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.