More east-west links needed for Jakarta's commuters

More east-west links needed for Jakarta's commuters

Tantri Yuliandini and Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, The Jakarta Post,
Jakarta

Jakarta's population has expanded massively in the east and
the west, but the city's transportation system has been developed
according to the north and south grids, experts say.

Such uncoordinated development, if not corrected, would only
aggravate traffic problems in the capital, according to urban
transportation expert from Trisakti University, Zaini Noer.

"This issue should be addressed. Otherwise, traffic flow in
the city will continue to be in a messy state and even worsen,"
he said.

Problems associated with urbanization in Jakarta had caused
former governor Ali Sadikin to adopt a policy to remove
residential areas away from the city center in the 1970s, he
said.

Ali succeeded in moving residential areas into the suburbs,
and subsequently South and Central Jakarta suffered negative
population growth, Zaini said.

According to a study by Aria Indra Purnama from Canberra
University's Centre for Developing Cities, Bekasi, east of
Jakarta, has more than 430 housing estates and satellite cities,
including Lippo City, Kota Baru Cikarang, Kota Baru Pondok Gede,
and Bumi Bekasi Baru.

The estates covers a total area of approximately 381 square
kilometers, and provide about 70,000 to 80,000 new housing units
a year, Aria said in his paper published over the Internet.

Tangerang in the west has also seen the rapid development of
housing estates over the past decades, including Lippo Karawaci,
Bumi Serpong Damai and Citra Raya.

Unfortunately, the success in spreading out housing estates
into the west and east of Jakarta has not been followed by
adequate development of road infrastructure.

The only adequate road system linking east and west Jakarta is
the inner-city toll road, with the outlying toll roads to Cilegon
in the west and Cikampek in the east.

This toll road, however, is heavily congested not only due to
commuters' vehicles but also intercity vehicles traveling from
western to eastern Java and vice versa.

Disregarding the huge flow of traffic from east to west and
vice versa, the development of transportation infrastructure in
the city continues to concentrate on a north-south grid -- a
system inherited from the Dutch colonial era.

In the past, the Dutch relied on the Ciliwung river for
transporting goods to Depok and Bogor areas in the south from the
Sunda Kelapa port in the north.

Unfortunately, over a century later, the north and south
orientation toward transportation infrastructure has not changed
despite the development of housing estates in the east and west
of the capital.

The government and city administration, therefore, should now
address the problem of the heavy traffic flow from east and west
of the city by building more grids linking the east and west.

Another solution would be to reduce the traffic burden from
the suburbs to the capital and vice versa during rush hours,
according to Zaini.

The latest data from the Central Bureau of Statistics shows
that the total population of Jakarta is 8.3 million people,
however this figure rises dramatically during the day to about 11
million.

The figures show that about 2.7 million commuters enter the
capital in the morning for work and leave in evening for their
respective homes in the Greater Jakarta area, causing massive
congestion at the points of entry.

Another solution would be to develop commercial centers in
Bekasi and Tangerang, thus reducing the traffic burden to and
from Jakarta from those towns, Zaini said.

Another good solution, according to Zaini, would be to move
government or political centers away from the city center, as the
Malaysian government did.

"Malaysia for instance moved its center of government some 30
kilometers away from the city center to alleviate congestion," he
said.