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.