Tangerang administration ignores traffic chaos: Locals

Tangerang administration ignores traffic chaos: Locals

Multa Fidrus, The Jakarta Post, Tangerang

A passenger in a public minivan looks frustrated as her 10-
month-old baby cries despite the various attempts to calm the
child. Three other female passengers try to soothe the baby, but
to no avail. Meanwhile, two men, in a show of irritation, decide
to get out and move to another vehicle.

This is a scene that happened in a minivan plying the Cikokol-
Serpong route. The minivan was trapped in heavy congestion at the
Kebon Nanas junction on Jl. Thamrin heading to Serpong and
Jakarta-Merak toll gate.

Yuliana, the mother, said her baby was crying because of the
heat, noise and pollution.

The minivan had been crawling for about 45 minutes in the one-
kilometer-long line of traffic.

"The authorities in this town have turned a blind eye to
traffic congestion problems along this road for a long time,"
said Yuliana, 36, who lives near Bumi Serpong Damai housing
complex.

Several police officers are assigned to direct traffic at
Kebon Nanas, but they cannot do much as public vehicles stop and
block part of the road to take on passengers right at the
junction. The situation is aggravated by street vendors and
pedestrians crossing the street or boarding public
transportation.

On the other side of town, Iskandar, the driver of an air-
conditioned bus that serves the Jl. Imam Bonjol route, was
heading to Perumnas public housing in Karawaci when the bus got
stuck in traffic. He was mad not only because of the traffic jam,
but because another bus suddenly changed lanes and tried to get
in front of him.

Iskandar was also upset because the longer he was trapped in
traffic, the less money he earned.

"We used to complete five trips a day, but the traffic
congestion has become worse and worse. Now we can just make four
trips a day," said the 43-year-old driver who serves the Cimone-
Blok M route said.

Traffic along Jl. Imam Bonjol is also bad as every vehicle
heading to Jakarta has to make a U-turn near the Karawaci toll
gate, which is quite narrow.

Traffic jams also occur every day on Jl. Sudirman. It may take
a commuter 40 minutes to get through traffic that is tied up for
300 meters. The main cause of traffic jams along Jl. Sudirman is
construction of the Cikokol overpass as the work takes up half of
the road.

But the major cause of heavy traffic on Jl. Imam Bonjol and
Jl. Thamrin is the narrow road, which is only about 10 meters
wide.

The Tangerang Development Planning Agency recently hosted a
discussion to find out the best way to overcome traffic problems
at these three points. One of the most important suggestions was
to widen the road.

But local administration spokesman Hery Kusnadi told The
Jakarta Post last week that the municipal administration did not
have enough funds.

The comment upset Eddy Roeskanedi, a local public figure. "It
is ironical that they claim to have no funds to widen the road,
but they have enough to finance the administration center
construction project, which cost Rp 60 billion.

The local head of the land transportation agency, Engkan
Lengkana, said his office had planned to build a crosswalk at the
Kebon Nanas junction and fence off the median to prevent
pedestrians from crossing at all points along the road. But he
added that the best solution to deal with traffic on Jl. Sudirman
was to accelerate the construction of the Cikokol overpass.

Unfortunately, Cikokol flyover project manager Sulistiyo said
that the project may not be completed before the target deadline
of May 2002 due to technical problems.