operation center, told The Jakarta Post that the low number of city-bound travelers might be due to the insight of the travelers.
"They might have taken alternative roads to get away from traffic congestion on the main highways," he said.
"Some bus drivers also dropped their passengers at other extra terminals to avoid serious congestion at the main terminals," Muhantojo added.
According to Wartono, the heavy flow of travelers was previously estimated to reach its peak on Sunday on the assumption that business activities would resume the next day.
"But, we're wrong. I don't know where the travelers are at the moment," Wartono told the Post at his office at Jatibening.
He, however, estimated yesterday that the wave of people heading back to Jakarta might reach its peak period late in the evening and early the next morning.
Despite the relative low level of influx, there was already significant crowds at several main terminals and railway stations in East and Central Jakarta by yesterday evening.
At the Pulogadung and Kampung Rambutan terminals, for example, some travelers were seen failing to get public transportation due to the limited availability of city buses.
Business
Meanwhile, tickets for Jakarta at many bus terminals and railway stations in other major cities throughout Java had been sold out as of yesterday afternoon.
"Even bus tickets in Magelang, Central Java, are often sold at twice the normal rate of Rp 30,000 (US$13.63) each, it's still hard to obtain one," Abdul Manan, a staff member of the Post, said yesterday.
"We can see Jakartans in almost every inch of the city of Magelang as well as Solo," said Manan, who celebrated the Idul Fitri with his relatives in his hometown in Central Java.
In a related development, many drugstores and offices in Jakarta were still closed yesterday.
Only a small number of personnel were seen at the City Police Headquarters yesterday, while others left their offices before midday.
Dozens of applicants at the driving license unit at the headquarters failed to process their documents as the office closed at 11 a.m. Normally the office closes at 3 p.m. on business days.
It is estimated that all business activities will resume normal working hours today. (bsr)