Returning Travellers Heavily Load Vehicles with Luggage on Car Roofs as Lebaran Holiday Approaches

As Lebaran draws five days closer, vehicle traffic on the Jakarta-Cikampek toll road (Japek) at kilometre 48 showed a significant increase in volume on Tuesday, 17 March 2026 at midday.

According to CNBC Indonesia’s monitoring between approximately 07:00 and 13:30 Western Indonesia Time, the flow of vehicles departing from the MBZ exit heading towards Central Java and East Java was predominantly comprised of private cars.

A notable sight emerged as hundreds of vehicles passed along the toll road. Many private cars were observed carrying excessive or overloaded luggage. Items such as suitcases, cardboard boxes and large bags were piled high on vehicle roof racks.

Not a few returning travellers had merely wrapped such items with makeshift tarpaulin and secured them with rope. The vehicles observed carrying excess cargo were predominantly registered from origin plates including B (Jakarta), F (Bogor), T (Karawang/Purwakarta), and A (Banten).

Based on data obtained from the Jasa Marga dashboard, traffic flow through the evening remained relatively smooth. The predicted peak of the return migration on 13 and 14 March did not materialise as originally anticipated. “There has been no surge in traffic requiring traffic management measures such as contraflow,” explained one official.

Karawang Police Precinct predicted the next peak of returning traveller traffic would occur on 17-18 March 2026. However, traffic conditions remained relatively quiet at the time of reporting. In line with these conditions, the planned implementation of the national one-way traffic system originally scheduled to begin on 17 March from the Cikampek North Toll Gate KM 70 was postponed.