Little hope in sight

Traffic does reflect the culture of the people, many say. Those visiting the capital city for the first time may be shocked to experience the chaotic vehicle traffic situation.

There are practically no laws in effect on the roads. The bigger the vehicle, the stronger they are and the bigger the right of way they will demand on the roads.

Private cars must give way to speeding public buses with jostling passengers on board. Usually, the private cars' drivers have no courage and no will to scold the bus drivers or their assistants.

Another surprising phenomenon that is gradually accepted as "normal" is motorcycles emerging as new forces that are to be reckoned with on the roads.

At night, groups of motorcycles speed and roam the roads without lights, terrorizing other road users. In case of a crash with a car, the motorcyclists will blame the car driver, and local residents where the accident takes place may join the motorcyclists.

There seems to be an odd agreement among our people today that public bus crews, motorcyclists and pedestrians represent poor people while those in cars represent the well-off.

We witness traffic violations everyday and almost every where in the city. Yet, only a few violations are dealt with by the traffic police.

Given all this, Jakartans seem to have no choice but to take the daily pressures in their lives with little hope that someday the administration will do something proper to provide them with a humane traffic system.

Worse still, the city administration seems to be unaware of the latest survey reports, which say that the traffic flow in Jakarta has increased 10 times what it was in 1985.

The survey conducted by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) found that commuter trips to work made by Jakartans had increased 9.4 times since 1985, when a similar study took place for the first time. According to the study, there Jakarta's commuters made 716,000 trips this year compared to just 76,300 in 1985.

Another survey earlier found that the urban toll road is now used by 200,000 cars per day, however it was only designed to accommodate 65,000. These figures explain why traveling from one place to another is getting more complicated and takes longer each day.

Some people say that traffic congestions in Jakarta has exceeded all tolerable limits. Traffic congestion has disrupted all aspects of life. From an economic point of view, the constant congestion inflicts a total of Rp 2.67 billion in daily losses, not to mention the use of more fuel by the vehicles. The fact that people are forced to be late at work has also affected productivity and increased stress among workers.

In terms of environmental damage, the more vehicles are operating, the more polluted the city air will get.

During the fasting month of Ramadhan traffic congestion has put extra pressure on family life in this city. Those who, in the past, needed only 30 minutes to drive home from work to break the fast with their families have had to spend more than one hour to reach home. Most of them must miss the meal at home as they are still on the roads.

We assume that the city administration has been ignorant of about the chaotic and inhumane traffic.

The plan to continue the construction of the Jakarta Outer Ring Road seems to be the city administration's best remedy for the traffic headaches. But constructing new roads will only encourage people to buy new cars.

The Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) system, which is said to be the best mode of public transportation for Jakarta, is still being debated, but is far from reality. Under present circumstances, the project will be too expensive.

The key to the lingering problem is the leadership and the government's political will.

Governor Sutiyoso seems to lack vision and has no grand scenario to deal with the traffic problems. During his first tenure, he had five years to demonstrate his commitment to solve Jakarta's traffic problems. He should have offered an integrated system to remedy the traffic chaos. He failed to use that chance.

Sutiyoso regained his gubernatorial seat last month. Unfortunately, we see no hope that he will offer a brilliant concept or formula to cure the traffic and ground transportation system.

We are worried that if no prompt and proper action is taken by the city administration, in the next five years most of Jakarta's roads may be like parking lots with thousands of vehicles trapped in severe traffic jams all day long.