Letter #5

Letter #5

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am a student of Ipeka Christian Bilingual School. Traffic jams in Jakarta are really a big problem. Every morning when I go to school or in the evening when I go to my piano lesson, there is always a traffic jam.

I cannot predict the traffic in Jakarta. Sometimes it is very bad, sometimes it's not really heavy traffic. Sometimes my car cannot move at all for more than 20 minutes. This kind of traffic jam makes me upset, because I will have a problem with my teachers if I'm late, even though it wasn't my fault.

I noticed that the traffic jam problems start from the bus driver, mikrolet [a minibus] driver or bajaj driver. They don't stop at the bus stops, but they just stop their car in the middle of the street to pick passengers up and let them off. Sometimes they stop and wait until they get passengers. They don't care, even though they block the street and all the cars behind them cannot move at all.

Another factor is that Jakarta's people do not obey the traffic rules. If they want to cross the street, they just cross it. Even though the government has already built the cross bridges or there is a pedestrian crossing near them, they just don't care.

Furthermore, the number of people that have cars is growing fast, whereas the roads are still the same. This is because the tax on the cars is not so [high], so people can afford to buy cars. It is very common in Indonesia, especially Jakarta, that one family has at least two cars. Besides that, they can get a car loan easily at a low interest rate.

The other factor is the traffic lights, especially when the traffic lights are off (because of the lack of electric power), there is a very bad traffic jam at every junction because everybody wants to go first and nobody wants to be last. They are all selfish and then the cars are all messed up. It can take more than an hour to fix it.

It is a waste of time, it is a waste of gasoline and it is a waste of money.

I believe that the government and the people of Jakarta could make several important steps to reduce the traffic jams. The first step would be to discipline Jakarta's people by giving a really heavy punishment to the people who do not obey the traffic rules. Before they get a driver's license, they should have to learn about the traffic rules.

Secondly, the government could build more roads; build subway transportation or a monorail. They also have to make sure that the public transport is safe (no crime) and convenient.

The government could also increase the car tax, especially for the residents who have more than one car. I mean [that] the tax for the second car should be higher than the first car and the tax for the third car should be even higher than the second car. We call it a progressive tax.

I also believe that the people of Jakarta would obey all the traffic rules if the policemen are honest and they do not take any bribes.

I am confident that my proposals would be successful because it could lighten the traffic. The government may say that it will cost a lot of money, but I say in the long run, the benefit is still much bigger than the cost. Without traffic jams, we can save a lot of time and a lot of gasoline, and we could become more productive because we can arrive at our school or office on time.

I hope that the government and the people of Jakarta will consider my proposals seriously, and everybody will do their best to reduce the traffic jams. Thank you for your attention.

Sincerely, Tatya Christabella