JP/17/TRAFFIC
JP/17/TRAFFIC
Understanding the causes of Jakarta traffic jams
To understand traffic problems thoroughly is the first step
toward an attempt to solve this royal mess, right? Here are
several corroborating fact(or)s, which contribute to the
horrendous traffic conditions in the city.
1. Greater Jakarta's population of over 11 million has expanded
greatly, especially in the east (Bekasi) and the west
(Tangerang), but the city's transportation system has always
focused on developing and/or improving the north-south grids -- a
system inherited from the Dutch colonial administration, which
originally designed the city.
2. Jakarta has only 7,500 kilometers of road. It must accommodate
4.7 million vehicles. Let say each vehicle takes up an average of
three meters of road, then, if all vehicles in the city are on
the streets, they would require at least 14,100 kilometers of
road, meaning that if just half of the vehicles were on the road
at the same time, it would be total bumper to bumper traffic --
not too unlike a gigantic parking lot.
Shockingly, the majority of Jakartans, or 56.3 percent, use
public transportation, only 13.3 percent use private cars and
28.3 percent ride motorcycles.
3. Jakarta has about 600 railway crossings which can slow traffic
as trains pass every 15 minutes. Overpasses and underpasses may
help relieve some traffic congestion but there aren't nearly
enough to really solve it.
4. Many pedestrian sidewalks are notoriously occupied by street
vendors, forcing people to walk in left lane of streets,
effectively cutting one lane off of most roads. Sixty five
percent of fatalities in traffic accidents are pedestrians 35
percent of which are children.
5. Unsuccessful solutions like the three-in-one regulation, only
shift the problems to other places. Alternative streets also
result in traffic congestion as damaged vehicles block the road.
6. Amid chronic traffic congestion, many people, especially
government officials and VIPs use police escorts complete with
sirens to force other motorists to pull over to make way for
them.
7. Many roads are in a state of disrepair causing motorists slow
down, creating bottlenecks and inevitably traffic congestion.
8. Many projects under construction take up several lanes of road
for the installation of telephone lines, water pipes and
electricity projects.
9. Hundreds of spots on the city streets are prone to flooding
and after just a mild shower they can be 10 to 20 centimeter deep
ponds across the road causing motorists to inch their way through
the quagmire and again creating more traffic headaches.