The three-in-one game

The three-in-one game

The much criticized three-in-one traffic policy is still in place and will apparently remain so for an uncertain amount of time although it has been a fiasco from the beginning. Since the ordinance was imposed in April 1992, the traffic system has failed to achieve its initial aim of ending -- or at least of easing -- peak hour traffic congestion along the city's main thoroughfares, mainly from the end of Jl. Sisingamangaraja in South Jakarta to the north end of Jl. MH Thamrin in Central Jakarta.

But what we have seen since 1992 is that the policy was only workable during the first months. The end result is a frustrating failure. At the beginning, the drivers of privately owned cars carrying fewer than three passengers had to avoid the thoroughfares which were closed to them. This caused nasty traffic snarls in nearby areas. But soon afterwards, the restricted zones themselves again became a hell of congestion.

What the city authorities did not foresee was the possibility that the people -- however humble they might be -- would find ways to make the best use of loopholes in the traffic ordinance for their own ends. This oversight on the part of the authorities might have been caused by their belief that only the middle class would have the wits to introduce a new hide-and-seek game with the law enforcers.

And it was clearly very frustrating for the police authorities to see how school boys were mocking the regulation by offering themselves as the second and third passengers for hire. The authorities have repeatedly tried to crack down on this farce, but the children, and some enterprising adults, are still there because they are part of the county's economic and social paradox.

They stand along the streets leading to the restricted zones offering their services by holding up a number of fingers indicating how many passengers they can provide. The presence of the often poorly clad people contrasts strongly with the passing vehicles, of which many foreigners would comment "none is old".

So the traffic congestion returned. The three-in-one system has clearly failed to reach its intended target. And the fiasco in the initial trial zone has apparently deterred the authorities from expanding the policy to other parts of the city, while many people are calling for the revocation of the system.

To salvage the city administration's tarnished image, the City Council aired the idea this week that the policy should be replaced by a sticker system. The Council said cars carrying less than three passengers should pay Rp 1,000 (49 cents US dollars) per trip. The councilors said that motorists also could buy stickers on monthly basis from the city administration for Rp 25,000 per car. According to the logic, with this sticker any car will be allowed to enter the restricted areas no matter how many passengers it carries. The drivers of cars without stickers should be ticketed.

The idea sounds logical, but it also is not free of loopholes because the stickers can be counterfeited and it will be impossible to monitor who has stickers and who does not amid the chaotic traffic. Besides, imposing fines on traffic violators has proven ineffective because the officers in charge can be bribed.

Jakarta's traffic problems are not as simple as many people may believe. The core of the problem is the rapid increase in the number of cars compared and the slow development of infrastructure. There are now 2.6 million vehicles in Jakarta. That figure means that if each car is three meters long, and if all of them were on the road on a given day, they would require 7,800 kilometers of road, while the city has only 5,683 kilometers.

Worse still, the data available at the city administration offices indicates that the number of vehicle grows by 11 percent annually compared to the growth of infrastructure which stands at four percent yearly.

With this nation entering the second half of a century of independence, Jakarta still has to fight to narrow the gap between infrastructure and the demands of traffic. But the worst headache for the Jakarta is that this capital city of a nation with a growing economy has not developed an integrated transportation system that takes into account all the factors and elements that help facilitate traffic flow.